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.
Why rafflaw,
Traybon was like one of Obama’s own kids.
Or what was that he said?
Ya I bet DOJ was impartial, but let’s see.
Play back the whole narrative of Obama/Holder & their careers.
( the Movie: A Noble Lie)
Remember, they hate America for it’s freedoms. 😉
Rick Convertino – a former U.S. Attorney (who actually said US Attorney General was failing to do his job correctly) – did wind up being Prosecuted for failing to look at and turn over a napkin drawing by two 9/11 terrorists he put in Prison.
Granted – it was a trumped up B.S. because Convertino “dared” to say the USAG was hiding something.
But the fact of the matter is, a U.S. Attorney was prosecuted for failing to turn over a napkin drawing (that actually was more proof of intent and FAR from exculpatory). The charge was criminal conspiracy to withhold exculpatory evidence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Convertino
We live in a wacky world!
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I’m just sayin……………….
One lives to be an anti-propagandist, raff. Or words to that effect.
Gene,
thanks for catching that little nugget of truth about the DOJ’s involvement in the protests.
Mike Appleton, Thanks for your take. And, the prosecutor’s office I worked for would hand over exculpatory evidence, immediately. That’s the way it is supposed to happen. I see this type brouhaha in trials sometimes, on cases less critical than 2nd degree homicide. It’s an adversarial process and sometimes it gets VERY adversarial. Everyone has been working 16-18 hour days. Nerves fray, we’re all human.
The defense put on a young woman who is a neighbor of Zimmerman. She gave pretty compelling testimony about a first degree burglary that occurred a year[?] or so prior to this shooting. The burglar was trying to get into the locked bedroom door of her baby. The woman was standing in the bedroom w/ her baby and a rusty pair of scissors. The police got to her apartment just before the burglar got into that bedroom. I’m quite certain the female jurors listened intently to this woman’s testimony. She was good substantively and a good witness in general…well spoken, composed, very sympathetic w/o being dramatic.
Barker, check the Florida law on lesser included offenses. The lesser included offenses ARE included by law. Nothing new and nothing surprising in that.
About the child abuse charge? Not hard to figure that one out. The victim was under 18. The killing was serious physical harm. It’s not a big stretch.
Michael Val, the reason the hearings ran so long and so late was that West was essentially filibustering.
Mike A, for every judge or lawyer who’s cast into the limelight because of some egregious horrifying wrongful behavior, there is always a large group of people who knew that person for years, who found him or her to be perfectly wonderful and etc. I personally know someone who functioned as a wonderful person for most of their life and who did something that even I, as an admirer, found so appalling that I never spoke with that person about it but if I were placed under oath and asked about it, I would have to say that it was flat out unforgiveable and incomprehensible. How does this happen?
Neither the “Hale fellow well met” nor the “villain from the haunts of Hoot and Kern” is a figment of imagination. That they coexist in the same person: that is almost a subject for great literature, because I can’t imagine psychology dealing with it.
West’s conduct towards several of the witnesses in the trial was thinly veiled racism and unveiled disdain and contempt. I saw him as a very vulgar person except when he’s with the people he considers worthy of humanhood. I can imagine that in his life as public defender he represented many people he did not care about at all and perhaps that way, any deals he made were what he would consider good deals. I have no idea about that part — that part is speculation.
His behavior towards Judge Nelson was inappropriate at best at many points during the trial. I found it hilarious when she said to him, “Don’t no no no me.” She also had to point out to him that he could not object to his own question. (I would rather have seen her say: “You cannot object to your own question, but anyway, OVERRULED.)
Marvin,
No, Justice Department Unit Didn’t ‘Support’ Anti-Zimmerman Rally
Mespo: 2 weeks to check out evidence on a case that could carry a life sentence is quite frankly a joke. And I do believe that they were purposely trying to mislead both the court and the defense with their attempt at “child abuse” charges. In recent years courts, including the SCOTUS, have erased almost all ethical accountability for prosecutors (some of these cases have been discussed on this blog). When I first read about this case I assumed, as many still do, that Zimmerman was playing out some Charles Bronson inspired fantasy when he shot Trayvon Martin. The actual evidence I’ve seen makes me think this prosecution was largely political. I find it disgusting.
@ OS 2:43
It’d be interesting to have polled people with an opinion about Zimmerman’s guilt or innocence before the trial and poll those same people again again after the trial. From reading comments it seems that very few opinions have been changed by the trial.
