Hopwin wrote:
Rorinthas wrote:
parking his truck illegally has nothing to do with killing trayvon or violating his right to life which more or less revolve around the exact same set of facts.
No, DE listed that as an example. With that said my understanding is that he can be charged with violating Martin's Civil Rights if they argue that George was following him because he was black. This does not mean GZ will face Murder or Manslaughter charges again, it means he will face Civil Rights charges which is a wholly separate crime.
Precisely.
Khross is making an excellent point in regard to the fact that he would, essentially, get retried for the same set of
facts on a different charge, in a different court. In fact if there were a Federal murder charge that is applicable to this, the argument could be made that since the Federal charge of murder (or manslaughter) is necessarily a different offense from the state one, trying him in Federal court would not be double jeopardy either. It would not be all that different from a civil rights violation, either, in actual effect - he would face another trial, associated expense, distress, disruption to his life, and of course the risk of guilt and penalty.
I don't know that there is an applicable federal civil rights charge he can be tried under in the first place, since he is a private citizen, but assuming he can, the problem with double jeopardy is that the letter of the law in that clause is insufficient to the spirit. People shouldn't be able to sue and issue charges over and over on the same incident, but unfortunately they can.
Civil suits are even worse in this regard because of the lower burden of proof. Zimmerman at least has the possibility of immunity from civil suit under Stand Your Ground, which would also force the Martins to pay his legal fees if he won that hearing. In that regard, he's luckier than most.