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Pastimes : The "Zimmerman" File -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (321)	7/14/2013 4:29:29 PM
From: FJB	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 671

Federal case against Zimmerman would face obstacles BY JAY WEAVER, EVAN BENN AND AUDRA D.S. BURCH JWEAVER@MIAMIHERALD.COM The NAACP and other civil rights groups, angered by a state jury’s acquittal in the shooting death of South Florida black teenager Trayvon Martin, turned up the pressure Sunday on the U.S. Justice Department to pursue federal criminal charges against the man who killed him, George Zimmerman. The Justice Department has a host of criminal civil-rights laws at its disposal, and has made such cases in the past. Among them: the federal prosecution of a group of Los Angeles police officers after they were acquitted in state court of the brutal beating of Rodney King in 1991, which sparked riots in that city. Two of the four officers were eventually convicted by a federal jury of violating King’s civil rights under “color of law” — that is, beating him up in their capacity as cops. But that law applies only to those in law enforcement, and Zimmerman is a civilian. In his case, it’s possible the Justice Department might consider using a different type of civil-rights law: the federal hate-crime statute. As in the King case, the double-jeopardy clause of the U.S. Constitution does not prohibit such a federal prosecution in the wake of Zimmerman’s state acquittal, because it’s a different jurisdiction. But legal experts said it’s going to be a formidable challenge for Attorney General Eric Holder to press forward with a hate-crime case against Zimmerman under U.S. civil rights laws, because Florida jurors found Zimmerman not guilty of both second-degree murder and manslaughter in Trayon’s death. Jurors found that prosecutors failed to prove the more serious second-degree charge that Zimmerman, the neighborhood watchman at a Sanford gated community, possessed “ill-will,” “hatred” or “spite” in the fatal shooting of Martin. Instead, the six female jurors found that Zimmerman acted in self-defense. Consequently, experts said, it would be legally inconsistent for the Justice Department to consider filing criminal charges against Zimmerman under the federal Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. Generally, that law prohibits someone from “willfully causing bodily injury” to another person because of his race, color, religion or national origin. “If the state jury had been persuaded beyond a reasonable doubt that Zimmerman caused bodily harm to Trayvon Martin because of Martin’s race, it would have almost certainly convicted Zimmerman of second-degree murder, which requires proof of ‘ill-will’ or ‘malice,’” said Scott Srebnick, a prominent federal criminal defense attorney in Miami. “So, to bring a federal civil-rights prosecution against Zimmerman, the attorney general would essentially be second-guessing the state jury’s verdict as opposed to vindicating a different or broader federal interest.” Srebnick added: “I find it doubtful that the attorney general will pursue a prosecution on a civil rights theory simply out of displeasure with the state jury’s verdict.” Brian Tannebaum, a Miami defense attorney and past president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, agreed. “People are comparing this case to Rodney King, where there was a federal prosecution after a state acquittal, but the difference there was there were witnesses, specifically the video everyone still remembers,” Tannebaum said, referring to a man’s sensational videotape of the police beating. Full Story1 \| 2 \| 3 \| Next » Read more here: miamiherald.com