Quote Originally Posted by .blank cd View Post
It was appropriate for Zimmerman to be charged in order to perform a detailed investigation, which needed to happen. If it wasn't appropriate, he wouldn't have been charged at all. If he wasn't, I would be worried. I'd feel uneasy if I could get away with murder just by claiming "self-defense". Lol
The police, who performed a detailed investigation, did not think that there was enough evidence to charge him. Only after outside political pressure was applied to the SA, he was charged. The SA didn't even think she could get it through a grand jury.

If you watched the trial, you would see that there was not enough evidence to really warrant bringing it to trial. The only excuse that the SA presented in the conference after the verdict was that it happened outside in a public place, rather than inside a home, so she didn't want to accept self-defense.

If Zimmerman had been black, he never would have been charged, and again, we never would have heard of it.
If both had been Hispanic or white, we never would have heard of it, and there would have never been any charges.

The reason that we wouldn't have seen charges is not racial, its that the evidence didn't support a conviction. In any of those situations, only one side can be heard, and that is the voice of the person still living. The state simply could not prove the case without enough supporting evidence. The verdict was "legally correct" as not guilty. It is not a statement that he is innocent.

------------------------------------------

Looking at the situation, how could it have ended differently?
If we look at the evidence presented in the trial, Trayvon did not do anything wrong. He was in a place that he was legally entitled to be in, and was not doing anything illegal. He did not really have any other options - he certainly didn't want some strange guy to follow him home. He really didn't have any solid opportunity to change the outcome.
Zimmerman, on the other hand, could have chosen to listen to the dispatcher, even though he was not legally obligated to. He had a truck, and had the opportunity to distance himself from Trayvon. His actions, while legally permissible, could have been modified which would have resulted in Trayvon's life being spared. In hindsight, everything is 20/20. In the real world, Zimmerman could not see the future.
The bottom line is that neither of them did anything "legally wrong" - the situation happened, and the worst possible outcome occurred.