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George Zimmerman's Lawyer Invokes "Shaken Baby Syndrome" As Defense In Trayvon Martin Shooting

Ben Yakas

Published Apr 6, 2012

Modified Apr 6, 2012

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Ben Yakas

Published Apr 6, 2012

Modified Apr 6, 2012

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The former neighborhood watch captain who fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin nearly two months ago has a new lawyer who has gone on a media offensive the past few days. George Zimmerman's lawyer Hal Uhrig, a former police officer, cited the "Shaken Baby Syndrome" in defending his client, who has claimed he shot Martin in self-defense: "You shake a baby, the brain shakes around inside the skull. You can die when someone's pounding your head into the ground." As Reuters points out, Uhrig's "use of a recognized sign of child abuse to defend a 28-year-old man who killed a kid" seems more likely to stir up controversy against Zimmerman.

However, ABC News has enhanced the surveillance video released last week showing Zimmerman at a Florida police station—and they now believe they can see signs of injury on Zimmerman's head. Zimmerman's lawyer Craig Sonnerhad said the video was "too grainy" to show the injuries his client had allegedly sustained during a fight with Martin; but ABC says there appears to be "a pair of gashes or welts" on the back of Zimmerman's head.

Uhrig has decided upon a much more aggressive tactic than Zimmerman's other lawyers, doing interviews with CBS, NBC, CNN and Fox in the past few days, pushing the message that Zimmerman is a victim. He blamed Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson among others: "They turned it into a racial event when it never was one," he told Sean Hannity. He told Piers Morgan:

He's not racist. The reason Trayvon Martin is dead is not because he was black or because he wore a hoodie or because he was walking in the rain. It's because that…young man made a terrible decision and a bad judgment and decided to smack somebody in the face and break their nose, jump on him and smack their head onto the ground and in doing that, put him in reasonable fear for his safety. He was absolutely entitled to defend himself. That's why Trayvon Martin is dead—not because of racial profiling.

But it seems that many Americans disagree with that assessment: according to a new Gallup poll, African-Americans are nearly five times more likely to be convinced that Zimmerman is “definitely guilty” of a crime than non-blacks. 49 percent of non-blacks believe Martin’s race didn’t play a factor, compared to 20 percent of blacks. Even Geraldo Rivera thinks that race matters in this case: "The case has fractured the country along the undeniable racial fault line that is always there, but is most apparent in charged cases like this and Rodney King, Amadou Diallo, Ramarley Graham, Sean Bell and a hundred others."

Race matters in terms of what Zimmerman did or didn't say during a 911 call which may prove key to whether he gets charged with a hate crime. After careful analysis, CNN has enhanced the audio further and concluded that Zimmerman may have actually said "f***ing cold" the night of the shooting, and not a racial epithet. Zimmerman's lawyer has offered a different story, saying his client uttered "f***ing punks."

For the next three days, a coalition of college students—calling itself the Dream Defenders—will march about 40 miles between Daytona Beach and Sanford to protest the shooting, and against "racial profiling, institutional racism and the legacy of violence that continues to plague young people of color."

The decision on the grand jury is expected to come out sometime soon, and Sanford Mayor Jeff Triplett has started preparing for that contentious announcement by having the city's emergency management team meet regularly with the U.S Department of Justice to construct a plan. "You always prepare for the worst and hope for the best," Triplett said. "We're planning for the 'what-if' case scenario, and that would be to make sure that all of our citizens get the protection they pay their taxes for."

Tagged

death

florida

george zimmerman

shaken baby syndrome

shooting

trayvon martin

Ben Yakas

Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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