Prosecutor to HLN: Zimmerman is a 'murderer'

CNN Headline News ^ | Monday, July 15, 2013 | Graham Winch

[kristinn]

Monday night at 10 p.m ET on a special edition of HLN After Dark, Vinnie Politan is one-on-one with the Zimmerman prosecution team to try to find out what happened. HLN has been all over this case, and nothing is off-limits in this primetime interview.

How would Florida State Attorney Angela Corey describe George Zimmerman in one word?

"Murderer."

That's what an emotional Corey told HLN's Vinnie Politan when he sat down with her and prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda in Jacksonville Monday to discuss the obstacles they faced prosecuting the former neighborhood watch captain.

“We were left with inconsistent witnesses in terms of what actually happened and [Zimmerman's] story, and what were trying to prove is that his story was false,” said de la Rionda.

The lack of reliable eyewitness reports and lack of physical evidence made it impossible for the prosecutors to tell the jurors exactly what happened during the fight between Zimmerman and Martin.

[maggief]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE5xTuKeaPk&feature=player_embedded#at=77

Mark NeJame blasts Corey’s office and political influence CNN July 14

[Perdogg]

Please provide the case law and relevant statues to back up your claim.

[CodeToad]

You first.

[SeaHawkFan]

You are wrong.

Being dragged into court does not make one a “public figure”.

It is a legal fact that Zimmerman is not a murderer.

Damage can be imputed. In this case, it is per se defamation. Once per se defamation is established, the burden to prove the alleged defamatory statement is true shifts to the defendant in a defamation lawsuit.

There is Florida case law backing up this.

In short, you are mistaken.

[SE Mom]

NeJame is a character. .pretty decent fellow though and he knows the local scene.

In case you missed this-last night Alan Dershowitz told Huckabee Corey called Harvard Law School demanding they make him apologize publicly for critsizing her!!!!!!! Bwahhhhaaa!!

[SeaHawkFan]

See my post #64 for a much better response.

[CodeToad]

I’ve worked within State and federal politics and services for many years and the training we had to go through every few months due to being within the executive level was all about the legal obligations and restrictions higher level authorities have. Making claims of any sort is actionable. No one affected has to prove harm. They only have to prove the statements were made and show those statements can reasonably have an negative affect.

The reasons for this are numerable, such as manipulating stocks, or juries, or legislative processes.

[Java4Jay]

No ‘murderer’ statement in this video

[SeaHawkFan]

You can start here and then search cases which cite this one:

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=418&invol=323

[Bronzewound]

Prosecutor to HLN: Zimmerman is a 'murderer'

Angela, can you show proof of your accusation? Oh, wait...

[Uncle Chip]

Note to Mark Nejame:

You know the answer to your question. You just need to say it:

Attorney General Pam Bondi and Scheme Teamer Ben Crump are tied at the pocketbook and at the hip. That’s why Angela Corey, Bondi’s campaign manager, was brought in — to pave the way for Crump subsequent civil lawsuits against deep pockets.

Now say it on the air.

[hoosiermama]

Man. Are they worried ! Need to shut traps now

[Perdogg]

Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc, 418 U.S. 323 (Per Curiam)

" Absent clear evidence of general fame or notoriety in the community and pervasive involvement in ordering the affairs of society, an individual should not be deemed a public figure for all aspects of his life. Rather, the public figure question should be determined by reference to the individual's participation in the particular controversy giving rise to the defamation. Petitioner's role in the Nuccio affair did not make him a public figure. Pp. 351-352."

Time, Inc. v. Firestone 424 U.S. 448

"The Court resists this result by concluding that the subject matter of the alleged defamation was not a "public controversy" as that term was used in Gertz. In part, the Court's conclusion rests on what I view as an understatement of the degree to which Mrs. Firestone can be said to have voluntarily acted in a manner that invited public attention. But, more fundamentally, its conclusion rests on a reading of Gertz that differs from mine. The meaning that the Court attributes to the term "public controversy" used in Gertz resurrects the precise difficulties that I thought Gertz was designed to avoid.

