# State of Florida vs. George Zimmerman Trial Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 20, 2013, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-of-florida-vs-george-zimmerman-trial-thread/661501 "2013-06-20T20:32:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 125
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-of-florida-vs-george-zimmerman-trial-thread/661501/2481 "2013-07-17T19:10:19Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > I asked Stoid opinon on when she thought Zimmerman knew Martin was hit. You’re welcome to guess but that was not an answer. My guess is the ease with which he was able to get him off his chest and the subsequent lack of resistance. Really? That’s quite shocking, then. If he knew that he succeeded in shooting him, due to Martin’s lack of resistance, why in the world would he then climb on Martin’s wounded body? See the problem there? Although I seem to recall, perhaps incorrectly, that you were of the opinion that there was nothing untoward about Zimmerman not seeking medical assistance for Martin, based on the idea that Martin supposedly was trying to kill him a moment earlier. So you probably find no fault in his climbing onto Martins wounded body, in so doing almost certainly worsening his pain if he was still alive, and hastening his death. But that’s just a reasonble inference arising from your earlier POV, of course… I’ll let you speak for yourself. And let me speak for myself, as well as I’m sure many other people, when I say that I am horrified that Zimmerman would do that, and I believe it Zimmerman realized that people would be horrified, and that it would not look good for him, and _that’s_ why he made up the whole story about not thinking he’d hit him to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-of-florida-vs-george-zimmerman-trial-thread/661501/2482 "2013-07-17T19:14:54Z")
I would hazard to guess that relatively few people have muchexperience with how people behave in the moments between when they are shot and when they lose consciousness and die. I have certainly never heard any evidence that George Zimmerman had such prior experience and knowledge prior to the shooting of Trayvon Martin. Sadly, in an unrelated case in Milwaukee, another man shot an unarmed teen. The incident was captured on CCTV. Reports and witness testimony show that the victim ran from the scene after he was shot and yet the shooting proved fatal. So what exactly should Zimmerman have seen that would have unequivocally led him to believe that the shot had hit? Medical experts from both sides indicate that Martin could have lived a few minutes and may have been conscious for several seconds to a minute or so. Real life fatal shootings apparently are not always as instantly fatal as in TV or movies. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-of-florida-vs-george-zimmerman-trial-thread/661501/2483 "2013-07-17T19:16:50Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > If he knew that he succeeded in shooting him, due to Martin’s lack of resistance, why in the world would he then climb on Martin’s wounded body? To restrain him, to ensure he is no longer a threat. Do you remember the law we’ve looked at many times in these threads, that details at what point someone no longer remains a threat? They need to retreat, and clearly communicate that they are ending violence. Martin did not do that. Why do you assume that Zimmerman would have known, even if he had realised he’d shot Martin, that he was no longer a threat? ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-of-florida-vs-george-zimmerman-trial-thread/661501/2484 "2013-07-17T19:17:43Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > Really? That’s quite shocking, then. If he knew that he succeeded in shooting him, due to Martin’s lack of resistance, why in the world would he then climb on Martin’s wounded body? See the problem there? . No, I don’t see a problem here. He said he thought Martin had something in his hand when hitting him. He looked for it. done. That you think you would administer CPR on someone who attacked you is noble. I would not. ---
**Author:** ![Mgalindo13](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea5d25/32.png) [@Mgalindo13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mgalindo13)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-of-florida-vs-george-zimmerman-trial-thread/661501/2485 "2013-07-17T19:19:18Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > Really? That’s quite shocking, then. If he knew that he succeeded in shooting him, due to Martin’s lack of resistance, why in the world would he then climb on Martin’s wounded body? And Stoid continues to ignore my replies to her posts… Bottom line, people don’t always act logically in a crisis. The fact that you think they should shows that you haven’t researched anything to do with how people react in high stress situations. