Posted on 04/16/2012 5:10:11 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
This just in from Fox News: “Fair trial for Zimmerman not likely on home turf, say legal experts.” Well, actually one expert quoted in the story makes that precise argument: Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz. The second expert, criminal defense lawyer Mark Bederow, says only that pretrial publicity, including NBC’s doctored tape of Zimmerman’s 911 call, could prejudice potential jurors (wherever they live, presumably). The third expert, defense lawyer Lawrence Lustberg, agreed that finding jurors in the community who have not made up their minds “will require casting a wide net.” But he also said: “The single most important thing as to whether you get a fair trial is who’s the prosecutor, who’s the defense attorney and who’s the judge?” That’s three things, but none has to do with where a trial is held.
But back to Dershowitz. His point is not the same as Bederow’s, namely that adverse publicity might taint a jury’s judgment. Rather, Dershowitz says, “the major criteria of a fair trial is: Could a juror who voted to acquit feel safe back in his community, feel that he wouldn’t be hassled or criticized by community members?”
But if one thing is clear from the last few weeks, it’s that “Justice for Trayvon” is on the lips not only of Trayvon Martin’s father and his neighbors but also of people across Florida and across the country. Changing the venue for Zimmerman’s trial wouldn’t solve the problem (if it is a problem) of jurors feeling pressured to convict because otherwise they would be “hassled or criticized.”
So it seems that a change of venue would be pointless. Regardless of where they live, prospective jurors have been inundated with publicity about the Martin killing....
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
By “jury of his peers” they mean Trayvon’s peers.
Move the trial to the cracker counties or Panhandle.
He’d get a pretty fair trial here on the gulf coast, I imagine.
FL went from registered voters to a driver license jury pool some years ago. If you are innocent, avoid getting accused in FL. A jury of one’s peers here can be a real freak show.
Not that it did them any good...
There are huge numbers on the left who are motivated by hatred, resentment, and a distorted motivation for ‘payback’ against those who they have unjustifiably vilified. In short, they are prejudiced and racist.
“... If you are innocent, avoid getting accused in FL. A jury of one’s peers here can be a real freak show.”
That’s true no matter where you go. Most trials that I’ve been on most of the jurors were dumber than a box of rocks and had this strange attitude that he must be guilty otherwise they wouldn’t have arrested him! I kid you not, there was not even a consideration of “innocent until proven guilty” it was more like “guilty unless proven innocent in a Perry Mason/CSI type of way”. And no ability to use logic or reason, it was almost always pure emotion and usually the prosecutor was very adept at getting them all riled up. So if you’re innocent then forget about it especially if there is a crying woman involved in the testimony!
George Zimmerman’s only hope is that the judge throws this out at the evidence hearing based on the evidence of self defense. That’s a slim hope given the quality of judges in FL though.
Seminole County (where Sanford is) is 11% black. I’d probably take my chances there.
A fair trial here is not necessary. Finding him guilty is the Agenda here.Prosecuting Attorney Angela Corey intends to make her bones with this conviction.
I think you are correct. The local voters probably know more about this case than most. The more they actually know, the better for George Zimmerman.
I wonder if this has been posted.
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