@ mespo 2:39
I tend to agree re playing for time. What precisely is it that they want to do to authenticate the text messages? Unless someone saw Martin make the text or perhaps had a conversation with him where he said he made the texts (both seem extremely unlikely), I fail to see how they’re going to authenticate them to the judge’s satisfaction. Just deposing whoever received the message doesn’t get them there. Also agree that 8 am is pretty standard start time, but it is unusual to keep lawyers till 10 pm night before, although certainly not unprecedented. I don’t know if that’s been typical in this trial. If it has, that’s a pretty brutal schedule to maintain.
Do they elect these judges? I am not impressed with her at all. Prosecutor is a dork. Defense counsel are both good but too slow and deliberate. Too slooooowwww and deliberate. They need a tough dog. They need some bark and some bite.
Today the new prosecutor was trying to introduce jury instructions on child abuse. Jeso smeezo, that’s a new one. Notice? Does the Indictment mean anything? Punks everywhere will revile in that one.
DOJ organized protests to pressure the state to prosecute.
Obama/Holder use DOJ to incite race war/martial law to distract the American people from Wallst/City of London’s criminality/murder/wars etc…?
**The documents that Judicial Watch was able to obtain contain some absolutely startling information. Apparently the role of the Obama administration in these protests was quite substantial…
*****
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:
March 25 – 27, 2012, CRS spent $674.14 upon being “deployed to Sanford, FL, to work marches, demonstrations, and rallies related to the shooting and death of an African-American teen by a neighborhood watch captain.”
March 25 – 28, 2012, CRS spent $1,142.84 “in Sanford, FL to work marches, demonstrations, and rallies related to the shooting and death of an African-American teen by a neighborhood watch captain.
March 30 – April 1, 2012, CRS spent $892.55 in Sanford, FL “to provide support for protest deployment in Florida.”
March 30 – April 1, 2012, CRS spent an additional $751.60 in Sanford, FL “to provide technical assistance to the City of Sanford, event organizers, and law enforcement agencies for the march and rally on March 31.”
April 3 – 12, 2012, CRS spent $1,307.40 in Sanford, FL “to provide technical assistance, conciliation, and onsite mediation during demonstrations planned in Sanford.”
April 11 – 12, 2012, CRS spent $552.35 in Sanford, FL “to provide technical assistance for the preparation of possible marches and rallies related to the fatal shooting of a 17 year old African American male.”
*****
But the involvement of the Department of Justice went far beyond just spending money and helping to organize and manage the protests.
Apparently, the Department of Justice was involved in setting up meetings between the NAACP and local officials, and the Department of Justice even arranged police escorts for protesters… more…………**
http://www.prisonplanet.com/why-did-the-obama-administration-organize-and-manage-protests-against-george-zimmerman.html
US department of justice organized protests.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2359517/Documents-Little-known-Justice-Department-unit-provided-support-protest-deployment-Florida-initial-Trayvon-Martin-unrest.html
Documents published online Wednesday by a conservative watchdog group show that the Community Relations Service, an arm of the U.S. Justice Department, spent taxpayer dollars to help organize and implement plans for the initial string of rallies in Sanford, Florida following the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
The protests were openly hostile to George Zimmerman, the volunteer neighborhood watch organizer who killed Martin, 17, after a struggle. Zimmerman is currently on trial in a Florida courtroom, charged with second-degree murder.
Concur Michael Val;
In fed court a counsel would be benched slapped with contempt and/or Rule 11 sanctions forthwith.
However, (as I’m all too familiar with such) – when the allegations have verity, many justices seek to dodge the ethics civil war by being obtuse.
Test
Revealed: How taxpayers paid for Justice Department unit to ‘support protests after killing of Trayvon Mart
Documents published online Wednesday by a conservative watchdog group show that the Community Relations Service, an arm of the U.S. Justice Department, spent taxpayer dollars to help organize and implement plans for the initial string of rallies in Sanford, Florida following the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
The protests were openly hostile to George Zimmerman, the volunteer neighborhood watch organizer who killed Martin, 17, after a struggle. Zimmerman is currently on trial in a Florida courtroom, charged with second-degree murder.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2359517/Documents-Little-known-Justice-Department-unit-provided-support-protest-deployment-Florida-initial-Trayvon-Martin-unrest.html#ixzz2Ym0bIUGN
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