It is not enough for the Court that, because of Mrs. Firestone's acquired prominence within a segment of society, her lawsuit had already attracted significant public attention and comment when the Time report was published. According to the Court, the controversy, already of interest to the public, was "not the sort of ‘public controversy' referred to in Gertz." Ante at 454. The only explanation I can discern from the Court's opinion is that the controversy was not of the sort deemed relevant to the "affairs of society," ante at 453, and the public's interest not of the sort deemed "legitimate" or worthy of judicial recognition. [p488]

I would hold that, for purposes of this [p490] case, Mrs. Firestone is a public figure who must demonstrate that the report in question was published with "actual malice" -- that is, with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.

[brydic1]

Nancy Grace plays Madame LaFarge even better than the actual character. Is America about to be governed by the American equivalent of the fishwives of Paris with the rabid Nancy Grace and her foaming at the mouth HLN crew. They are the media mouthpieces for rioting mobs in our cities. CNN and MSNBC are fiercely competing for leadership of the rabble. Does Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton get to play the role of Marat and Obama as Robespierre? If this lawlessness is not put down quickly we could see mobs attacking the jurors as well as the attorneys West and Omara and the Zimmerman family. This tragic affair was created by the media casting George Zimmerman as the most vicious murderer of the past century with the pathetically ignorant believing same.

[Perdogg]

Don’t get me wrong, I think Zimmerman is a victim of prosecutorial misconduct. However, I do not think this was defamation.

[Uncle Chip]

Isn’t it defamation when media/government fail to use the word “alleged” before the crime a person is accused of before the trial court has made a determination???

What is it then when that continues after the trial and after the acquittal???

[Perdogg]

The term alleged is used by the media to protect themselves from lawsuits.

there has to be elements of defamation.

http://www.ehow.com/about_6758844_florida-law-defamation-character.html

[SeaHawkFan]

Here is a decent web site regarding defamation. Not great, but an O.K. explanation.

http://www.freedomforum.org/packages/first/defamationandfirstamendment/index.htm

[StAnDeliver]

Listen, Corey went after Zimmerman solely to cover her tracks on a lesser-known case that she botched. She can't afford to 'let up', lest the spectre of Cristian Fernandez come back to light.

Not that the regime media would ever take a chance like that...

The gist of this other case is, she browbeat a plea from a "white Hispanic" 12-year-old that she overcharged as an adult, when it's clear the mother should have been charged either independently or jointly.

Cristian Fernandez case

"In 2011 Corey's office oversaw a case in which 12-year-old Cristian Fernandez was accused of killing his two-year-old brother. Corey sought and received a grand jury indictment Fernandez on charges of homicide and aggravated child abuse, and decided to try him as an adult.[13] This move, which made Fernandez the youngest person ever to face a murder charge in Jacksonville's history, drew criticism and protests to send the case to juvenile court instead,[14] but Corey held that the juvenile system was inadequate to handle a crime of this magnitude.[15] However, Corey stated she did not intend for Fernandez to stand trial or serve a life sentence, but would rather accept a plea deal.[16] As of February 1, 2012 the defense and prosecution had not agreed to a plea deal, but were still in discussion. A trial was scheduled for February 27, 2012, but was postponed.[17]. Fernandez pleaded guilty to manslaughter in February 2013 and was sentenced to detention in a juvenile facility until his 19th birthday.[18]"

---

FoxNews: "But on Cristian's behalf, there is international outrage. More than 170,000 people have signed an online petition, urging the prosecutor to treat the 12-year-old as a juvenile, not as an adult. [Corey] disagrees, and says Florida law is Florida law.

Complicating the Fernandez case is the role of the mother, Susana. Police say during the several hour window between when David was injured and she drove him to the hospital, her laptop shows that she searched what to do about an unconscious boy, checked her bank and downloaded music, before finally taking 2 year old David to the hospital.

A doctor at St. Luke’s told a police officer that had 2 year old David been treated sooner, he may have survived."

[SeaHawkFan]

The Gertz case argues against your proposition.

As for you cite in the Firestone case, you quoted the dissent, not the majority. The Firestone case makes it clear that Zimmerman can in no way be deemed a public person of any type.

You should read the entire opinion before making assertions.

In short, any attempt to claim Zimmerman is a public person is doomed to fail. A party simply cannot drag another into the news and then claim he is a public person.