eorge Zimmerman finally presented some information today that increases the credibility of his claim that Trayvon Martin dealt him some blows during the fight that ended with Zimmerman fatally shooting Martin. Today, ABC News released an image that Zimmerman says was taken within 3 minutes of the shooting. ABC News did not reveal the identity of the photographer, at the photographer’s request, but because the photographer was someone who heard the scuffle that night, the photographer is probably a resident of the housing complex where the murder occurred.
Zimmerman’s attorney Mark O’Mara called for his client’s release from jail, where he was awaiting this morning’s bond hearing on charges of second degree murder. “He needs to get out. He should not be in jail,” O’Mara told ABC News before the hearing. “I want him out because I need him out. He wants to get out. His family wants it out. It should happen.”
During the hearing, a judge set Zimmerman’s bail at $150,000. Zimmerman’s father Robert and his mother Gladys both testified that they were willing to mortgage their home to pay his bail, an indication that they believed he wasn’t a flight risk. Despite his prior arrests on violent charges, they painted him as a non-violent person. Straining logic, Robert Zimmerman said, “I’ve never known him to be violent — unless he was provoked — and then he would turn the other cheek.”
Martin’s parents’ attorney belittled the significance of the new photo, which investigators from the special prosecutor’s office have seen.
“How bad could it have been if they didn’t take him to the hospital [and] didn’t stitch him up,” Benjamin Crump said in a statement to ABC News in response to the image. “The special prosecutor has seen all the evidence and still believes George Zimmerman murdered Trayvon Martin.”
If anyone decides to post bail for Zimmerman, the judge won’t allow him to be released today.
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We are not impressed. The face and scalp have a multitude of very small blood vessels, so a fairly light scratch can, briefly, produce an impressive amount of blood.
If Zimmerman’s head had been pounded against the sidewalk, there would be considerably more damage, and he would have required considerable medical attention immediately — not a wipe-up in the back seat of the police car, and bandages the following day.