Posted on 08/29/2012 2:13:47 PM PDT by abb
The Fifth District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach today ruled that second-degree murder suspect George Zimmerman should get a new judge.
A three-judge panel of that court concluded that Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. in Sanford went too far when he wrote that Zimmerman is a manipulator and made a veiled threat to hold him in contempt of court in the future. Ads by Google
"Although many of the allegations in Zimmerman's motion [for a new judge], standing alone, do not meet the legal sufficiency test, and while this is admittedly a close call, upon careful review we find that the allegations, taken together, meet the threshold test of legal sufficiency," the appeal court wrote in its opinion.
The appelate panel directed Lester to "enter an order of disqualification which requests the chief circuit judge to appoint a successor judge."
snip
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.orlandosentinel.com ...
Wow! Nice!
Yes!
Great news! Finally, some judges who believe in justice.
Florida Rule of Judicial Administration 2.330 requires a trial judge to grant a motion to disqualify without determining the accuracy of the allegations in the motion, so long as the motion is “legally sufficient.” R.M.C., 77 So. 3d at 236.
“A motion is legally sufficient if it alleges facts that would create in a reasonably prudent person a wellfounded
fear of not receiving a fair and impartial trial.” Id. (citing MacKenzie v. Super Kids Bargain Store, Inc., 565 So. 2d 1332 (Fla. 1990)).
Although many of the allegations in Zimmerman’s motion, standing alone, do not meet the legal sufficiency test, and while this is admittedly a close call, upon careful review we find that the allegations, taken together, meet the threshold test of legal sufficiency.
Accordingly, we direct the trial judge to enter an order of disqualification which requests the chief circuit judge to appoint a successor judge.
Told ya his attorney reminded me of a young, skinny Perry Mason.
Now all "Perry" needs is one witness (and I believe there is one) who actually saw the little angel Tray doubleback and nail Mr. Zimmerman.
All Tray had to do is take 50 steps and he would have been home.
I saw the dissenting opinion in that .PDF, and the dissent was over the degree of Lester’s conduct. This is great George Zimmerman won the appeal, but he got it by the skin of his teeth.
Let’s hope for better luck in the future when he gets (hopefully) a fairer Judge.
Read it for what it is. Judges don’t like throwing other judges under the bus.
They toss the judge a bone when stating things about sufficiency, stand-alone points etc ... but he’s been put on notice that his conduct was unbecoming.
I was just going to ask how much of a slap-down this is. Apparently a pretty good one.
Stupid court. The allegations are fact and taken alone they mean the judge needs to be tossed off the bench!
I agree. In the end, Lester got slapped and that’s a good thing. This was a binary thing, either Zimmerman won the appeal or he did not, which is rare in law these days. No victory ever seems complete.
Thanks abb.
Comment: Good! Zimmerman gets a deserved break.
Yeah! Let's have some Jeffster to celebrate!
BUMP
Too many judges watching American Idol. They like the suspense of a 2 to 1 decision and a close call at that. But atleast they went the right way. Now put an end to this travesty and dismiss this case.
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