Marcion:  What an outlandish statement. How do you know what evetyone believes or doesn't believe.

I went to college in the south, and I am white.  I left after a year and a half because of the terrible racism I saw before the Civil Rights Act, which didn't help much. Martin Luther King was shot, and so were many other black people.  Most never stood trial.

There is too much hysteria on both sides for me to take a position one way or the other. I will wait for the facts.

You had  the facts.  You just don't want to accept them.  Zimmerman ran away because he didn't want to be prosecuted.   Whites tormented, even killed blacks when I was down there in the early 60's.  I remember when any white person killed a black person, or burn down their houses which were never more than shacks, brag about it, and never went on trial.  Usually no one was arrested.  Newspapers carried the stories, and none of the southern residents objected.

I do believe that opportunists like Sharpton and Jackson will pollute the truth.

I don't care for either one of them, but I remember the horror of living in the south.  I don't believe they polluted the truth,

Ed, those two hung juries in the Beckwith trials were all male, all white juries. It wasn't until Mississippi was dragged into the twentieth century in the late 1970s and had to enfranchise blacks and give them the vote that it was possible to empanel a jury that included both blacks and whites. For the third Beckwith trial, which ended in a conviction, the jury was made up of eight blacks and four whites.

To intimate that prejudice and bigotry doesn't play a part in murder cases involving black defendants, is stretching the truth. All the Civil Rights Legislation in the world isn't going to erase hundreds of years of prejudice and bigotry. You might want to check out stats. I found these on a site called 'Capital Punishment in Context'. Read 'em and weep!

Nationally, nearly 80% of murder victims in cases resulting in an execution have been white, even though nationally only 50% of murder victims generally are white. A 1990 examination of death penalty sentencing conducted by the United States General Accounting Office noted that, "In 82% of the studies [reviewed], race of the victim was found to influence the likelihood of being charged with capital murder or receiving the death penalty, i.e., those who murdered whites were found more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murdered blacks." Individual state studies have found similar disparities. In fact, race of victim disparities have been found in most death penalty states.

Race of the Defendant

Nationally, the racial composition of those on death row is 45% white, 42% black, and 10% Latino/ Latina. Of states with more than 10 people on death row, Texas (70%) and Pennsylvania (69%) have the largest percentage of minorities on death row. Year 2000 census data revealed that the racial composition of the United States was 75.1% white, 12.3% black and 12.5% Latino/Latina. While these statistics might suggest that minorities are overrepresented on death row, the same statistical studies that have found evidence of race of victim effects in capital sentencing have not conclusively found evidence of similar race of defendant effects. In fact, while some studies show that the race of the defendant is correlated with death sentences, no researcher has made definitive findings that the death sentence is being imposed on defendants on account of their race, per se, independently of other variables (such as type of crime) which are correlated with defendants' race.

Race of the Jurors

In capital cases, one juror can represent the difference between life and death. A belief that members of one race, gender, or religion might generally be less inclined to impose a death sentence can lead the prosecutor to allow as few of such jurors as possible. For example, a Dallas Morning News review of trials in that jurisdiction found systematic exclusion of blacks from juries. In a two-year study of over 100 felony cases in Dallas County, the prosecutors dismissed blacks from jury service twice as often as whites. Even when the newspaper compared similar jurors who had expressed opinions about the criminal justice system (a reason that prosecutors had given for the elimination of jurors, claiming that race was not a factor), black jurors were excused at a much higher rate than whites. Of jurors who said that either they or someone close to them had had a bad experience with the police or the courts, prosecutors struck 100% of the blacks, but only 39% of the whites.

If Zimmerman was legally "standing his ground", couldn't Martin also have been "standing his ground," albeit without a gun, in the face of an obviously stalking unidentified stranger? I teach my daughters to scream, kick the groin, scratch eyes out, pound their head into the concrete, if unavoidable contact is made by a stranger. Isn't this an example of the same?

As guns become more prevalent, we are going to be subject to more "friendly fire" incidences as this may have been.  Police and military go through extensive situational training to avoid such incidents. Why give the public more liberty to fire sans training than what our professional police have with training? It can only result more tragic friendly fire deaths. 

***patiently***

But, see ... Trayvon Martin was BLACK ... and wearing a "Hoodie" ... So what Right would HE have had to "Self Defense" ... ??? Wasn't he required to just submit meekly ... ??? Obey ... ???

Apr 15, 2012 -- 8:17AM, rsielin wrote:

If Zimmerman was legally "standing his ground", couldn't Martin also have been "standing his ground," albeit without a gun, in the face of an obviously stalking unidentified stranger? I teach my daughters to scream, kick the groin, scratch eyes out, pound their head into the concrete, if unavoidable contact is made by a stranger. Isn't this an example of the same?

As guns become more prevalent, we are going to be subject to more "friendly fire" incidences as this may have been.  Police and military go through extensive situational training to avoid such incidents. Why give the public more liberty to fire sans training than what our professional police have with training? It can only result more tragic friendly fire deaths. 

That's right ... It must be PROVEN "beyond a Reasonable Doubt" that The "Night Stalker" Guy shot an unarmed Kid ...

Apr 22, 2012 -- 9:35PM, Slipnish wrote:

Jeez, for a bunch of folks who stand on their heads and demand evidence on other boards, it's nice to see it isn't needed for something as trivial as a criminal case.....