Because they allege, and say the evidence shows, that Trayvon Martin made the initial aggressive move of punching Zimmerman and then beating Zimmerman’s head on the ground, that the 28-year-old Zimmerman was well within his legal rights to administer deadly force against the 17-year-old who weighed a 100 pounds less. Basically, they say Trayvon had it coming.
There were multiple other disturbing things said by the team of Craig Sonner, left, and Hal Uhrig that provided legal counsel to Zimmerman, whom they said quit communicating with them on Sunday without notice or reason. Perhaps some of the things these lawyers said and stand for can account for the sudden silence.
The lawyers tried to claim that Zimmerman was emotionally exhausted and is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, the kind of mental horror that military veterans suffer after returning from a war zone, as perhaps a reason for Zimmerman going off on his own and setting up websites and calling Fox News without his legal team’s knowledge. But this only further illustrates Zimmerman as a hard-headed renegade who does what he wants despite the pleas and advice from more knowledgeable experts. Case in point: Zimmerman rebuffed the admonishment from the police dispatcher to cease and desist with trailing Trayvon Martin. We all know what happened next.
But back to these lawyers. In what is their first, and perhaps last, press conference on the subject of Zimmerman’s fate, the former legal team had this to say:
- They believe in the innocence of Zimmerman: “I really believe in this case, I believe in his innocence, I believe that he acted in self defense,” said Sonner.
- They said that Zimmerman did not disobey police dispatcher orders to not follow him because, in their words, the dispatcher did not actually issue an order.
- They say the only crime was committed on the fateful February evening in Sanford, Fla., was that of Trayvon Martin beating George Zimmerman’s head against the concrete to the point where Zimmerman felt he needed to shoot Trayvon to save his own life.
- That Zimmerman applied “Stand Your Ground Law” appropriately in the killing of Trayvon.
- That Zimmerman was walking back to his car peacefully when Trayvon Martin confronted him and asked him ‘Do you have a problem with me?’ And when Zimmerman said ‘no,’ the lawyers say Martin said ‘well, you do now,’ and thus began pummeling Zimmerman, breaking his nose and causing scaring on the back of his head.
- That the words of the mortician who worked on Trayvon’s body said there were no signs of struggle on Trayvon’s body, thus bolstering Zimmerman’s claims that he did not strike Trayvon first.
- That Zimmerman was not, and could not, be a racist since he spent his own time and money mentoring young African American teens with his wife.
- As the press conference went on, the lawyers got more emotionally riled up and began to spat and argue with members of the press. At one point, he said that Florida’s “gun law is a good law because it give abiding citizens the ability to protect themselves,” said Uhrig, a former police officer. “If the punks and thugs know that you are unarmed, it is open season.”
Well, we now know what side of the social and political isle these two lawyers stand. There was no need to, if they were only representing Zimmerman, to inject their personal feelings into a press conference that degenerated into a blathering monologue. Littering their answers with “punks” and “thugs” was chilling to hear because no one asked them what their stance was on the Florida “Stand Your Ground” law was.
– terry shropshire
