On Friday, the George Zimmerman defense team moved for acquittal of his second-degree murder charge in the killing of Trayvon Martin, suggesting that the prosecution had not fulfilled its burden of proof. Mark O’Mara, the lead lawyer for Zimmerman, said that the defense had provided “a very well-founded reasonable hypothesis of innocence.” In order for the prosecution to withstand a motion to dismiss, it must provide probable cause that the crime charged actually occurred. The motion to dismiss by the defense alleged that the facts provided by the state do not add up to second-degree murder.
The defense argued that the state could not prove “ill will, spite, or hatred,” especially given the fact that Zimmerman did not know Martin, and stated that no reasonable person could look at pictures of Zimmerman and conclude that he was not beaten. The prosecution responded that the only reason to shoot someone is that you mean to kill them or don’t care, and added that it was “ill will” for Zimmerman to follow Martin. “There are two people involved here: one of them is dead and one of them’s a liar,” said the prosecutor, Richard Mantei. He said that Zimmerman “is either luckiest most level-headed cool marksman in the world, or something else is going on.”
UPDATE: The judge has denied the motion for acquittal.
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).
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