FLORIDA - Testimony in Trayvon Martin Case

My key issue with this case is a man shoots an unarmed man and is NOT held until after a FULL investigation is done to see if the killing was in fact justified by Florida's law.  That was TOTALLY wrong.

"Eyewitness describes Trayvon Martin's fatal struggle to Florida jury" by Barbara Liston, Reuters 6/28/2013

Excerpt

A witness in the murder trial of neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman testified on Friday that he saw Trayvon Martin on top of Zimmerman during a struggle that led to the unarmed black teenager's shooting death in a central Florida gated community last year.

But Jonathan Good, a former resident at the townhouse complex, told the jury in Seminole County criminal court that he never saw Martin slam Zimmerman's head into the concrete sidewalk, undermining a key element in Zimmerman's defense.

"I did not see that," Good told the court under questioning by a state prosecutor about the racially charged case that triggered civil rights protests and debates about the treatment of black Americans in the U.S. justice system.

Police did not arrest Zimmerman, who is white and Hispanic, for 44 days.  Zimmerman does not deny killing Martin but he says he did so in self-defense after he was attacked and Martin smashed his head repeatedly into the sidewalk.

Good was the fourth former neighbor who partially witnessed the death of Martin on February 26 last year to testify in the trial.  Each has given slightly different accounts, but Good is the first to state that Martin was on top during the struggle.

Zimmerman, 29, was a neighborhood watch volunteer in the Retreat at Twin Lakes community in Sanford at the time of the killing.  He has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and could face life imprisonment if convicted.

Martin, 17, was a student at a Miami-area high school and a guest of one of the homeowners.  He was returning after buying snacks at a convenience store when he was shot in the chest during a confrontation with Zimmerman.

Several former Twin Lakes residents have testified for the prosecution that they heard and caught glimpses of the fight between Zimmerman and Martin, and heard cries for help, on a dark and rainy night near a walkway between units in the community of townhomes.