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-of-florida-vs-george-zimmerman-trial-thread/661501/2486 "2013-07-17T19:22:11Z")
[Jessica Valenti writes in _The Nation:_](http://www.thenation.com/blog/175299/fear-and-consequences-george-zimmerman-and-protection-white-womanhood#axzz2ZKU7qssr) > [@](#): > > \*\*Fear and Consequences: George Zimmerman and the Protection of White Womanhood > > Jessica Valenti on July 16, 2013 - 2:19 PM ET\*\* > > My first week of college, I had a heated debate about abortion with two new friends—both were white, and one, Nancy, was extremely pro-life. I was feeling pretty proud of myself for having such an “adult” conversation—we disagreed, but everyone was being respectful. Then my other pro-choice friend asked Nancy what she would do with a pregnancy if she was raped. I will never forget what Nancy said: “I think it would be cute to have a little black baby.” When we expressed outrage at her racism, Nancy shrugged. It never occurred to her a rapist would be anyone other than a black man. (DOJ statistics show that 80 to 90 percent of women who are raped are attacked by someone of their own race, unless they are Native women.) When this young woman imagined a criminal in her mind, he wasn’t a faceless bogeyman. > > I hadn’t thought of this exchange in years, not until I was reading the responses to George Zimmerman’s acquittal—particularly those about the role of white womanhood. When I first heard that the jurors were women, I naïvely hoped they would see this teenage boy shot dead in the street and think of their children. But they weren’t just any women; most were white women. Women who, like me, have been taught to fear men of color. And who—as a feminist named Valerie pointed out on Twitter—probably would see Zimmerman as their son sooner than they would Trayvon Martin. > > \ > > Perhaps most tellingly, though, “B37” told Cooper that Zimmerman’s “heart was in the right place, but just got displaced by the vandalism in the neighborhoods and wanting to catch these people so badly that he went above and beyond what he really should have done.” (The phrase “above and beyond” is interesting, given it’s generally understood as a positive.) To her, Zimmerman was a protector. Sure, maybe he went a bit overboard but “Trayvon got mad and attacked him,” and Zimmerman “had a right to defend himself.” > > This juror’s comments cannot be divorced from our culture’s long-standing criminalizing of young black men, and white women’s related fears. As Mychal Denzel Smith pointed out here at The Nation and on MSNBC’s Up With Steve Kornacki, defense attorneys stoked this fear deliberately and broadly. > > > [@](#): > > > > To my disgust, O’Mara literally invoked the same justification for killing Trayvon as was used to justify lynchings. He called to the witness stand Olivia Bertalan, one of Zimmerman’s former neighbors, who told the story of her home being burglarized by two young African-American boys while she and her children feared for their lives. It was terrifying indeed, and it had absolutely no connection to the case at hand. But O’Mara presented the jury with the “perfect victim,” which Trayvon could never be: a white woman living in fear of black criminals. Zimmerman had offered to help her the night her home was robbed. Implicit in the defense’s closing argument: he was also protecting her the night he killed Trayvon Martin. > > They carefully made Martin—the victim—into that not-so-faceless bogeyman. Now, I don’t know what was in the jurors’ hearts—but the story the defense told and that juror B37 parroted is not a new one. It’s a story that ends with fear trumping empathy and humanity. (A fear that even now is being grossly defended as justified.) ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-of-florida-vs-george-zimmerman-trial-thread/661501/2487 "2013-07-17T19:35:27Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [Jessica Valenti writes in _The Nation:_](http://www.thenation.com/blog/175299/fear-and-consequences-george-zimmerman-and-protection-white-womanhood#axzz2ZKU7qssr) Another author who writes movingly of emotion, and doesn’t once mention the specific elements of the crime with which Zimmerman was charged and how the evidence met those specific elements. “How dare those women decide this case on emotion, unless it was the emotion we wanted them to feel!” Do people believe that a jury gets to just hear evidence and then decide how they feel? The jury had a set of instructions and those instructions accurately defined the law involved. They applied the evidence they heard to those rules and found that the evidence did not address those elements beyond a reasonable doubt. That’s all the jury should have done. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-of-florida-vs-george-zimmerman-trial-thread/661501/2488 "2013-07-17T19:36:42Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > Really? That’s quite shocking, then. If he knew that he succeeded in shooting him, due to Martin’s lack of resistance, why in the world would he then climb on Martin’s wounded body? Why did Jackie Kennedy try to climb on the trunk of the car in the seconds after her husband’s head was extinguished? ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-of-florida-vs-george-zimmerman-trial-thread/661501/2489 "2013-07-17T19:38:36Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Why did Jackie Kennedy try to climb on the trunk of the car in the seconds after her husband’s head was extinguished? Because she was a liar who murdered him, obviously. ---
