Because they are commonly referred to as judges. A specific kind of judge, but a judge nonetheless. So I don’t see the point of your quibble.
More familiar than a civilian, perhaps, but in no way a substitute for a lawyer.
True. Zimmerman might be a Yale Law School professor who also served on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
But again, the burden of production of evidence is on the person making the claim. And saying “Judge, magistrate,” as though the two were at all comparable is not justified. As a magistrate, his job would have been to make an initial bail determination after an arrest, good until a judge can hold a hearing, decide whether applications for arrest warrants have probable cause, and serve as a notary public. He does not have to have a law school degree. After Robert retired, the requirements were upped to mandate a bachelors degree in any field, but even that was not the rule during his tenure.
And so, too, was my mom a judge – at the poetry contest at my school when I was a kid.
But I obviously can’t rely on her legal acumen.
By the way, your link goes to FEDERAL magistrate judges, who are also not judges, but much closer to the real thing than Virginia magistrates are.
Virginia’s are not correctly called magistrate judges – just “magistrates.”
You mean a decent substitute for a lawyer, based on on intelligent person’s assessment. We are talking about Zimmerman here. He probably didn’t feel it was necessary to talk to a lawyer, if had his father’s advice to guide him. This is my point. Not that he was actually in good legal hands.
Ok, you may well be right. Zimmerman is not exactly a Rhodes Scholar.
I’m just interested in making sure readers of this thread understand that the impressive title “Virginia magistrate” is not, in fact, all that.
And to make sure readers understand the difference between federal judge magistrates and Virginia ones, because the federal version is at least some of all that. 
What would you conclude if there is no capillary damage?
That Zimmerman was quite gentle. I’ve gotten bruising from putting my watchband on too tight. If Martin had tried to yank his arm free there might additional damage.
I don’t know why Zimmerman would do anything that complicated if he intended to kill Martin. He could just say that Martin was reaching for his cellphone and he thought it was a gun. That is simple and hard to disprove
Your experience is not typical.
Except it contradicts the testimony from Martin’s girlfriend, who was on the phone with Martin when the altercation started. Why would Martin reach for his phone when he was already talking on it?
The presupposition is entirely optional.
There’re a number of scenarios that don’t require it at all.
Just one would be a decision on Z’s part to take the risk.
Z’s perception may have been that it was unlikely that any one witness had seen the crucial seconds.
I am as of yet unconvinced that there is some minimum amount of time necessary to concoct a plausible lie.
As such, all inferences based on the idea that there’s some minimum time to concoct a plausible lie are worth the paper that they’re printed on, imho.
Imho, some lies have and some lying has a nature which is akin to witty retorts:
Some people seem to be naturally inclined to do well at the task.
And some of us only find them on occasion. But when they are found, they arrive all of a sudden and almost fully formed.
[quote=“JoelUpchurch, post:902, topic:619125”]
Since he was talking to the EMT and the police officer overheard him and added it to his report, he is practically diabolical./QUOTE]I am not seeing it.
Z spent some non-zero amount of time studying criminal justice system. He attended classes for his concealed carry where various aspects of gun laws were presumably covered.
He has plenty of raw material to draw from. He doesn’t need to invent the whole story, he merely needs to make sure that certain details are just so and that is all.
I am not saying that he is lying. Not saying he’s telling the truth either.
Just saying that if he concocted his story, it was not some Herculean task.
It seems reasonable think that he would’ve known on February 25 which details are the important ones in a self defense shooting scenario.
The argument I think I am seeing over and over [not just here] is that because it takes more time to concoct a good lie than what Z had, it’s evidence that Z is likely being truthful.
Oddly, though, there’s not a minimum duration which is both known and articulable for concocting a good lie. But there seem to be plenty of people who can say when that indefinite period has not passed.
He went to Guido’s alibi school?
And I assume Zimmerman would know this because of his psychic abilities? You guys seem to seem to be constructing the cleverest moron I’ve ever seen. He seems to vary from evil genius to idiot depending what fits your scenario. Besides you have ignored that Martin might reach for the phone to hang up the phone and DeeDee would be disconnected. Oh wait a minute, that is what actually happened.
Not according to the account from Martin’s girlfriend.
If you look at syllabus I linked it to included interrogation techniques, So to some extent he did go to the Seminole State Alibi School. When I was working in Computer Security, I spent a lot of time learning about hacking into computers. I don’t know if he took the elective, “Introduction to Murder”.
She did get disconnected. How she got disconnected is speculation on her part.
She heard “pushing” on the phone. I wonder what “pushing” sounds like.
a view of Zimmerman through interviews of neighbors and associates by Reuters.
Reminds me of something F. Scott Fitzgerald said: “Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy.”
And yours, apparently.
Of course it is, since I don’t think Zimmerman murdered Martin in the first place. I was just pointing out if Zimmerman wanted to murder Martin, there are much simpler ways to do it, than the fantasies you guys are creating.
There’s a sound of impact—often a little thud
there’s also often an exhalation of breath as the chest compresses
Find someone near you and ask them to oblige.