George Zimmerman to be charged in Trayvon Martin shooting, law enforcement official says

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

17. It won't be first-degree murder; that offense has to be charged

by grand jury indictment and we already know there won't be a grand jury. Charging lesser offenses such as second-degree murder and manslaughter will make it easier to get a conviction.

And nobody should ever get the death penalty, no matter who they are -- that's a symptom of a barbaric society. The United States, alone among industrialized nations, shares this uncivilized practice with such bastions of enlightenment as Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Nigeria, Syria and Somalia. Just the kind of company we want to keep.