Replace "in panic" with "in anger and hatred" and it becomes even more believable to me. That's why I laid out the context of him calling 46 times prior about other suspicious teens... whether he's prejudiced or not, he certainly seems to believe that kids are a problem, and if he's chased one down and had that kid defend himself, perhaps land a good defensive punch, or simply grappled him to avoid being attacked, I can well believe Zimmerman might have been pissed off enough to pull a gun and pull the trigger. Why not? He was already engrossed enough in trying to prosecute this kid that he chased him down when told not to by the police... rationality was out of the window.
This is of course, all supposition. And the tragic thing is, that unless other people were there watching out of their window the entire time, or it happened in front of a bystander - we will never know what happened, because George Zimmerman killed the only other witness and party to the incident.
I think panic and anger can go together. It's the hatred part that is going to trip up. That's all i'm trying to say. If you are trying to make hatred and race his motive that is subjective material that is really hard to prove and the defense is already well on their way building a case on that. Concentrating on the wrong thing can get this case thrown out, see the casey anthony trial. I think the evidence is right there for the picking but people want to let their emotions stand in the way because they have this short film in their head of Trayvon being chased down by a scowling frothing racist intent on killing him, cornering him, beating him down till he screams and whimpers for help then shooting him and the police and Zimmerman then plotting this entire conspiracy theory and inflicting wounds on himself or something to cover it up.
That might make for a TV movie but these people aren't that smart and it just doesn't make sense motive wise and is just extremely hard to prove. Especially lacks as you said witnesses. At that point you are trying to convict on gut feelings and emotions and that type of trial would get thrown out. From the way the family and lawyer is talking thankfully it sounds like they realize this and thats not how its going to go down. You have negligent and poor police investigation and definite issues with racial profiling. You also have part of a community, including several black neighbors and personal friends in authority he is calling in so the anger and racially motivated killing is just an extremely hard thing to prove.
If you take the evidence that you are given though at face value, wound on this head, broken/bloody noise you know a fight happened. Again, barring the emotional picture people want to form in their heads he was a 17 year old athlete. We don't know the extent of training for zimmerman but seeing pictures and how he acted here when his neighbor called him more like barney fife i tend to believe that. I mean that was a golden line and description that the prosecution should be using. Saying Trayvon was half the size of zimmerman is hyperbole. Hell i just had a friend from overseas staying at my house with his 16 year old son and the son towered over me, I think people are forgetting what juniors and seniors in high school looked like.
I'm saying go with the evidence you do have to work with, when you put it together the story fits and its more credible and still incriminates zimmerman. I understand to some it may not demonize Zimmerman the way some want him to be, but it certainly doesn't excuse pulling a gun on a teen who was unarmed in panic because he stood up to you and it didn't go as you planned. Especially when he himself instigated the whole thing. He's guilty of racial profiling, hes guilty of bullying, hes guilty of being a dumbass wannabe hero gloryhound most importantly hes guilty of making a very stupid stupid decison in the heat of a moment.
If an unarmed teenager is shot in cold blood and nobody is around to see it, should the shooter get away with it by default? Or should there be an investigation? The kid is still dead, and he'd done nothing wrong.
This is why its so hard to have a discussion on this, people are too emotional. Why did you even post this? Where did I say otherwise? Where did anyone say otherwise? Sorry, except for Kosmo. in my defense he posted both after you and me. And also, he is Kosmo soooo.
Imagine someone chasing you and gunning you down at night, with nobody around, and getting away with it somehow. Its unconscienable. Zimmerman had no injuries, he followed someone when told not to, he shot a kid who was only armed with skittles.
I'd be wondering motive, why is this person chasing me and wanting to gun me down. If I did absolutely nothing and the guy wasn't trying to mug me that would be extremely odd and just raise even more questions no? The more questions the harder and harder it gets to prove anything and get a judgement. Proving in the court is alot harder then on a message board.