If It Doesn’t Fit, You Must Acquit (Open Thread)

There was an anti-Zimmerman-verdict demonstration in Houston recently, hosted by the New Black Panthers.  One counter-demonstrator pointed out the obvious:  If George Zimmerman is a “white hispanic”, then Barack Obama is a “white black” (or, as I like to call him: A “white African-American who identifies as black.”)

If only the media would be consistent in their usage.  Is that too much to ask?

“If the head is split, you must acquit.” And so the jury did.  This demonstrator also mentions the “stand your ground” concept, which Obama was for before he was against!

[B]ack in 2004 Illinois state Senator Barack Obama co-sponsored legislation expanding the state’s Stand Your Ground laws.

Talk about an inconvenient truth!

Which brings us to this sad case:

Poor Phineas.  In a little Ozark town, an apparently falsely accused pooch has been in poochgow for over a year–on death row!  Dead dog walking?

The bite doesn’t fit.

That’s what two dog-bite experts claim in new court filings in the contentious case of Phineas, a yellow Labrador retriever condemned to die for biting a girl in Salem, Mo., last summer.

A series of court challenges have so far delayed the dog’s sentence, which was imposed by the town’s mayor in July 2012. The 7-year-old girl, bit on her abdomen, was not seriously injured in the incident, which occurred during a visit to a friend’s house where Phineas was a pet.

But as the months passed — during which the dog was briefly kidnapped from the county animal shelter and then it seemed city officials were hiding the dog from its owners — Phineas’ unresolved fate attracted widespread public interest and led to division within the small town.

Now, two experts working for the dog’s owners said they believe Phineas did not bite the girl at all. They said the oval-shaped wound is too small and the dental pattern inconsistent with Phineas’ teeth. Their findings were included in a filing this week by the attorney for Phineas’ owners asking a Dent County judge to reconsider his opinion upholding the mayor’s ruling. A state appellate court also is expected to consider the matter.

Through the miracle of social media, the experts got the one bit of information required to arrive at their potentially life-saving conclusion.  They had only a photograph of the bite mark on the little victim’s torso, but no scale. What to do?

With no photographic measurements of the bite, the trick was finding something else in the photo that could be measured and compared to the teeth marks on the girl`s body.

And that’s when they got the idea to zero in on the ‘zero’ on the girl’s crumpled t-shirt, appealing to Phineas’ 150,000 Facebook followers to help find a duplicate.

“Within 24 hours someone had gone on the internet and figured out what shirt it was,” [Phineas’s attorney Joe] Simon explained. “That was great except the manufacturer no longer sold that shirt so we couldn’t go out and just buy the shirt.”

But then a fan in New Jersey realized her niece had the same shirt, and mailed it to Simon.

“As soon as I got this shirt in the mail I knew there was no way Phineas left this bite because this is just tiny,” he said. …

The written report was prepared by Dr. Kenneth Cohrn, a dentist and expert in dental forensics from Lady Lake, Florida.

It concludes:

“The overall size of the injury suggests a smaller dog may be responsible…. based on the current information available…

I must exclude Phineas as the biter.”

Will justice be done for Phineas? Will Phineas win a reprieve?  Will he be saved from the gas chamber and returned to the arms of his loving family?

Let’s hope so.  Miracles do happen, after all.

The jury in the Zimmerman case made the right decision; and now, suddenly, the ACLU has changed its tune.  First this:

“Last night’s verdict casts serious doubt on whether the legal system truly provides equal protection of the laws to everyone regardless of race or ethnicity,” ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement on July 14, the day after the Florida jury’s verdict. “This case reminds us that it is imperative that the Department of Justice thoroughly examine whether the Martin shooting was a federal civil rights violation or hate crime.”

Now this, after many questioned the ACLU’s departure from their long-standing policy of arguing against double jeopardy:

In an apparent attempt to stem the controversy, a top ACLU official wrote to [white black] Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday to make clear that the group does not favor a second prosecution of Zimmerman in federal court.

“We are writing to clearly state the ACLU’s position on whether or not the Department of Justice (DOJ) should consider bringing federal civil rights or hate crimes charges as a result of the state court acquittal in the George Zimmerman case,” Laura Murphy, director of the ACLU’s Washington office, wrote.

“The ACLU believes the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Constitution protects someone from being prosecuted in another court for charges arising from the same transaction. A jury found Zimmerman not guilty, and that should be the end of the criminal case,” she wrote.

In a strange twist of fate (?), Zimmerman was given a chance to show the content of his character:

George Zimmerman, who has been in hiding since he was acquitted of murder in the death of Trayvon Martin, emerged to help rescue a family who was trapped in an overturned vehicle, police said today.

Zimmerman was one of two men who came to the aid of a family of four — two parents and two children — trapped inside a blue Ford Explorer SUV that had rolled over after traveling off the highway in Sanford, Fla. at approximately 5:45 p.m. Thursday, the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. …

By the time police arrived, two people – including Zimmerman – had already helped the family get out of the overturned car, the sheriff’s office said. No one was reported to be injured.

Zimmerman was not a witness to the crash and left after speaking with the deputy, police said.

(h/t kittycat77 — It’s very hard to find other coverage of this incident.)

So Zimmerman, in hiding out of fear for his own safety, put his life at risk to help four other people.

No word yet on the racial identities of the members of the family that Zimmerman helped to save.

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[Emphasis was added to quotes.]