The curious case of Trayvon Martin

For those of you who don't know, I was recently in Las Vegas for my birthday (thanks Tori!). As I was sitting in New York, New York eating my steak and drinking my beer, my wife looked at her phone and said "Oh good, there's going to be a full investigation." Since we had been talking about the gigantic map behind her a few moments before, I had no idea what she was talking about. I asked, and she told me the story of Trayvon Martin. I had no idea what she was talking about (self-imposed news blackout, remember?), and after a little bit of googling, I had gotten most of the story.

Short version, Trayvon Martin (forgive me if I'm spelling his first name wrong, I've seen it a couple different ways) was staying at a friends house in an unfamiliar gated neighborhood of Sanford, FL. At some point he went to a corner store for candy. At around 7pm he began walking back to his friends house carrying a soda and a bag of candy in his pocket. George Zimmerman, a local resident and the neighborhood watch captain saw him and called 911, reporting that Martin was acting suspiciously. He reported that Martin was walking slowly, looking at all the houses and appeared to be under the influence of a controlled substance. After being asked by the he dispatcher he described Martin (correctly) as a black teenager and described his clothing. Zimmerman is not black. The dispatcher told Zimmerman that patrol units were on the way and requested that he not follow Martin. Zimmerman responded by saying that there had been multiple break ins in the last couple of months and that "those f*****s" always got away.

When Zimmerman first noticed Martin, he was in his vehicle, and had a legally possessed 9mm pistol in his glove compartment. He exited his vehicle to follow Martin more discretely, and brought the pistol with him. I don't know how he carried the weapon, but I assume either at this side in his strong hand, or tucked into his waistband.

On the dispatch tapes you can hear Zimmerman talk to the dispatcher for a couple minutes before Martin begins to run away from Zimmerman, and pursues him. It ends when Zimmerman looses sight of Martin.

You can listen to the entire dispatch tape here. This is a compilation of all of the 911 calls about this incident and is about 35 minutes long. It contains screams, the sound of a gunshot and multiple expletives. Don't listen to it with your 2 year old standing behind you.

As this was happening, Martin was on the phone to his girlfriend in a different city. He supposedly told her a strange man was following him, and he was afraid. She told him to run, but he told her he would walk fast, but was not going to run. Eventually he did run, and told his girlfriend he thought he had lost Zimmerman, before telling her he saw Zimmerman again. Eventually he told her he was going to confront Zimmerman. While still on the line his girlfriend reported that Martin said "why are you following me?" Zimmerman responded by asking "what are you doing here?" Those questions were followed by the sound of scuffling, and the line went dead.

Other witnesses reported seeing two people struggling, followed by a gunshot. One witness reported hearing someone screaming, and screams for help can be heard in the background of one of the 911 calls, but it's difficult to hear who is yelling what. Martin's family and their lawyer claim it's Martin yelling, Zimmerman claims it's his voice. The voice sounds young and black to me, and it's very possible there was a second, quieter voice in the background, but again, it's very difficult to tell.

When police arrived Martin was dead of a single gunshot wound and Zimmerman stated he shot Martin in self defense. Police conducted an investigation at the scene and did not arrest Zimmerman citing insufficient evidence to support an arrest. Because Martin was dead of a gunshot wound (a homicide in CSI parlance) I'm assuming detectives also conducted an investigation and determined the evidence did not support an arrest.

On Monday, the FBI and federal DOJ announced they would be conducting an investigation into the shooting. On Tuesday, Martin's girlfriend came forward, as far as I can tell, for the first time to talk about her phone conversation with Martin during the incident. To me, this is suspicious. The incident occurred on February 26, and to the best of my knowledge, she came forward on March 20, a full month after the incident. Her statement was released by the lawyer for Martin's family in a recorded deposition. Her statement, coupled with the length of time it took her to come forward and the involvement of the Martin family's lawyer in guiding her testimony during a secret deposition doesn't pass the smell test for me.

Those are the public facts.

Those are ALL of the public facts. Despite the histrionics from the usual suspects (I'm looking at you Gawker, Jezebel, Mother Jones and Huffpo) those facts, read by an impartial observer (the infamous "reasonable man test") don't necessarily equal murder. They don't necessarily equal self-defense, either. They equal ambiguity.

For example, assume this set of facts. After Zimmerman found Martin a second time, Martin decided to confront him. (Remember, he told his girlfriend that he was going to). Martin, being 16 and male, approached Zimmerman aggressively, and demanded to know why Zimmerman was following him. Zimmerman asked Martin who he was, and instead of answering, Martin lunged for the weapon Zimmerman had in his right hand. They struggled for the weapon, and during the struggle Zimmerman realized Martin was younger and stronger than him and was going to be able to wrest possession of the weapon away from him. Fearing for his life (basic rule of self defense, if someone other than a police officer tries to take your weapon, you are allowed to assume they are going to attempt to kill you with it) Zimmerman was able to bring the weapon up and squeeze off a single round. After the round was fired, Martin fell backwards. Realizing the threat was over, Zimmerman did not fire a second round, but instead leaned over him and attempted to provide first aid until police arrived.

