Last night saw an extraordinary confrontation between the defense and the court in the George Zimmerman trial. The defense is seeking to use photos and material from the phone of Martin. The most serious issue is that the defense claims that the government had this material since January and only recently gave it to the defense — another allegation of withholding evidence by the prosecution. The judge and the lawyers are clearly exhausted and I think the schedule is a bit too punishing. I realize that the jury is sequestered and want to go home. However, these days are diminishing the professional ability and clearly the personal restraint of the judge and lawyers alike. While I do not think that the defense should get a few days to rest, I do think that schedule has been unnecessarily demanding and even a few hours of more rest would be in order. I realize the jurors and courts have limited time but I have never agreed with the punishing schedule of many trials. However, I am more concerned with the delay in turning over this evidence until June.
The defense has a valid objection that they are being denied evidence due to the failure of the prosecution to turn over the evidence in a timely manner — to allow for authentication. Judge Debra Nelson clearly does not want to acknowledge the allegation of prosecutorial abuse and then refuses to deal with the objection that the attorneys are exhausted. I think the defense has a valid objection on both the misconduct and the schedule. However, Nelson just walks out on the defense and says that she will deal, not with the allegation of misconduct, but an alleged defense sequestration violation.
Defense attorney, Don West, objects that “I’m not physically able to keep up this pace much longer” as the judge walks out.
The judge has barred the use of a simulation of the scene. However, there are also those text messages on Martin’s phone where he refers to fighting. The prosecution has been able to introduce past comments from Zimmerman, but the court has barred the use of comments from Martin. In this case, she insisted that there was no authentication that it was Martin but the defense noted that they were denied the opportunity to authenticate by the prosecution.
I think most of the rulings in the case have been fair, though I have reservations about some of the excluded evidence and serious reservations about the failure to address the claims of withholding evidence. Judges regularly avoid dealing with such claims in trials, which only encourages prosecutors to game the system by holding on to evidence as long as possible before a trial.
Documents Obtained by Judicial Watch Detail Role of Justice Department in Organizing Trayvon Martin Protests
http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/documents-obtained-by-judicial-watch-detail-role-of-justice-department-in-organizing-trayvon-martin-protests/
I’m a bit surprised the judge let the defense attorney’s statement that the prosecution “lied” to him and to the court. Every judge I know would jump on an accusation like that and demand that whoever makes it back it up.
http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/documents-obtained-by-judicial-watch-detail-role-of-justice-department-in-organizing-trayvon-martin-protests/
Documents Obtained by Judicial Watch Detail Role of Justice Department in Organizing Trayvon Martin Protests
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained documents in response to local, state, and federal records requests revealing that a little-known unit of the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Community Relations Service (CRS), was deployed to Sanford, FL, following the Trayvon Martin shooting to help organize and manage rallies and protests against George Zimmerman.
JW filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the DOJ on April 24, 2012; 125 pages were received on May 30, 2012. JW administratively appealed the request on June 5, 2012, and received 222 pages more on March 6, 2013. According to the documents:
Mespo,
I think a MS conviction is appropriate….. However, when you have a prosecutor not only not turning over evidence….. But deleting some of it as well…. I’m not sure the judge made the right call…… I do not know what the attorneys staff looks like…. But this seems incredible from an evidence perspective….. But then again, I’m not trying the case…. So my seats not being targeted….
I think Darren has a valid point…. It appears that she’s steering this for a certain result….
I haven’t followed the trial with the intense concentration of many on this blog. However, I believe that I am familiar enough with the salient facts. I still believe it’s a manslaughter case.
I first met Don West more than 20 years ago when we were assistant coaches for the same Little League team. He is a highly respected defense attorney, and has handled a number of serious capital cases during his career. He is also well-prepared, careful, thorough and even-tempered. In fact, I’ve never seen him lose his temper or raise his voice in anger even during our coaching days. But from this video, it is pretty clear that he is exhausted. Most people who don’t try cases think that a lawyer’s day is over once court is adjourned for the day. Not true. A trial is all consuming. (In fact, my wife knows when I have a trial coming up a week before it starts because I apparently become moody and preoccupied. Imagine that.) I typically spend an additional 4 to 5 hours following a day of trial reviewing my notes from the day, speaking with witnesses, reading case law and generally preparing for the next day. And my experience is certainly not unique. I don’t understand the necessity of maintaining the grueling schedule that the court has insisted on in this case. I don’t want to second-guess anyone, but the primary function of the trial judge is to get it done right rather than to get it done fast.
I also believe that the refusal to admit the cell phone evidence is reversible error. My view is that whether the evidence was turned over by the prosecution on June 4th or July 4th is immaterial if it was in the possession of the state in January. The duty to disclose exculpatory evidence is continuing in nature. The prosecution hardly has standing to complain about a delay for authentication purposes under the circumstances in this case.
Mike A just how is Martin’s e-mail exculpatory? That is a REAL stretch to say the least. Trash talk from a kid has hardly any bearinng on what Zimmerman did in shooting the kid or even for self defense.
Darren;
AN outraged public is the whole reason we even have a trial to begin with.
Initially, police said GZ was “squeaky clean” and this was simply a case of a good citizen utilizing Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law.
Then, upon our successful efforts to get 2 million signatures, media, Wash D.C. and advocates for killing people ad hoc and those against guns, compounded by the racial discourse – evidences came to light that GZ had a bizarre history, a retired justice as a father and the police chief was compelled to resign.
To put words in my hand that I’m advocating mob justice – where I’m one who doesn’t believe one man has the right to kill another; except in self defense to stop imminent harm – is an incongruous banter on your part.
