Posted on 06/27/2013 7:09:04 AM PDT by iowamark
A teenage friend of Trayvon Martin was forced to admit today in the George Zimmerman murder trial that she did not write a letter that was sent to Martin's mother describing what she allegedly heard on a phone call with Martin moments before he was shot.
In a painfully embarassing moment, Rachel Jeantel was asked to read the letter out loud in court.
"Are you able to read that at all?" defense attorney Don West asked.
Jeantel, head bowed, eyes averted whispered into the court microphone, "Some but not all. I don't read cursive."
It sent a hush through the packed courtroom.
Jeantel, 19, was unable to read any of the letter save for her name...
During nearly two hours of cross examination Wednesday in which he tried to raise questions about her version of events and accused her of telling several lies under oath, including about her whereabouts during Martin's wake.
"Under oath, you created a lie and said you went to the hospital?" asked West.
"Yes," responded Jeantel. She said she lied because she didn't want to see the body.
Jeantel became increasingly agitated and scoffed when West told her that she would have to continue testifying.
She is seen as a critical witness to the prosecution because she is the only person able to say that Martin claimed that he noticed a strange man following him and that he was scared. Jeantel said Martin described the stranger as a "creepy ass cracker."
Jeantel said Martin, 17, was walking home during halftime of the NBA All-Star Game when he became unnerved because he was being followed.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Has the Defense pulled the cell phone records of both parties to verify she was really on the phone with Martin at all? I haven’t heard that but I admit to not following the case THAT closely.
Always got well deserved 70s in handwriting. Always thought that Palmer dude wrote like a girl.
We had to do that. I *knew* it had to be the idea of sadist cannibals :).
Ok, folks...just ask yourself how often someone who speaks in this fashion of English, uses a word like “cursive” and know what it means? It is a question for people as to whether she can even read, anything. This would have been a smart time to have a printed version of the cursive letter and ask her to read that. FWIW.
The testimony is on cross, but she was coached by prosecutors in expectation of this, to say .... “don’t read cursive” as opposed to “I can’t read very well....pretty much anything”.
Sorry...been printing for a donkey’s years.
“At one point, West handed her a letter she had written with the help of a friend to Martin’s mother explaining what happened. She looked at it but then said she couldn’t read cursive handwriting.”
I defy anyone to read my cursive writing. Never very good from the start, it has gotten progressively worse over the years.
I can read other people’s cursive writing but my own is a whole ‘nother matter.
Hmmmm. Now that is a scary thought indeed. But you may be on to something. Orwell called it Newspeak but it achieves the same purpose no matter how it is done.
You wrote my very thoughts, just now posted. Coached in extremis, and possibly illiterate.
Me too...used to have to practise in a class called penmanship
> if this is all they’ve got, you have to wonder why the state bothered to file charges in the first place.
Appeasing the mob + punishment by process.
Me neither..I know in the computer age, handwritten letters are not the norm but I still handwrite (in cursive) thank you notes..personalized letters etc..I wasn’t aware they don’t teach cursive anymore. I remember in the mid-70’s learning cursive in 2nd/3rd grade. The dumbing down didn’t take long..sad
When my daughter graduated, one of her final essays was on the Revolutionary war. She passed with flying colors. Her essay ENDED at Revere’s ride.
I asked her where the rest was.
“That’s all they taught us”.
Now she did know more, and I went into great detail with her teaching her the rest. But it just goes to show what passes for education today. I had ALL of the RevWar in 7th grade.
Heck you can learn more just from watching the old “Schoolhouse Rock” snippets they used to show on Saturday Mornings, than you learn in school these days.
Yes, but at some point everyone has the option to pick up a book, turn off the TV/electronic device.
The defense prefaced handing/showing the letter with "written FOR you by Francine Serr/Serf (?)" and the witness agreed that was who wrote the letter for her. (From the video at post #230.)
Yes,one would *think* that it would work that way but it's not easy for me,at least,to imagine how the state would spin all this..."this poor young woman,actually witnessing the wanton murder of a tiny,innocent boy out to buy skittles,badgered and browbeaten..."
Can’t the defense get an audio copy of all the cell phone calls from the NSA?
Yeah, laugh all you want to folks. But remember: You’re supporting her and her lifestyle. ;)
Yep, I too see that kind of thing all the time.
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