Given that set of circumstances, the shooting is completely justified. Zimmerman's judgement for continuing to follow and pursue Martin was poor, but poor judgement is not a criminal offense.

Here's a second set facts to assume. Zimmerman, angry that a series of break ins had occurred, and frustrated that the police appeared unable to prevent them followed Martin, telling police that "those f****s always get away." He followed Martin until feeling cornered, Martin decided to confront Zimmerman. As Martin approached Zimmerman, the undisciplined, poorly trained Zimmerman panicked and brought his weapon up (if you want to assume the utter worst, maybe he thought "I'm gonna bag myself a n****r"). Martin, seeing the strange man who had aggressively followed him now pointing a pistol at him, believed that his life was in imminent danger. In self defense, he grabbed for the weapon and tried to force the muzzle away from his body while screaming for help. Zimmerman panicked (or giggled with glee, depending on how evil you want to paint him) and squeezed off a single round, striking Martin in the chest.

Based on that set of circumstances, you could make a decent case for first degree murder, and a pretty solid manslaughter case.

The truth is, depending on how I flesh out that set of facts, I can clear Zimmerman completely, indict him completely, or create one of a half dozen scenarios somewhere in between.

If you want to know what I actually think happened, it's somewhere in the middle. Martin and Zimmerman were standing toe to toe puffing their chests when either Zimmerman brought up his weapon to detain Martin, or Martin saw his weapon and panicked. (At no point in the 911 call did Zimmerman sound panicked or even particularly excited.) They struggled for possession of the weapon, Martin screamed for help and during the struggle a round was fired, probably accidentally. The round struck Martin in the chest. Martin let go of the weapon and fell backwards, mortally wounded. Zimmerman, shocked and surprised, stepped back and stood by until PD arrived.

Now here's the important part. There are exactly two people in the world who know exactly what happened that night. One of them is dead and one of them will never say another word about it publicly without a lawyer present. Martin's family doesn't know. Zimmerman's friends don't know. Huffington Post, Mother Jones, Gawker and Jezebel, despite their self-righteous smugness, certainly don't know.

I've been working on this post for 2 days. The talkerazzi have been discussing Zimmerman's guilt for several weeks now (at no point have I seen an article, column or post that even suggest Zimmerman might be anything but guilty). What happened that night from start to finish took a grand total of 10 minutes. The final confrontation that ended with Martin's death took less than a minute from the time Martin told his girlfriend he was going to turn and confront Zimmerman to the time that the shot was reported fired. The confrontation happened on a poorly lit street between two people who knew nothing about the other one. Those circumstances are important. Neither Zimmerman or Martin had the benefit of reading what you have just read, the ability to sit back in your comfortable chair with the tasty beverage of your choice and ponder every aspect of the situation. They did not know each other. They did not know what the other one was doing, what they were thinking, and what the other's intentions were. They were both placed in a situation where they were forced to make quick decisions with imperfect information with deadly consequences.

I cannot stress the importance of understanding what both Zimmerman and Martin did not know about the situation they found themselves in. Neither of them knew, or could be reasonably expected to know, very pertinent facts that would have vastly changed the nature and tone of their encounter. We have much, much more information than either of them did, and it's important to judge both of their actions based upon the facts and circumstances as they knew them at the time.

At any point either one of them could have prevented the incident from happening. Zimmerman could have stood 20 yards away and introduced himself to Martin, asking if he could help him. He could have maintained a solid safety cushion by dealing with Martin at a distance, keeping the weapon in reserve in case Martin turned out to have a weapon of his own. Instead of attempting to evade, Martin could have turned to Zimmerman asking if he lived near there, explaining that he was staying with a friend and was lost. But neither chose to do that. Martin turned and ran, making himself look very, very guilty in the process. Zimmerman chose to pursue Martin, making himself look very, very aggressive in the process.

The assumption that of course a white man killed a good, never hurt anyone black kid for no reason at all is a racist and vile assumption. It's just as racist and vile as the "of course the black kid was a criminal up to no good" assumption.

Most people reading this post have never been forced to make a violent decision in a few seconds, with imperfect and incomplete information with potentially life-altering (or life-ending) consequences. It's an art form and an acquired skill, one that very few people have, one that requires training, practice and discipline. Police officers and other first responders spend an inordinate amount of time discussing hypothetical situations, running through the various permutations of what could happen, and what the best response would be over and over again. The point is to already know the best solution before you are put in a situation like this, to train your mind to gather what information you can, and make the best tactically and legally sound decision quickly. Neither Martin or Zimmerman had the benefit of that training.

If Zimmerman acted wrongly he deserves to be forced to answer for his actions. But he also deserves the same assumption of innocence and the fair hearing that every one of us would expect if we were in a similar situation. This concerted effort to railroad him, in absence of any real incriminating facts is despicable. I pray with every fiber of my being that everyone engaged in this social media driven lynch mob is someday put in the exact same situation, including the lynch mob.

I'll bring the rope.