Posted on 06/22/2013 2:24:03 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The jurors are now selected in State of Florida v. George Zimmerman and opening statements are scheduled for Monday. Today was a ‘wrap up’ day, to resolve as any lingering issues that Judge Nelson hadn’t yet decided, and do general housekeeping in preparation for the trial.
Since first examining the evidence of this case I’ve been highly skeptical of both the State’s ability to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, murder in the second degree, as well as the State’s ability to disprove, beyond a reasonable doubt, self-defense.
What I’ve seen over the course of the Frye hearing and jury selection has only reinforced that perception. Indeed, it seems likely that this will be a long, painful and perhaps humiliating trial for the State. Here’s why.
It’s called the Pre-Trial Motions Phase not the “Let’s-Do-It-As-We-Go” Phase
Normally, before a trial begins, the pretrial motions phase of a case is substantively concluded well before the trial proper begins. This allows for the trial to start with a relatively fixed body of evidence for the trial, shared by both sides, with each side constructing it’s own compelling narrative from the elements of that evidence.
This isn’t what happened here. Literally one working day before opening statements (and actually nine days after the technical start of trial, as jury selection is technically part of the trial phase), the court is still deciding what evidence will be allowed.
As an illustration, consider two issues that were raised today. One is whether evidence on Trayvon Martin’s cell phone records can be used, even though it’s not been fully authenticated yet. Why hasn’t it been authenticated? Because the defense is the one who wants it admitted and they only just finally received it from the state 3 weekdays before jury selection began. And we’re not talking about a small number of records–it includes, for example, thousands of photos. The defense argues quite reasonably that they simply haven’t had time to conduct a reasonable review of the discovery. The judge’s ruling? ”We’ll decide [on admissibility] as we go along.” Wow.
The other issue is whether two particular witnesses may testify to statement they heard Zimmerman utter. In truth, however, that’s not the real issue. The real issue is why such questions remain unsettled one work day before the opening statements? One result of it is that the defense is now forced to start the trial, give their opening statement and frame out the compelling narrative to the jury, and do so without yet knowing whether potentially valuable witness testimony could be included.
Either the old Bait-and-Switch or the “Look, a Squirrel” strategy
Another seemingly benign (and not necessarily inappropriate during trial) motion today was to perpetuate the testimony of one of George Zimmerman’s professors. This can happen when a witness becomes unavailable. The parties videotape formal testimony of the witness in advance, with both sides of the court giving full examination, with direct, cross-examination, etc. The video can then be shown to the jurors during trial. Keep in mind, the state has yet to decide whether to actually show the video, they just have it in case they do decide.
Not unheard of certainly, and not necessarily wrong for Judge Nelson to grant. Still, a few things sent off a red flag. One is that O’Mara noted that the defense hasn’t yet deposed the witness. This isn’t totally unheard of with a case that has 220 witnesses. Because of the enormity of effort to depose each one, both sides must categorize their witnesses by how likely they are to actually call them. The A list will almost certainly be called, perhaps someone from B, less likely for C, etc. My guess is (and let me be clear this is only a guess) that the witness is pretty low on the list, and that’s the reason they have not yet been deposed by the defense.
So the cynic in me thinks the state may be trying to do one of two things. One, they could have put him low on the list to ‘bury’ him from the defense, only to raise them to as effectively an A-list witness on the eve of trial. Such last-minute scrambling also has the side-effect of likely destroying the last few hours of sleep O’Mara and West might have this weekend.
Can anyone explain to me why there are only 6 jurors on this case?
Florida law — 12 jurors are only provided if it is Murder 1 with the death penalty at stake.
This became “BIG NEWS” because the MSM thought they had a middle-class, middle aged, conservative white man as the villain and kunta kinte as the victim - in an upscale 'all white' gated community....
It was all a lie.
Zimmerman's NOT white, not conservative and not middle-aged. Trayvon is not Kunta Kinte. And the 'gated community' is working class...
NBC wanted so badly to express their hatred of middle class conservative whites that they doctored tapes to push their lies.
