RE; Trayvon Martin/George Zimmermann...Have we made any progress since 1931?

[rgbecker]

Here's a little story about the NRA board member, Harlon Carter, who took over the organization in 1977.

•On March 3, 1931, in Laredo, Texas, Carter, who was 17, shot and killed 15-year-old Ramón Casiano. After returning home from school that day, Carter was told by his mother that there were three Hispanic youths loitering near their family’s property. Carter left his house, shotgun in tow, to confront the alleged loiterers. After finding Casiano and his two companions, Carter pointed his shotgun at them and ordered them to come with him. Casiano refused and pulled out a knife and asked Carter if he would like to fight. Carter then pointed the shotgun at Casiano’s chest. Casiano pushed the gun aside and asked Carter not to shoot while taking a step back. He was then shot and killed. Carter claimed self-defense, but the presiding judge instructed the jury, “There is no evidence that defendant had any lawful authority to require deceased to go to his house for questioning, and if defendant was trying to make deceased go there for that purpose at the time of the killing, he was acting without authority of law, and the law of self-defense does not apply.” Carter was convicted of murder without malice aforethought (a crime similar to second-degree murder) and sentenced to three years in prison. Subsequently, Carter successfully appealed his conviction with the appeals court, holding that the trial court failed “to submit to the jury appropriate instructions upon the law of self-defense.” When the shooting incident was reported in media in 1981, Carter initially denied that he had killed Casiano before falsely claiming that the shooting took place on his property.

3 years for second degree murder in Texas? "Got out on a technicality" as they say.

http://meetthenra.org/nra-member/Harlon%20Carter

[The Magistrate]

1. No Crime For A White Man To Shoot A Mexican, Sir, Not Then, Not In Texas

Amazing the trial judge instructed the jury to convict, and they did.

[upaloopa]

2. A line from the movie "Mississippi Burning" based on a true story.

"You'd kill Frank?" "I wouldn't give it no more thought than ringing a cat's neck. And there ain't a jury in Mississippi that would convict me."

[rgbecker]

3. Looks like Zimmermann came up with the $150,000 and is out for a year or so.

[vaberella]

5. He's living it easy...in hiding.

Well I thought he had another court date in May?

[vaberella]

4. 3 years for killing a man in cold blood. The life of minorities ain't worth shit in this nation.

Ugh...

[HopeHoops]

6. I just watched "To Kill a Mockingbird" (again) last night. Not much has changed.

[uponit7771]

7. Yes, overall the nation has gotten over racial issues but conservatives haven't

[Bruce Wayne]

8. Another quote: "arming dangerous individuals [is] 'a price we pay for freedom.' "

In 1975, Carter was asked if he would “rather allow those convicted violent felons, mentally deranged people, violently addicted to narcotics people to have guns, rather than to have the screening process?” An opponent of the 1968 Gun Control Act—which created categories of prohibited firearms purchasers—Carter responded that arming dangerous individuals was “a price we pay for freedom.”

Oddly, I thought letting teenagers in hoodies walk down the street without getting stalked & gunned down was a better measure of freedom.