However, if people have to “storm” the court en mass and demand to know what in the hell is really going on – when a prosecutor blows a case – then the storm is not “mob” justice; but the essence of civil unrest that tyranny, cronyism, corruption and anarchy deserve
as just recompense!
I got my idea for my previous post from this NPR Morning Edition interview between Linda Wertheimer and Shankar Vedantam broadcast on Jue 13, 2013.
“You know, there’s another very clever technique that he’s discovered. He initially assumed that when you’re trying to get private information out of people, it’s better to start by asking a trivial question and then slowly build up to more intrusive questions.
“So what Acquisti did was he asked 30 questions for people, and they ranged all the way from the innocuous – have you ever left a light on in a room when you left the room – all the way up to: Have you ever had sex with the current partner of a friend?
“And interestingly, what he found was exactly the opposite: people revealed much more when you asked them the most intrusive question first. Now, they didn’t actually reveal the answer to that most intrusive question, but for every other question, they compared the next questions with the most intrusive question. And compared to revealing things about adultery, you know, questions about whether they’d falsified an insurance claim seemed much less intrusive.
“And so when he asked the questions in decreasing orders of intrusiveness, he found nearly twice as many people admitted to falsifying an insurance claim, and nearly three times as many people said they hadn’t told a partner about a sexually transmitted disease.”
http://www.npr.org/2013/06/13/191226108/are-american-attitudes-toward-privacy-changing
From the prosecutor’s perspective, how can a indictment be overcharged if there is probable cause for the highest charge in the indictment and all other possible charges are lesser included? Maybe the jury convicts on a charge less than what was actually proven beyond a reasonable doubt, but would they have convicted at all if the higher charges weren’t there? It might actually convict on a charge not proven, but at least it wasn’t the highest charge on the indictment. It gives the squeamish juror some wiggle room to convict: “At least i didn’t convict him of murder.”
This works best if the prosecutor starts off by heavily emphasizing the highest charged offense in his closing argument, leaving the lesser included for last
Ramon Berry,
I forgot to add: as a black man, I can actually relate to Mr. Martin’s tactic of wanting to find out who is following me. Think about: at night walking home, and someone is following you. It is either time run or time to look for something to (if you don’t have a weapon) use as a weapon to ‘stand your ground.’ Most young black males, including myself-if I was 32 years younger, would’ve confronted Zimmerman. Why? We were trained or taught that it is time to fight if someone is following you, especially if this person is not a cop, and at night. What would you have done? Run, like a little ‘b’ (since it is only one person following you), or do you be a man and ‘find out’ why this ‘fool’ is following you?
mahtso:
“Thanks; do you think the Judge was wrong to preclude the 3rd degreed instruction?”
*****************************
The judge said from the bench that the 3rd Degree instruction is in the model jury instruction book so I don’t know what all the fuss is about. Each side has access to that and both saw the evidence come out at trial.
mespo727272
Thanks; do you think the Judge was wrong to preclude the 3rd degreed instruction?
I went back to legal insurrection, and their post shows that it is not clear that the Judge did keep the phone information out on authentications grounds. According to that blog she only stated that she was standing by her earlier ruling about social media. (And the defense did believe these messages could be authenticated via a computer forensic expert.)
RWL:
It was originally reported that the minority juror was black or black Hispanic, but I think after some checking you are correct. That’s a big mistake in a racially charged case like this one.
Mark:
Sad that is the only one.
here’s someone who CAN see the forest for the trees: Fred Reed
http://fredoneverything.net/ZRiots.shtml
Riots
Ain’t Nobody Gonna Like It
July 1, 2013
Watching the Zimmerman trial,
I wonder whether we may not be in for big trouble.
Racial hostility is much higher in the United States than it is allowed to appear. In the Twittersphere there is much traffic from blacks,
saying that if Zimmerman walks, they will kill him themselves,
riot, or kill random whites.
On many sites around the web, whites of a sort not found on NPR are saying, “Bring it on.” This is not your granny’s recipe for domestic tranquility…
Darren:
Capital murder gets you 12 jurors in Florida. That’s it.
Arthur:
What’s overcharged? The prosecution can charge based on evidence they have or that they might reasonably be expected to obtain. Here they charged 2nd degree murder. If the state could prove that Zimmerman targeted Martin because he was African-American and had the requisite intent to kill, a 2nd degree charge was possible. At the charging stage the allegation only has to have a rational basis.
A jury of six for a murder trial?
What does it take to get a jury of twelve in Florida? Just seems wrong.
Mespo,
According CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, there are 5 white women and 1 hispanic woman on the jury.
Roman Berry,
Zimmerman refused to adhere to a police dispatcher’s command to not follow Mr. Martin. Zimmerman called Mr. Martin a few names to the dispacther, told the dispatcher that he will not follow, but proceeded to follow. Then, surprisely, a fight transpired, and Mr. Martin is dead! There is something mentally wrong with Zimmerman to follow a ‘suspect’ not knowing that this ‘suspect’ could be armed. Moreover, he followed the suspect at night! How many police officers would love (sarcasm) to immediately follow a ‘suspect’ on foot, at night, without backup or with backup on the way? Not only is Zimmerman not a cop, but he wasn’t on duty as a neighborhood watch officer that night.
Mespo,,
I agree that the defense is just wasting time. When I heard him say he got the information on June 4th, I thought maybe he meant to say July 4th, but that wasn’t the case. They had time to verify who sent the messages. I still think Zimmerman is dirty.
mahtso:
In Virginia, the prosecution or the defense is entitled to instructions on any cognate or allied offense supported by the evidence even if the elements of those crimes don’t correspond precisely. Virginia charges the accused in a murder case with “did feloniously kill …” thus subsuming manslaughter in most cases since that is also a felonious killing.