A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry
Just curious as to what everyone else thinks
;Murder with a depraved mind occurs when a person is killed, without any premedicated design, by an act imminently dangerous to another and evincing a depraved mind showing no regard for human life.
Specific to this case, the jury was further instructed on elements of "imminently dangerous" and "depraved mind" as follows:
As to the first point, gunshot wound to the mid chest at intermediate range, IMO, would qualify. Defense and GZ are attempting to downplay this by claims such as his statements made during the investigation that he did not realize his intermediate range gunshot had actually hit Trayvon and that he was "shocked" to receive the news that Trayvon had died. Guess he was too busy trying to restrain the corpse to notice he had had hit his mark. Also, Trayvon's condition at the scene in the aftermath, face down, hands folded in front of him, completely motionless, etc, might have been his first clue, but by then he must have been too preoccupied with his story to the police to give it much thought.
Point two as applied here, IMO, is satisfied under the ill will stipulation by statements he made prior to the confrontation and by his, shall we say, "zealous" approach to his Neighborhood Watch duties and "wannabe cop" behaviors outside that setting, indicating his predisposed mindset to view Trayvon's walk through the courtyard as a "suspicious" "suspect."
Indifference to human life, slam dunk. As the police have already pointed out to him, there are a NUMBER of things he could have done to diffuse, de-escalate and/or avoid the situation all together, like heeding instructions not to follow, calling 911 back with an address, waiting for police to show up, identifying himself as Neighborhood Watch and asking Trayvon (who despite being armed and trained in MMA, he claimed he FEARED) what he was doing in the courtyard.
http://www.richardhornsby.com/crimes/homicide/second-degree-murder.html
http://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/2012/04/george-zimmerman-arrested-for-2nd-degree-murder.html