Zimmerman charged with child abuse

The prosecution could not prove murder at the trial of George Zimmerman, and now it charging him with felony child abuse!

Trayvon was a 17yo 5-11 dope-smoking juvenile delinquent sneaking around a strange gated neighborhood in a hoodie while serving his third suspension from school. Zimmerman thought that he was behaving suspiciously, and called 911, as there had been a rash of burglaries. Zimmerman followed him in his car, lost him, and briefly left his car to get an address for the 911 operator. While going back to his car and waiting for the cops to show up, Trayvon attacked him, knocked him to the ground, and relentlessly began punching his head into the sidewalk. Zimmerman was helpless to fight back, and cried for help about 12-15 times over the course of about 45 seconds. Zimmerman suffered a broken now, a concussion, and at least 6 identifiable injuries to the head. People heard his cries, but offered no help and the punches continued. Zimmerman says Trayvon said he was going to kill him. Then Trayvon saw Zimmerman's gun, and there was a struggle for the gun. Zimmerman pulled the trigger and Trayvon died.

Every single piece of objective and witness evidence corroborates Zimmerman's account, except for Trayvon's mom saying that Trayvon was the one calling for help. No one has explained why Trayvon would be calling for help. He was on top of Zimmerman the whole time, and suffered no marks, bruises, or injuries, except for a scratch to his punching hand.

The reason for the child abuse charge is that it is the most legally ambiguous possible charge. No one ever defines what is or is not child abuse. The jury is all women, and are subject to emotional arguments about children. To many women, abuse is just a catch-word for any behavior with which they disagree.

This just is biased against Zimmerman. Yesterday she bizarrely put Zimmerman under oath and forced him (over his lawyer's objections) to testify about whether he intended to testify under oath, and whether he had discussed the matter with his lawyers. The defense had not finished presenting witnesses, and Zimmerman does not have to make that decision until the end. The judge was way out of line.

Update: The prosecution closing arguments did not mention child abuse, so I guess that was not allowed. His main arguments were that Zimmerman made some faulty assumptions about Trayvon, and that there were inconsistencies in Zimmerman's story.

The trouble is that the prosecution never showed that any assumptions were invalid, and that the point does not lead to guilt anyway. If Zimmerman mistakenly believed that Trayvon was more of a troublemaker than he was, then that is all the more reason that Zimmerman could have genuinely believed that it was necessary for him to act in self-defense.

Next, there really weren't any significant inconsistencies in Zimmerman's account. The prosecutor said: Zimmerman left the car to get a house number, but he overlooked a house number. He said that he was afraid when he lost Trayvon, but was not afraid enough to draw his gun. He said he was struggling to get out from under Trayvon, but it is hard to see how he could have fought back and drawn his gun at the same time. He had a bloody head, but Trayvon had no blood on his hands. If he had been beaten as much as his head injuries indicate, it is hard to see how he would be conscious enough to fire a gun.

I don't know how anyone would say that Trayvon did nothing wrong. Had Zimmerman not pulled the trigger, Trayvon would have surely been arrested and charged with felony assault and battery.