**Author:** ![Mr-Pookie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ed655f/32.png) [@Mr-Pookie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr-Pookie)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-of-florida-vs-george-zimmerman-trial-thread/661501/2490 "2013-07-17T19:46:09Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Another author who writes movingly of emotion, and doesn’t once mention the specific elements of the crime with which Zimmerman was charged and how the evidence met those specific elements. > > “How dare those women decide this case on emotion, unless it was the emotion we wanted them to feel!” > > Do people believe that a jury gets to just hear evidence and then decide how they feel? The jury had a set of instructions and those instructions accurately defined the law involved. They applied the evidence they heard to those rules and found that the evidence did not address those elements beyond a reasonable doubt. > > That’s all the jury should have done. Then the defense shouldn’t have called an emotional witness to tell a story that had absolutely nothing to do with the facts of the evening in question… I guess the burglary story could speak to GZ’s motivation. The author didn’t suggest the jurors did anything wrong. The article only points out how the defense may have used age-old tactics to solidify Trayvon as the boogeyman in the minds of the jurors. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-of-florida-vs-george-zimmerman-trial-thread/661501/2491 "2013-07-17T19:51:45Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Another author who writes movingly of emotion, and doesn’t once mention the specific elements of the crime with which Zimmerman was charged and how the evidence met those specific elements. > > “How dare those women decide this case on emotion, unless it was the emotion we wanted them to feel!” You misunderstand. This piece certainly is pro-Trayvon but it is not a miscarriage-of-justice tract. The author is, with justice and I should hope with your complete agreement, condemning **certain specific** emotional reactions/attitudes all too common in our society and using the case as an exemplar. (It is in that regard similar to comments I read post OJ Simpson’s acquittal, to the effect that the prosecutors miscalculated when they assumed the black women on the jury would sympathize with Nicole as a sister, when in their eyes she actually exemplified the threatening white “other woman” stealing the black men away.) ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-of-florida-vs-george-zimmerman-trial-thread/661501/2492 "2013-07-17T19:53:17Z")
> [@Human\_Action](#): > > Did you watch the walkthrough or not? Yes, Zimmerman says he thought Martin was giving up because he saw that Zimmerman had drawn and fired his gun. > > Zimmerman said: “After I shot him, he like sat up…and I didn’t think I hit him, because he sat up and he said, uh, ‘you got me, you got it, you got me’, something like that, so I thought he was just saying ‘I know you have a gun now, I heard it, I’m giving up.’” As I just mentioned, he didn’t say anything at all about that the night before. He didn’t say anything about that until he had a chance to think about how it really looked and sounded: bad. Very bad. > [@](#): > > \*\*\*What you are doing is imagining how it may have happened, and then calling Zimmerman a liar because his account differs from your imagination, while also criticizing his observation skills and cognition during a fight to the death No, I was rejecting _ **your** _ explanation for the behavior a person could _expect_ from someone surrendering at the sight of a gun. Zimmerman never made any kind of claim that Martin was surrendering to him when he fell to the side, because he can’t even remember whether he pushed or Martin fell on his own. > [@](#): > > You imagine Martin, mostly dead and unresponsive (“sleepy”; I have no idea where you got “sleepy”, or the idea that Martin wasn’t alert), slowly slumping off of Zimmerman, then Zimmerman climbing on top of him. But, as Zimmerman actually describes it, it seems to have been fairly rapid: shot fired, Martin sits up, Zimmerman shoves him off and gets on top of him: So, are you saying that you think it’s reasonable to believe that Martin was alert and appeared normal when he had a bullet in his heart and a hole in one of his collapsed lungs? That there would be nothing unusual in his demeanor to give that little fact away? Did I ever say slowly? I don’t believe I did. > [@](#): > > Say that