Young hispanic men shooting young black men is not rare. The media circus is rare...
What's on trial here is the MSM and their hatred of traditional Americans... Which is why the media circus continues...
One half way through the prosecutions opening statement the jury will start weeping and sobbing over “poor Trayvon’s” awesome fate. The weeping and sobbing shall continue through the reading of the conviction.
It’s in — the state’s voodoo “experts” are out:
ORDER EXCLUDING THE OPINION TESTIMONY OF MR. OWEN AND DR. REICH
http://www.gzdocs.com/documents/0613/order_excluding.pdf
I haven’t seen him referred to as Kunta Kinte
but they certainly have been comparing him to Emmett Till.
Last I heard the jury is 6 women one of whom is a so-called 'minority'.
Thanks Uncle Chip, I’ve been puzzled about that for days!
I assume you know blacks and hipanics are often crime victims of each other.... right?
Ever wonder why those stories don’t make national news?
Until conservatives pointed out the slaughter in Chicago, the murders of black children didn’t even make the national news...
What was it about the Zimmerman/Martin story that ‘caught the eye’ of powerful white liberal elites like the folks at NBC who were so enthralled they were willing to doctor tapes for the sake of the meme? Doctored how - you ask?
It has nothing to do with Biden’s ‘ya’all would be in chains’ if it weren’t for us liberal whites - and everything to do with liberal whites wouldn’t be in power without blank anger.
When that railroad reaches its destination without Zimmerman on board, it will be Bernie and Angela and Benjamin who will be taken to the woodshed.
What I noticed, here in PA, was the statement that Zimmerman was on trial in the murder of Treyvon Martin. No, he’s on trial on charges that his killing of Treyvon Martin was unlawful and constituted murder 2.Is it the same there as here, that whenever a reporter reports a crime by person(s) unknown, the reports say that “the suspect” did such and such? They are Oh-so-unctious not to say that a named suspect is guilty before trial, to the extent that they say “suspect” when no suspect has been identified.” But then there is the Zimmerman case, and nobody is shy about saying or strongly suggesting that he is guilty.
I do so hope that Zimmerman sues, not only NBC, but the whole lot of them. Name them, “The Associated Press and each of its members” - and sue them for libel. Treble damages under RICO.People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary. - Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (Book I, Ch 10)The AP newswire is a virtual meeting of journalists nationwide. That “meeting” has been going on continually for over a century and a half - plenty of time for it to become “a conspiracy against the public.
The conduct of discovery in this case is atrocious. In any case I’ve been involved with, working with - not as - lawyer(s), if evidence is not submitted by the preset date for close of discovery, it can only be introduced in rebuttal. Discovery is usually closed a month or two before the trial IIRC. So there are few to no surprises at trial. In this case, the prosecutors’ withholding evidence is even worse because if they prevail based on evidence withheld until trial, a man will go to jail for murder. As if his young life hasn’t already been virtually destroyed by this case.
I agree. I also find withholding evidence is despicable. What is going through this judge’s mind. She is losing her credibility and shouldn’t be on the bench if this is happening.
If either side fails to disclose in timely fashion evidence which is favorable to it, preventing the side at error from using the evidence is a simple and generally fair remedy. The problem comes when the evidence is unfavorable to the side that fails to disclose it. In that case, the party that eventually disclosed the evidence would prefer that it not be used at all, and thus denying that party use of the evidence would be no remedy at all. I think it's likely that the mobile carrier's tower logs would be consistent with Zimmerman's story and inconsistent with the prosecutors', but to my knowledge despite the fact that such information should have been collected, and the defense has been trying for years to get it, it still doesn't have it.
ping.
I don’t think this is how it will go. It seems at least a few of the women on the jury have somewhat conservative and/or practical, rational thinking attitudes. I believe Zimmerman will be acquitted on the basis of the medical evidence and the inability of the prosecution to prove that George did not act in self defense. I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am.
Let us hope you are correct. All reports indicate Zimmerman was acting in self defense. It is hard to understand why this matter went to trial given Florida’s “stand your ground” law.
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