George Zimmerman, who recently sold a painting for $100,000 on EBay, has posted his second painting on Twitter through his brother. His subject: Angela Corey, the Florida prosecutor who charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder in the 2012 death of Trayvon Martin.
The painting is patterned after an Associated Press photo depicting the moment at which Corey announced the murder charge against Zimmerman:
Zimmerman dedicated the painting to Ronald Thompson, a 65-year-old disabled veteran who is serving time in prison for firing two warning shots into the ground to protect an elderly neighbor from her grandson and three of his friends. His incredible story is summarized by Families Against Mandatory Minimums here:
Thompson was 62-years-old in September 2009 when he visited a friend of his, an elderly woman in Keystone Heights, Florida, at the woman’s daughter’s home. During his visit, his friend’s 17-year-old grandson, who had been violent toward her in the past, came by with three friends, and wanted to go into his mother’s home. Having been instructed by her daughter not to let him into the house, Thompson’s friend refused them entry. Her grandson began yelling and cursing at his grandmother. Events escalated to the point where Mr. Thompson felt his friend was in danger. He grabbed his pistol (for which he had a conceal-carry license) and fired two warning shots into the ground to scare off the 17-year-old.
Thompson was charged with four counts of aggravated assault … Thompson was convicted.
Thompson’s prosecutor: Angela Corey.
Meanwhile, Corey is under fire from liberals for fighting to keep Marissa Alexander in prison. Alexander was sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot at a wall to scare off her husband whom she felt was threatening her.
Back in 2012, Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz accusing Corey of submitting a false affidavit in Zimmerman’s case:
Making use of a quirk of Florida law that gives prosecutors, for any case except first-degree murder, the option of filing an affidavit with the judge instead of going to a grand jury, Corey filed an affidavit that, according to Dershowitz, “willfully and deliberately omitted” crucial exculpatory evidence: namely, that Trayvon Martin was beating George Zimmerman bloody at the time of the fatal gunshot. So Corey avoided a grand jury, where her case likely would not have held water, and then withheld evidence in her affidavit to the judge. “It was a perjurious affidavit,” Dershowitz tells me, and that comes with serious consequences: “Submitting a false affidavit is grounds for disbarment.”
According to Dershowitz, Corey responded to his criticisms by threatening to sue Harvard Law School, get him disbarred, and sue him for slander and libel.
That’s an interesting approach to dealing with critics, no?
Here’s hoping Zimmerman’s painfully poignant artwork provokes more discussion about Corey’s questionable conduct.
