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Part 5: The life and death of Jimmy Jackson
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Page B1
VOLUME 21 NO. 10
www.flcourier.com
MARCH 8 - MARCH 14, 2013
ROLLING THE DICE COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS
SANFORD – On Tuesday, lawyers for George Zimmerman canceled an expected hearing to try to have his murder charge dismissed under Florida’s “stand your ground” law – all but ensuring that Zimmerman will go to trial in June for the shooting death of Miami Gardens teen Trayvon Martin. The disclosure was one of two major developments Tuesday at what had been expected to be a dull hearJOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINEL/MCT ing about the exchange of case evidence. It also was George Zimmerman – who has gained more than revealed that Martin’s girl100 pounds since his arrest last year – is making a friend, the state’s most imrisky strategic decision, according to some defense portant witness in the murder case, was caught lying attorneys.
George Zimmerman’s defense team delays their attempt to have his murder charge dismissed. Instead, they’ll prepare for a June trial amid reports that Trayvon Martin’s girlfriend, who said she heard the shooting while speaking to Trayvon, lied under oath. under oath. Zimmerman, 29, is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Martin on Feb. 26, 2012. Zimmerman said he was watching over a Sanford neighborhood as a crime
watch volunteer when he became suspicious of Martin, who was walking to his father’s apartment in the rain. Zimmerman called police, where a dispatcher advised him not to follow the suspicious teen. But prose-
WINTER 2013
Here’s why we live in Florida
cutors believe Zimmerman did follow Martin, triggering a confrontation that left Zimmerman with a broken nose and Martin, who was unarmed, dead.
Who started it? Zimmerman told police that Martin attacked him and said he fired his gun in self-defense. The trial is likely to turn on whether the jury believes Zimmerman started the fight or whether Martin did – and whether Zimmerman was justified in firing his gun. Martin’s Miami girlfriend told police that she was on the phone with Martin moments before the scuffle See ZIMMERMAN, Page A2
Manslaughter, not just hazing Charges upgraded in Champion killing BY DENISE-MARIE ORDWAY AND STEPHEN HUDAK ORLANDO SENTINEL / MCT
ZBIGNIEW BZDAK/CHICAGO TRIBUNE/MCT
A person walks on Museum Campus during a snowstorm in Chicago on Tuesday. As Floridians experienced a short cold snap this week, a late-season snowstorm swept across the northern U.S.
ORLANDO – Prosecutors have upgraded the charges facing 10 former FAMU band members to manslaughter in the hazing death of drum major Robert Champion. Champion, 26, one of six drum majors who led FAMU’s “Marching 100” band in 2011, died after he was beaten on a charter bus parked at the Rosen Plaza Hotel in Orlando, where the band stayed during the Florida Classic weekend. Prosecutors also charged two more former band members, Henry Nesbitt, 26, and Darryl Cearnel, 25, in the hazing homicide. Cearnel performed CPR on Champion when paramedics arrived. Nesbitt called 911, according to the sheriff’s investigative summary. Neither cooperated with the Orange County sheriff’s investigation into Champion’s death, according to a summary released last year by the state attorney’s office. Manslaughter, a second-degree felony in Florida, is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Last spring, the 10 were charged with felony hazing, a third-degree felony. The maximum for felony hazing is five years.
‘Courage’ applauded
SNAPSHOTS FLORIDA | A3
Numbers of militia groups at all-time high BY MICHAEL MUSKAL LOS ANGELES TIMES / MCT
Brother’s upset about response to sinkhole
NATION | a6
Factory work returns to US
FINEST | B5
Meet Tanari
ALSO INSIDE
Efforts to limit gun violence and to bring about immigration reform have led to a growing backlash from the extreme right, including the so-called patriot and militia groups, a civil rights group said Tuesday. In its latest report, the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extreme right-wing and hate groups, said that it had counted 1,360 patriot groups in 2012, up about 7 percent from the 1,274 active in 2011. But that is also a rise of 813 percent since 2008, the year Barack Obama was elected the nation’s first African-American president. The groups include 321 militias, far more than the movement’s previous peak in the 1990s, when militias were inflamed by the 1993 Brady Bill to control guns and the 1994 assault rifle ban, the center said.
MCT FILE PHOTO
Deadly conflicts with federal officials at Ruby Ridge, Idaho in 1992 and Waco, Texas in 1993 are a constant focus of militia groups.
murder of 26 children and adults at a Connecticut school and the Obama-led gun control efforts that followed, it seems likely that that growth will pick up speed once again,” the center noted. The report also cites the election of Obama, efforts to grant Picking up speed more than 11 million undocu“Now, in the wake of the mass mented immigrants a path to cit-
izenship, and a troubled economy as contributing factors in the growth of the far-right groups. “We are seeing a real and rising threat of domestic terrorism as the number of far-right antigovernment groups continues to grow at an astounding pace,” said Mark Potok, Southern Poverty
On Monday, the Champion family applauded State Attorney Jeff Ashton’s “courage in amending theses charges to be more [commensurate] with the heinous crime committed,” said the family’s attorney, Christopher Chestnut. Ashton notified the family of the changes late last week, Chestnut said. Champion’s parents had been disappointed and upset last May when Lawson Lamar, who then was state attorney, decided to charge those involved with Champion’s death only with felony hazing. “This is what we’ve been saying all along, and finally someone has the courage to hold these folks accountable,” Chestnut said, adding that a felony hazing charge alone essentially “was a slap on the wrist and basically an endorsement to continue the practice.” Circuit Judge Marc Lubet, who is presiding over the FAMU criminal case, scheduled a pretrial conference for Aug. 2, meaning that any trial would occur later. Defense lawyers told the judge that preparing for a trial has been difficult because the case could involve as many as 100 witnesses.
FAMU at fault? Chestnut also criticized FAMU,
See GROUPS, Page A2
COMMENTARY: CHARLES W. CHERRY II: RANDOM THOUGHTS OF A FREE BLACK MIND | A4 COMMENTARY: REV. JESSE L. JACKSON: VOTING RIGHTS ACT AS NEEDED AS EVER | A5
See CHAMPION, Page A2