took two seconds. You’re shocked that Zimmerman wouldn’t notice that Martin was being overly compliant, “sleepy”, whatever? Well, no, I’m not shocked, because I don’t believe he did not notice. While I’m sure that, as someone said, he had one of those “oh my God I can’t believe I shot somebody” moments right after he did it, I do not believe that that actually manifested as Him having a genuine failure to understand and believe that he had shot Martin. I do not find that remotely believable. And I especially do not find it believable as a result of the incident being so overwhelming/scary/confusing/chaotic/, since both witnesses and medical tests showed that he was extremely calm and focused. If witnesses had reported him being frantic, babbling, confused, chaotic, generally “freaked out”, sure, I would believe lots of things due to that. But that’s not how he was. He was calm, cool, collected, and clear, as witnesses reported, as seen on tape, as vital signs confirmed. In other words, in case you missed it, the _ **actual evidence** _ that we have on record in the form of witness statements, video, audio, and medical tests, all serve as proof that was not confused, freaked out, stressed, etc. Quite the contrary. And interestingly, I don’t recall _ **him** _ ever making any claims of that nature, apart from some vague “a lot was going on I don’t remember exactly” type of remarks. Some people here are accusing me of arriving at conclusions without evidence… which is pretty funny… Seeing as how the actual _evidence_ that we have for Zimmerman’s state of mind, which is considerable, obliterates the pure, unsupported speculation being tossed out that he was too wrecked after his Very Big Adventure to be expected to accurately recall or perceive things. Theres a few of you that do that a lot and really don’t seem to be aware of it: you conjure explanations, excuses, reasons, possibilities, all out of thin air, to justify and explain the gaps, inconsitencies and implausibles in Zimmerman’s account, then you act as though you’ve _proved_ something by creating an answer that came entirely from your busy little brains, followed by taking umbrage when I decline to sign on for your imaginative creations. Fact? Inference? Or Creative Writing 101? I like facts and reasonable inferences, thanks anyway. > [@](#): > > If you say so. Conveniently, it helps your case, where “You got it” (or the more accurate "something like ‘you got me’ or ‘you got it’) wouldn’t. This is the exact same reasoning you use to call Zimmerman a liar. Really hard to see how you arrived there, except that you just want to. He said it over and over and over again, more consistently than anything else, and since that is a factual statement, there is nothing remotely disingenuous about my saying so. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-of-florida-vs-george-zimmerman-trial-thread/661501/2493 "2013-07-17T19:55:39Z")
> [@Mr-Pookie](#): > > Then the defense shouldn’t have called an emotional witness to tell a story that had absolutely nothing to do with the facts of the evening in question… I guess the burglary story could speak to GZ’s motivation. Did the prosecution object to the witness on grounds of relevance? The defense is not a neutral party. The defense is a zealous advocate for their client. But if they did, as a judge, I would have overruled the objection. The testimony was relevant to show why Zimmerman felt that he should get involved with stopping people he didn’t recognize. > [@](#): > > The author didn’t suggest the jurors did anything wrong. The article only points out how the defense may have used age-old tactics to solidify Trayvon as the boogeyman in the minds of the jurors. Yes, they probably did that. What of it? The defense is not an impartial seeker of truth. The defense lawyers could come upon a recording of Zimmerman explaining how he’d been waiting for a week to get Martin alone to kill him, and they would have been obligated to keep quiet about it. The prosecution, on the other hand, is not. They have a dual role: they represent the people of the state of Florida, and their interest in prosecuting crime, AND they represent the abstract interest of justice. If they came across a recording of their key witness doing something discrediting, they are obligated to reveal it. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-of-florida-vs-george-zimmerman-trial-thread/661501/2494 "2013-07-17T19:56:24Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Why did Jackie Kennedy try to climb on the trunk of the car in the seconds after her husband’s head was extinguished? I’m sure it wasn’t to restrain him and check for weapons, which was Zimmermans reason. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-of-florida-vs-george-zimmerman-trial-thread/661501/2495 "2013-07-17T19:58:43Z")
