{"id":573,"date":"2014-02-10T14:29:07","date_gmt":"2014-02-10T19:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/?p=573"},"modified":"2014-02-10T14:36:35","modified_gmt":"2014-02-10T19:36:35","slug":"panel-at-duquesne-law-school-discusses-the-trayvon-martin-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.law.duq.edu\/juris\/2014\/02\/10\/panel-at-duquesne-law-school-discusses-the-trayvon-martin-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Panel at Duquesne Law School Discusses the Trayvon Martin Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"024\"<\/a><\/p>\n

by: Eric Donato, Executive Editor<\/p>\n

On Thursday, February 6 the Duquesne University School of Law hosted a three-person panel discussion of the controversial George Zimmerman murder trial involving Trayvon Martin.<\/p>\n

The event drew overflow crowds from Duquesne\u2019s student body and the community.<\/p>\n

The wide-ranging discussion covered topics including police procedure, \u201cstand your ground\u201d laws, the media\u2019s attention to the case, the role of race in the trial, and the mistakes made by the prosecution.<\/p>\n

Panel member A.J. Bellido de Luna, former police officer and law professor at the University of Maryland\u2019s law school, said that proper police procedure was initially followed in the George Zimmerman case.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a big misconception that George Zimmerman was not arrested,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Following police\u2019s arrival on the scene of the shooting, Bellido de Luna said Zimmerman was handcuffed, read his rights, and had his picture taken, which is all standard and appropriate police procedure. Bellido de Luna said that an officer at the scene \u201cactually wrote out a statement of charges to bring George Zimmerman in front of a hearing officer, but was ultimately overruled by a more senior officer in the police department.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leonard Birdsong, former diplomat and law professor at Barry University, opined that the reason Zimmerman was not booked was because in 2005 the Florida legislature enacted a \u201cstand your ground\u201d law.\u00a0 In Florida, where the shooting occurred, the \u201cstand your ground\u201d law permits the use of deadly force in defense of one\u2019s life without the need to retreat, and is \u201ccoupled with the fact that there is a presumption that you acted reasonably,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Though Zimmerman never affirmatively raised the \u201cstand your ground\u201d law in his defense, Birdsong suggested that the existence of the \u201cstand your ground\u201d law played a role in keeping Zimmerman from initially being booked for the shooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts very very rare to have an \u2018un-arrest,\u2019 especially in a shooting death\u2026usually you collect the evidence, present it to the prosecutor, the prosecutor determines whether or not to move forward,\u201d said Bellido de Luna, \u201cin this case, that didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tracey McCants Lewis, Professor at Duquesne University School of Law and author of a chapter in the book Pursuing Trayvon Martin: Historical Contexts and Contemporary Manifestations of Racial Dynamics, said that the unusual police procedure forced Martin\u2019s family to turn to the media to seek justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe his parents really took the initiative to\u2026get the story out\u201d including using social media and African American journalists, said McCants Lewis.\u00a0 Ultimately the mainstream media picked up the story, and \u201cthat coverage then put the stand your ground law into the media spotlight,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Bellido de Luna said that race was certainly a factor in the trial, most prominently in the cross examination of Martin\u2019s friend Rachel Jeantel, who Bellido de Luna said is a \u201csweet, intelligent, capable woman,\u201d who was made to look uneducated and ignorant because of the way she spoke and dressed.<\/p>\n

McCants Lewis pointed out that there were cultural differences between the jury and Jeantel which the prosecution failed to bring to the jury\u2019s attention, for instance that English was not Jeantel\u2019s native tongue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe defense didn\u2019t come out and necessarily throw [race] in your face, but it was there,\u201d said McCants Lewis.<\/p>\n

The panel agreed that the prosecution failed to effectively make its case because it didn\u2019t prepare its witnesses, consistently contradicted itself, and seriously fumbled its closing argument.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a prosecutor for a long time, and this was the worst thing I\u2019d ever seen,\u201d said Birdsong.<\/p>\n

The panel discussion was moderated by Elliot Howsie, Chief of Allegheny County\u2019s Public Defenders Office.\u00a0 It was hosted by the Black Law Students Association of the Duquesne University School of Law.<\/p>\n

On February 26, 2012, 17-year-old African American Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch coordinator for a gated community in Florida.\u00a0 Zimmerman called police to report Martin as being suspicious, and soon thereafter a physical altercation ensued between the two.\u00a0 Zimmerman claimed that Martin, who was unarmed, attacked him, and Zimmerman was found not guilty of murder on July 13, 2013.\u00a0 The case became the focal point for a national discussion on the role race plays in the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by: Eric Donato, Executive Editor On Thursday, February 6 the Duquesne University School of Law hosted a three-person panel discussion of the controversial George Zimmerman murder trial involving Trayvon Martin. The event drew overflow crowds from Duquesne\u2019s student body and the community. The wide-ranging discussion covered topics including police procedure, [\u2026] <\/p>\n

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