Legal discussion

[Mike]

INTENT is a large part of a crime. If you report it it can show your intent for the crime. If you don't report it, it's anybody's guess to the intent(and a prosecutor can use whatever intent they feel you had).

[Rem700]

INTENT is a large part of a crime. If you report it it can show your intent for the crime. If you don't report it, it's anybody's guess to the intent(and a prosecutor can use whatever intent they feel you had).

Agreed, that was the main point i was trying to make in my previous post.

[ChopperDoc]

Yep, and in the stray bullet scenario, the intent they 'prove' could be the difference in jail time and not jail time. yes you did it, it was an accident, but you had no malicious or wanton intent to hurt that person. What charge you are convicted on could rely heavily on whether you called it in right away (regardless of legal requirement to do so or an absence of one) or whether you just drove off and waited on them to find you.

[justang1997]

True but zimmerman was on the phone with 911 BEFORE it even happened and his intent was questioned.

[justang1997]

If anything, I'd say Zimmerman's own 911 call did more harm for him than good.

[Rem700]

True but zimmerman was on the phone with 911 BEFORE it even happened and his intent was questioned.

Not really. His intent was only questioned after higher ups pressed for charges. The first responding officers did not charge him. Zim hopefully is the exception due to political influence.

[Rem700]

If anything, I'd say Zimmerman's own 911 call did more harm for him than good.

If you read the blog that CD posted by M ayoob then you will see the 911 call actually helped him a bit as it proved he had done nothin illegal. He simply followed the instructions of the dispatcher

[Rem700]

It helped prove his intent was simply to gather intel for the officers not to prevent or attack Martin.

[justang1997]

I was just now reading that blog. Looks like it did indeed help his case. Just not with the trial by media.

[Rem700]

I was just now reading that blog. Looks like it did indeed help his case. Just not with the trial by media.

Exactly. The media fucks up everything they touch. IMO they are 90% of the reason this case ever made it to court.

[ChopperDoc]

Yep. just imagine how bad this could have been if Zimmerman had done exactly what he did but not call 911 until after? How would he prove that he was not stalking Martin or chase him and corner him?

They were able to easily establish the 4 minutes of time between Zimmerman losing sight of Martin and the attack. That alone was massively helpful in this case in determining who the initial aggressor was.

But that is not how your scenario plays out. In yours, there is no time for a pre-911 call, but I will again submit that in a majority of situations like that where deadly force is used, it will be far better to call it in yourself rather than wait until they find you.

[justang1997]

I agree. Sad that the way this trial happened causes hesitation. In my mind anyways. I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking this way.

[Rem700]

I agree. Sad that the way this trial happened causes hesitation. In my mind anyways. I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking this way.

You got that right. This trial has shed negative light on being the good guy and its because of the medias portrayal of the "innocent child" and a "racist wanna be cop with a gun". SPIN SPIN SPIN until they are so dizzy they dont know which way is up.

[ChopperDoc]

A suit has been filed already by the Florida employee who was fired after his testimony that the Prosecutor's office withheld info.

There are lawyers calling for Ms Corey (Special Prosecutor assigned when the other dude quit), one of them being DerShowItz (the militant leftist law teacher Alan Dershowitz), of all things.

Zimmerman is going to be under a microscope for a little while, but I think he is going to be fine and some folks who got this ball rolling on the kangaroo court are not going to make out as well as Zimmerman.

The media will not cover that, however.