South Florida Prepares For Zimmerman Verdict (+video)
Photo Credit: Getty ImagesBy Lauren Pastrana. The Miami-Dade Police Department is partnering with local pastors in anticipation of the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial.
From the pulpit of the Peaceful Zion Missionary Baptist Church, Miami-Dade Police Director JD Patterson preached peace Thursday evening.
“Riots are not acceptable and riots are not expected,” Patterson said.
MDPD’s motto for the outcome of the case is “Be vocal, not violent.”
“We don’t have anything to give us any indication otherwise, so we expect a peaceful event as a result of the verdict,” Patterson told CBS 4′s Lauren Pastrana. Read more from this story HERE.
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Zimmerman jury adjourns deliberations for the day
By Mike Schneider and Kyle Hightower. With police and civic leaders urging calm, a jury began deliberating George Zimmerman’s fate Friday after hearing dueling portraits of the neighborhood watch captain: a cop wannabe who took the law into his own hands or a well-meaning volunteer who shot Trayvon Martin because he feared for his life.
As the jury got the murder case, police in this Orlando suburb went on national television to plead for peace in Sanford and across the country, no matter what the verdict.
“There is no party in this case who wants to see any violence,” Seminole County Sheriff Don Eslinger said. “We have an expectation upon this announcement that our community will continue to act peacefully.”
During closing arguments, Zimmerman’s lawyers put a concrete slab and two life-size cardboard cutouts in front of the jury box in one last attempt to convince the panel Zimmerman shot the unarmed black 17-year-old in self-defense while his head was being slammed against the pavement.
Attorney Mark O’Mara used the slab to make the point that it could serve as a weapon. He showed the cutouts of Zimmerman and Martin to demonstrate that the teenager was considerably taller. And he displayed a computer-animated depiction of the fight based on Zimmerman’s account. Read more from this story HERE.
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MSNBC host regrets this ‘awful mistake’ in network’s Zimmerman trial coverage
By Jason Howerton. MSNBC on Thursday afternoon aired a graphic and disturbing photograph of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin’s dead body while covering the George Zimmerman murder trial. The image flashed on the screen for about one second.
The shocking image was aired during “News Nation” with Tamron Hall. After being confronted on Twitter, including by some of her “avid” fans, over the “disrespectful” image, Hall claimed it was an “awful mistake.”
“I didn’t see it flash.. an awful mistake,” she tweeted.
The provocative blog Gawker took notice of MSNBC’s move to air the photo and published it as well. It went with a controversial headline that clearly intends to incite rage about the Zimmerman case. Read more from this story HERE.