Posted on 10/19/2012 4:35:18 PM PDT by Uncle Chip
SANFORD – A judge Friday said yes to the very thing Trayvon Martin's family did not want: Defense attorneys rummaging through their son's school records and background, looking for damaging information.
Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson cleared the way for George Zimmerman's legal team to begin digging. Defense attorney Mark O'Mara apologized, but said he owed it to his client.
"Though it sounds horrible to come before you and say, 'I really want to go after the victim's reputation,' that is simply what the Sixth Amendment tells us we have to do," O'Mara told the judge.
Nelson authorized his request to subpoena Trayvon's Twitter and Facebook posts. In self-defense cases, she said, if there's evidence that a victim had a violent past, it could be relevant.
The accounts were de-activated long ago, O'Mara said, but he believes they will reveal "videos out there that suggest he (Trayvon) involved himself in MMA fighting."
That's important because one eye-witness told investigators that he saw Trayvon on top of Zimmerman, straddling him "MMA-style," a reference to mixed-martial arts fighting, a combination of boxing, wrestling and martial arts.
The judge also ordered Miami-Dade schools to surrender Trayvon's records to O'Mara. Those, too, are expected to damage his reputation. Police have said Trayvon was serving a 10-day school suspension at the time of his death after being caught with an empty marijuana baggie.
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
Getting the transcripts into evidence is going to be an entirely different battle, determined by different standards.
Remember, a court trial is never a search for truth.
oh, a racist judge, eh? /sarc
HA!! Yes! Another victory against The Big Lie.
Chickens coming home to roost!
There goes the poor black kid that was turning his
Life around defense. The prosecutor is in way over their head now.
NOW we’re about to see a trial!!!
This should get REALLY interesting as Trayvon’s own words show how biased the DBM is and how they have tried to twist this case into something that it isn’t!!
Good news.
Is Zimmerman’s attorney smart enough to pursue the “lean” angle? The Trayvon Martin social media archives I read about indicate that it is very likely Trayvon was going to brew hisself up some “lean”, the three ingredients of “lean” being Robitusin, Arizona watermelon tea, and Skittles.
I forget - - was Trayvon "an aspiring rap artist" or was he "studying to be a graphic designer"?
You don't get suspended from school for possession of a baggie. It wasn't empty.
Why is O’Mara referring to Martin as the “victim”? He was the perp.
You're right, he did.
I wish they could hold a hearing on election day, so we could suppress the black vote, as the OJ trial did in 1994.
Just a wild guess here, but most likely because he's the one that died with a hole in his chest. As for him being the "perp", that's nothing more than a conclusion that you've jumped to all by yourself.
“a conclusion that you’ve jumped to all by yourself.”
Well, him by himself and about a kabillion other people.
6:22Trayvon, with his hoodie up, grabs two items from the shelves of 7-11. One is the Skittles. The other is Arizona Watermelon Fruit Juice Cocktail. The media avoid the name of the real drink -- possibly because of the racial implications of the word "watermelon," but possibly to avoid probing the real reason for Trayon's trip.
Trayvon, in fact, had become a devotee of the druggy concoction known as "Lean," also known in southern hip-hop culture as "Sizzurp" and "Purple Drank." Lean consists of three basic ingredients -- codeine, a soft drink, and candy. If his Facebook postings are to be believed, Trayvon had been using Lean since at least June 2011.
On June 27, 2011, Trayvon asks a friend online, "unow a connect for codien?" He tells the friend that "robitussin nd soda" could make "some fire ass lean." He says, "I had it before" and that he wants "to make some more." On the night of February 26, if Brandy had some Robitussin at home, Trayvon had just bought the mixings for one "fire ass lean" cocktail.
What the Media Choose Not to Know about Trayvon By Jack Cashill
It’s wrong, said Tracy Martin, Trayvon’s father, “to make a dead child seem as if they’re the perpetrator.”
but what if he was?
Lol. We’ve got a live one here. How about that the “victim” was being beaten to death and therefore forced to defend his life?
So is the word "victim". The proper word is the "deceased" or the "decedent".
The advocate for the accused should be using the terms “attacker” and “accused”. The court should say “deceased”. The prosecutor can say “victim” if they want to be biased instead of officers of the court. What concerns me is the advocate for the defense using the word “victim”, accepting the Sharpton premise. Makes me wonder about the quality of representation.
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