> [@Mgalindo13](#): > > And Stoid continues to ignore my replies to her posts… > > Bottom line, people don’t always act logically in a crisis. The fact that you think they should shows that you haven’t researched anything to do with how people react in high stress situations. Actually, I just did, although it was not specifically directed at you, it was a reply to your contention. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-of-florida-vs-george-zimmerman-trial-thread/661501/2496 "2013-07-17T20:01:45Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > I’m sure it wasn’t to restrain him and check for weapons, which was Zimmermans reason. Her reason, whatever it was, was irrational. So was Zimmerman’s. ---
**Author:** ![Hbns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hbns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hbns)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-of-florida-vs-george-zimmerman-trial-thread/661501/2497 "2013-07-17T20:31:01Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > …when he shot him at nearly point blank range in the middle of the chest and Martin immediately collapsed exactly the way a shooting victim would? You have no reason to believe this is the case. Or do you suddenly find a part of Zimmerman’s tale believable, because it fits with what you have learned about the reaction of shooting victims in popular media? ---
**Author:** ![Hbns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hbns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hbns)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-of-florida-vs-george-zimmerman-trial-thread/661501/2498 "2013-07-17T20:37:12Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > Really? _ **After** _ a 200 pound guy has been sitting on your back, on your collapsed lungs, on your heart with a bullet in it, for however long. You are still alive, still conscious, and still able to draw both arms under your body. > Yeah, right. Sure. Absolutely. It sounds completely impossible doesn’t it? Sadly, heartbreakingly, it isn’t entirely impossible. ☹ The horrors of combat are not just the catastrophic injuries, but the mind altering realization that often human beings don’t just peacefully or quickly slip into deaths grasp despite them. ☹ ☹ ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-of-florida-vs-george-zimmerman-trial-thread/661501/2499 "2013-07-17T20:37:21Z")
Re: Z not realizing he hit M. A few years ago I saw a video of a cop (VA State Police, IIRC) and a perp standing 5 to 7 feet from each other, both blazing away. 19 shots, total, were fired by the two of them. Not one hit was scored by either man. The perp surrendered when he ran out of ammo. In high stress shooting situations, even highly trained cops miss frequently from remarkably close ranges. If M doesn’t react the way Z assumes a shot person would, it’s not at all surprising he would, at least for a few seconds, assume a miss. ---
**Author:** ![Mgalindo13](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea5d25/32.png) [@Mgalindo13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mgalindo13)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2013, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-of-florida-vs-george-zimmerman-trial-thread/661501/2500 "2013-07-17T20:42:31Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > Actually, I just did, although it was not specifically directed at you, it was a reply to your contention. Your response to a post that gives a reasonable explanation with physiological data is simply “I do not find that remotely believable”? Perhaps you need cites. Here you go. \*\*[Memory Formation](http://www.fi.edu/learn/brain/stress.html) \*\* _Stress hormones divert blood glucose to exercising muscles, therefore the amount of glucose – hence energy – that reaches the brain’s hippocampus is diminished. This creates an energy crisis in the hippocampus which compromises its ability to create new memories. That may be why some people can’t remember a very traumatic event,_ There’s a plethora of data available that backs up this phenomenon. Very simply, a persons recollection of a traumatic event is extremely unreliable. \*\*[Illogical Action in an Emergency](http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/16/your-brain-in-a-shootout-guns-fear-and-flawed-instincts/) \*\* \*"Then, having finally taken cover, he turned and pointed back down the hallway toward the shooter. It was a chilling sensation to see \*\*his bare hand in front of him, pointing in the shape of a pistol like a boy on the playground. \*\*Where was his gun? “I looked at my hand. It wasn’t there. I looked in my holster. It wasn’t there.” \* A trained law enforcement professional pointed his finger like it was a gun because he wasn’t thinking clearly. And you think it’s unbelievable that a civilian could temporarily believe, for a matter of seconds, that he might have missed with his shot? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-of-florida-vs-george-zimmerman-trial-thread/661501.md?page=124) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/state-of-florida-vs-george-zimmerman-trial-thread/661501.md?page=126)