They overcharged...

[Gravitycollapse]

The extended deliberation by the jury leads me to believe that they thought there was a higher likelihood that he committed a crime than not. But it seems as though the conviction the prosecution wanted was simply not possible with the evidence presented.

[KamaAina]

1. Caca de toro.

They had the option of manslaughter as a lesser included charge.

"Extended deliberation"? Less than a day? In this kind of trial, that's more like a kangaroo court.

I hope you can sleep tonight with the acquittal you obviously wanted.

[Gravitycollapse]

4. Let cooler heads prevail. I had no reason to desire acquittal.

I think it's pretty obvious the man committed a crime. But we overshot the drop by demanding 2nd degree murder. There is too much doubt for the justice system to come to such a conclusion.

[sgsmith]

10. Actually 16-1/2 hours of jury deliberaton time per CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/13/justice/zimmerman-trial/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

[KamaAina]

11. And a day is 24 hours

I expected them to be in for two or three days at least.

[Azathoth]

2. That was a deliberate strategy

The elements of murder 2 simply weren't there, but they charged it anyway because they wanted to go through a whole trial without mentioning manslaughter, and then throw that to the jury as a last minute, middle-of-the-road lifeline. They wanted to set the stage for an emotion-fueled compromise, not a dispassionate examination of the evidence and the law.

[Igel]

8. Or CYA.

I'm still not convinced they wanted to bring charges. But 2nd degree murder was what the crowd was calling for on that particular day, and so to avoid problems and even win an election that's what they were given.

I think they went through the whole trial and realized that it was a stinking pile of manatee dung, but they might salvage something.

Yes, this gives them less credit. Instead of planning this, it was a hail mary pass. Still an emotion-fueled compromise, but one that they didn't necessarily plan on until they realized that, no, their case was weaker than even they believed.

[Azathoth]

9. The local DA sure as heck didn't want to get into this

Corey was brought in with implicit (if not explicit) political instructions to get some kind of conviction when his office passed on it.

I can't discount your theory, especially given some of the more bizarre events during the trial, like BDLR and his team trying to impeach their own witnesses. That's obviously not a sign of a well-planned case. I tend to think, however, that the overcharging was a deliberate strategy. I don't know anyone not emotionally invested in the case who thought there was any chance of proving the elements of Murder Two. If Corey et al. genuinely thought they could pull off murder 2, then they themselves are guilty of either reckless optimism or insane hubris.

[JI7]

3. if trayvon was white i think we would have a different verdict

and especially if it was a black man who shot a white kid.

[JVS]

5. What charge do you think they should have gone with?

Extended deliberation to me suggests that they either did not buy self defense and ended up acquitting due to lack of evidence. Either that or they weren't quite sure how self-defense would apply to a dual charge.

[Gravitycollapse]

6. Actually, I don't know because there is no lower homicide classification in Florida law.

He likely was guilty of negligent homicide which I guess is the same as manslaughter. But since they pressed the 2nd degree charge instead of focusing on manslaughter, that probably did the prosecution in.

[fadedrose]

7. If Zimmerman was a cop or government man, he was guilty of entrapment..

He may not have wanted to kill the kid, but he was setting up a capture..he was profiling and wanted to make a citizen's arrest to show up the cops...

I feel terrible about that kid, his family, and Florida.

After hearing that stupid judge, I'm not too keen on female southern accents either....

[LittleBlue]

12. Pretty much

There just wasn't the evidence for this kind of trial.

[HolyMoley]

13. They did overcharge

but, it wouldn't have mattered.

The same legal principles of self defense, and guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, would still have applied even if manslaughter (or a lessor charge), was the only charge.