I wasn’t old enough to remember actor O.J. Simpson’s defense lawyer demonstrating a glove “not fitting” on the alleged murderer’s hand, but I can sure tell you that it was the stupidest thing I’d ever watched on YouTube.
And just when I thought defense lawyers couldn’t get any more desperate, I was proven wrong.
On Monday, USA Today reported the Trayvon Martin murder case was cancelled by the Florida Grand Jury. Besides the cancellation, it’s now unknown if charges will be filed or not — and did you know that the New York Daily reported that during George Zimmerman’s defense’s argument, they brought up Shaken baby syndrome?
Yup — Shaken baby syndrome.
That defense lawyer compared the alleged “attack” on Martin’s admitted killer, Zimmerman, to SBS. To which I say: What the hell? I’ve heard some pretty stupid stuff fly out of intelligent people’s mouths, but this? This is something else.
Records and news outlets have reported that Zimmerman’s defense of a “broken nose” and “being roughed around” cannot be proven. Unless there was a CT scan involved, it can’t be. So literally, they’re saying he was “shaken” by Martin.
So, to even start comparing the two is absolutely wrong — there is a big difference between SBS and even just a minor concussion, let alone injuries that haven’t been proven false or true yet.
First and foremost, SBS, according to the Child Abuse Prevention Center, is the most widespread form of child abuse out there. Concussions are not given to 28-year-old men supposedly “shaken” by a 17-year-old boy holding nothing a bag of Skittles and some iced tea.
Second, SBS is a bigger problem than concussions and should never be used out of context, purely for respect of those who have lost children or relatives to this abusive behavior. Although both are head trauma injuries and both serious, the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome says as many as 74 out of every 100,000 U.S. children
sustain injuries from SBS annually, and as few as 25 percent of them die. Only 19 out of every 100,000 adults die of a concussion.
It is ridiculous to compare one 28-year-old man who has not died to 74 injured or dead children. It is offensive and uncalled for.
Finally, it is much more difficult for an adult to die of complications from a concussion or head trauma. For babies, who are more vulnerable due to developing tissues and weak bone structures (including the skull), it is much easier. They have no control over their limbs, which can lead to fractures. Adults, however, will generally have more control over their limbs, as well as self-defense against attacks.
If that doesn’t convince you enough, look at what happened: 28-year-old Zimmerman admitted to shooting 17-year-old Trayvon Martin out of “self defense.” There is no way a child that small could “shake” a man of Zimmerman’s statue — I mean really, go look at the pictures. If anything, Martin would have been defending himself against being shaken by Zimmerman.
The news that the case wasn’t going to a higher court was sad enough. This child — literally, a child — has gotten the attention he deserves but not from the people he needs it from.
Social networks across the Internet have clearly called Zimmerman guilty of intentional murder (and not self-defense), but the court won’t even let a case go higher when it needs to?
This comparison raised by the defense is purely an act of inconsiderate, inaccurate and offensive desperate reaching — it is far less intelligent than O.J.’s glove and that’s saying something.
I can only hope and wonder if the prosecution plays off this horrible defense hiccup. I can only hope that this is the exposé of the stupidity of even defending this case. I can only hope it brings hate crimes into the spotlight to end them.
Because who is the one that has been shaken, lying dead and defenseless?
