Posted on 07/12/2013 9:26:29 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Injustice: There are biased judges, and then there's Debra Nelson, who's presided over what can only be called a kangaroo court in the George Zimmerman trial.
The bias of Nelson, Florida Circuit Court judge and a lifelong Democrat, in favor of the prosecution and its efforts to railroad Zimmerman as a racist murderer has been palpable throughout the case. Her actions, which have actively aided the state, could poison jurors and factor into future litigation.
Her shameful rulings and behavior, therefore, are worth cataloging, and include:
• Suppressing exculpatory evidence recovered from the (double-password-protected) cell-phone of Trayvon Martin that reveal deleted texts of the 17-year-old bragging about street-fighting with friends and relatives and photos showing him brandishing guns, gangsta-style. This evidence supports Zimmerman's claim he feared Martin and shot in self-defense.
• Disallowing Martin's criminal background, including arrests by Miami-Dade school district police for drugs, theft, graffiti and other delinquent behavior. (Martin, in fact, had been suspended from school the week he jumped Zimmerman inside his gated townhouse complex, after police found stolen jewelry and burglary tools inside his backpack.)
• Excluding any testimony from audio experts who could definitively ID Zimmerman's voice screaming for help on 911 calls as Martin bashed his head against a concrete sidewalk.
• Allowing, conversely, the last-minute request of plainly desperate prosecutors to have jurors consider an alternative lesser charge of manslaughter to try to secure some kind of conviction, any kind of punishment, in the complete absence of a sound murder case.
• Never sanctioning the prosecution despite Zimmerman's lawyers justifiably filing no fewer than six formal complaints against the state for withholding exculpatory and other evidence from them in violation of discovery rules.
• Yet repeatedly overruling — at times even reprimanding — Zimmerman's lawyers when they objected to the underhanded tactics....
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
That’s not the way to get out of jury duty. The problem is not being the first batch called to the jury box for the jury selection process and having to sit and wait your turn. Once in the box it is a piece of cake getting excused.
I don’t think the judge was biased.
She didn’t strike me as different from any other judge handling criminal cases who has been at it for awhile.
The Criminal docket is relatively fast and the case law is more or less settled she has heard and seen everything and her only concern it not being overturned..I’d refer you to the jury instruction where both sides had included a comma in the instruction and both sides missed the fact the FL SC had overturned a case because of that single comma...
Judges with her time on the bench simply don’t care how they may or may not be perceived.
Judges are appointed by corrupt officials, or voted in by low information voters. And yet they’re perfect you say?
I beg to differ.
I've watched enough of the judicial system over my 48 years, including several very high profile trials, to conclude that the attempt to convict GZ of any crimes such as murder and manslaughter in this case represent an absolute miscarriage of Justice.
The judicial bias in this case is so profound and transparent that, if GZ is convicted, it will become a textbook example of political bias for decades to come. Ample grounds for appeal exist. This judge should be impeached, and in the absence of that event, Floridians should vote not to retain her the next chance they get.
Hang around in courts day to day..she is not different.
She may not be retained but she will not be overruled on anything in the Florida Appellate system..
There is a reason lawyers are so unpopular. Half the folks lose and half of the ones that win have good lawyers that sit them down and explain the judicial facts of life and they go away as unhappy winners.
That is the way it is..
Great list, very helpful.
Nope. If the jury walks the defendant, it's over. And that's as it should be, OJ notwithstanding.
It's double jeopardy, but there have been instances where people were convicted during a second trial.
That's the federal-state exception, where, supposedly, the federal government, being a separate sovereign, gets a separate go at the defendant. It's unjust and a misreading of the Constitution. However, in recent times, it's been limited to cases where the defendant was acting as an official agent of the inferior jurisdiction (e.g., a Los Angles pig turned loose by a local jury, despite having unjustly beaten the sh¡t out of an arrestee).
If George walks, I recommend he fly to Peru. That way, if Holder gets ideas, Peru will get to humiliate the United States of America. Which will be a Good Thing.
I hate to burst his bubble, but the inclusion of the lesser count is in FL law. However, if self-defense is invoked on the higher count and he is acquited, it must also be applied to the lower count of manslaughter. You can't have it both ways.
I am not a lawyer but I manage America’s largest Urban Poverty Law Center.
Judge Nelson needs to confer with Hillary Clinton’s Plastic Surgeon or wear a bag or become a muslim.
And I hear her father and mother were quite nice looking.
2ndD .. we finally have her party? (if this is true, then why the heck did Jeb get her in her position?!?)...
As moderate as Dubya is, I don’t think he would have been that ‘stoopid’ :p
The saddest part of this whole article is where it came from. Not that I expect different anymore.
Why doesn’t someone file a complaint against her with the Florida Judicial Commission?
See http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/pub_info/jqc.shtml
That is what he should have done right away after the incident. A blind man could see where this was going. He made the mistake of trusting the legal system.
Making a mistake implies he had choices and took the wrong decision. I don't see where he had any choice but due process, that is to say he had no choice.
Judges are appointed by corrupt officials
.... ahhhh would that be the @sshat Jeb Bush from our favorite “Republican” clan from Kennebunk’em? Nice appointment Jebbie!
ymmv
He was given a new trial and ultimately sentenced to 8 years with 6 years of it being already served.
Money quote: “Nelson has higher ambitions, having twice applied for open seats on Florida’s supreme court. Let’s hope for the sake of impartial justice the governor continues to pass her over. She really has no business sitting on any bench.”
For you attorneys out there: Can a sitting judge be removed for cause?
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