Some new information has been made public on the injuries sustained by Trayvon Martin and by George Zimmerman in the fatal encounter in Florida. It is now reported that Zimmerman suffered a broken nose; that Martin's knuckles showed evidence of abrasion; and that the fatal shot was fired at close range. The Martin autopsy report also mentions the presence of trace amounts of drugs, not necessarily ingested on the day of the shooting.
This information has been discussed in numerous opinion pages and editorial columns, with the usual slant, depending upon the source.
While it may be tempting to conclude that the few new facts that have become available are consistent with whatever one already believes to have happened, it is clear there are still too many gaps in the evidence that has been made public to support any definitive conclusions. What actually occurred
prior to the altercation is of the utmost importance, and at this time, there is only fragmentary evidence and speculation about that.
For this reason, the staff have concluded that the new information does not warrant reopening discussion at this time.
In all likelihood, what happened, and whetheer or not the shooting was justified, will remain unclear at least until the case has been tried, and that may not happen for a long time.
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http://www.slate.com/articles/news_..._life_how_deadly_is_an_unarmed_teenager_.html
Punched to Death
How easy is it to kill a man with your bare hands?
By Brian Palmer|Posted Friday, May 18, 2012, at 7:02 PM ET
A lab report released Thursday showed that Trayvon Martin was shot from close range, probably with the gun pressed against his chest. The new information may bolster George Zimmerman's argument that the two men were locked in combat, and Zimmerman shot the unarmed teenager to protect his own life. How easy is it to kill a man in a fistfight?
It happens more than twice a day, on average. Fists and feet were responsible for 745 murders in 2010, or 5.7 percent of all murders that year, according to FBI statistics. (The data on this have been remarkably stable in recent years. In the five preceding years, the percentage of murders perpetrated by fists or feet fluctuated between 5.6 and 6.1.) It doesn’t even take an experienced brawler to punch someone to death: An 11-year-old California girl appears to have killed a classmate with her bare hands in a February fistfight.
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