SoftBonds -> RE: Speaking of Zimmerman, he's to be charged (4/11/2012 8:46:48 PM)
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ORIGINAL: TheHeretic It certainly strikes me as violating the Fifth, DC, but the lawyers have found their way around it, when it suits the Feds to do so. Apparently, looking at Trayvon funny and having him wind up dead is a whole different offense to the Feds, than looking at Trayvon funny and having him wind up dead in a state case. I'm curious about a few things. How does Florida define 2nd degree murder, and do Florida juries have a lesser offense option in their deliberations, to start with. Not that I agree with the interpretation (I am of the opinion that it IS still double jeopardy), but the federal case is generally "you were proven innocent of the crime, but what you did violated the civil rights of the victim." So for instance, if you lynch a black man, and the jury of locals says "Yeah, we all know you done it, but he was black, so not-guilty," the feds can come in and say "you are not guilty of murder, but your murder of him was racially motivated." The latter is why the feds have that ability btw. It is technically a different crime. The two critical points are, 1. a crime had to be committed that was not charged in the state case (e.g. violating civil rights vs murder), and 2. since those cases often depend on mindset, showing that the crime was committed for the reason the law was designed to cover (e.g. you lynched him cause he was black, not cause he knocked up your daughter). Still, the silliness of "We know the court says you didn't do it, but we are saying the REASON you did what you didn't do was X and such...," is pretty weird.
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