Free Republic

Today began with the expectation that it would the the day on which the State rested it’s case. That proved true, and it was. It was also among the most bizarre and disturbing days of a lengthy trial full to the brim with bizarre and disturbing days. Sabryna Fulton, Trayvon Martin’s Mother The first State witness of the day was, as anticipated Sabryna Fulton. She had two missions for her appearance: (1) identify the screamer in the background of the Jenna Lauer 911 recording as her son, Trayvon Martin; and (2) avoid saying anything nice about the reputation or character...

Trials, unlike punditry, operate not in the world of evoked memory, allegory and free association, but in the world of facts. When it is a criminal trial the facts must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. There is a reason that exacting standard is used — someone’s freedom, or life in the instance of a capital case, is at risk. A journalist can construct a scenario in the Trayvon Martin case in which he can nonchalantly assign criminal liability with phrases such as “shot an unarmed man,” but these banalities have no legal meaning. Let’s take the charge at issue,...

The prosecutor cursed and the defense attorney told a joke as both sides laid out opening arguments in the murder trial of George Zimmerman, the man who killed Florida teen Trayvon Martin in what his lawyers say was self-defense and authorities say was a case of fatal profiling. The all-female jury of six took in both unconventional statements, alternately stunned, taking notes and at times appearing to nod in agreement. Jaws in the jury box dropped when prosecutor John Guy electrified the courtroom with a short, but profanity-laced and impassioned argument that sought to paint the defendant as an angry...

Today, June 28th, is DAY #15 (of 3rd week) State of Florida V. George Zimmerman case. [Yesterday] … it was simply not a very good day at all for the prosecution. The primary State witnesses today were Rachel Jeantel, Jenna Lauer, and Selma Mora. The first had her credibility substantively destroyed, the second was powerfully–almost humiliatingly–co-opted by the defense, and the third provided testimony entirely consistent with the defense’s theory of lawful self-defense. (continue reading)

Yesterday and today, jurors in George Zimmerman's murder trial heard testimony from a key prosecution witness: Rachel Jeantel, the 19-year-old_friend of Trayvon Martin who was on the phone with him right before the scuffle that ended in his death. Jeantel said that Martin repeatedly complained to her about a "creepy-*ss cracker" who was following him and that she urged him to run, which he did. After the call was dropped, she said, she called him back about 20 seconds later, and he sounded tired from running. She said he told her he saw the man again, and she heard...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)The prosecution rested their second-degree murder case against George Zimmerman today and his legal team immediately asked the judge throw out all charges, arguing that the state had failed to present evidence he murdered Trayvon Martin. The judge swiftly rejected the argument, but not before both sides made emotional legal arguments that are usually reserved for summations at the end of a trial. In an impassioned plea, Zimmerman's defense attorney Mark O'Mara stated that the state did not produce direct or circumstantial evidence that Zimmerman acted with "ill-will or spite," the Florida requirements for second degree murder. "There is not...

When the jury emerges from deliberations days or weeks from now to render its verdict in that Florida courtroom, when the family of Trayvon Martin leans forward in breathless anticipation and when George Zimmerman stands to hear his fate, you can bet your Disney vacation the whole affair will end badly. Not because Zimmerman, on trial in the shooting death of Martin, will be found guilty or not guilty, but because millions of Americans have already made up their minds about what should happen. Large swaths of people are going to be disappointed no matter how the verdict falls. Probably...

Defense attorney Don West questions Rachel Jeantel during George Zimmerman's trial in Sanford, Fla., June 27, 2013.Trayvon Martin’s trial might be intriguing, fascinating cultural theater to some. To me, it is more akin to a cultural trauma: a continual reminder of how unsafe all those young black men that I love actually are as they move through the world — and how tenuous and torturous it would be to seek justice on their behalf. Troubled, though, by the negative characterizations of Trayvon Martin’s friend Rachel Jeantel, after her first day of testimony, I tuned in yesterday in a show of...

In following the George Zimmerman trial somewhat closely online last week, I noted a familiar pattern: A "heater" case that draws intense media interest. Sympathetic victim. Unsympathetic defendant. Evidence of innocence explained away with far-fetched theories or else ignored. Evidence of guilt magnified and bolstered with irrelevant detail and innuendo. These are among the key ingredients for all the wrongful convictions I've written about in the last 20 years. Investigators and prosecutors put on the blinders early, before all the facts come in. They fill the gaps and inconsistencies in the case with suppositions inspired by sympathy for the victim,...

Rachel Jeantel Rachel Jeantel, the prosecution's "star witness" against George Zimmerman, endured an embarrassing grilling both inside the Florida courtroom and in the national media. Star Witness Against George Zimmerman Flops Big Time The New American 28 June 2013 The prosecution's "star witness" against former neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman, accused of murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, endured an embarrassing grilling both inside the Florida courtroom and in the national media. From potentially incriminating social-media posts publicized by reporters to major gaffes during her testimony, Rachel Jeantel, 19 (shown), has sparked even more criticism of what legal...

Once again, it was simply not a very good day at all for the prosecution. The primary State witnesses today were Rachel Jeantel, Jenna Lauer, and Selma Mora. The first had her credibility substantively destroyed, the second was powerfully–almost humiliatingly–co-opted by the defense, and the third provided testimony entirely consistent with the defense’s theory of lawful self-defense. There was also some (I expect temporary) hubbub that O’Mara may have inadvertently opened the door to allow the State to introduce evidence of specific prior bad acts by George Zimmerman, and I address that in detail, as well, below.

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...

The jurors are now selected in State of Florida v. George Zimmerman and opening statements are scheduled for Monday. Today was a ‘wrap up’ day, to resolve as any lingering issues that Judge Nelson hadn’t yet decided, and do general housekeeping in preparation for the trial. Since first examining the evidence of this case I’ve been highly skeptical of both the State’s ability to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, murder in the second degree, as well as the State’s ability to disprove, beyond a reasonable doubt, self-defense. What I’ve seen over the course of the Frye hearing and jury selection...

• Man attempts to behead judge in court • To appear in court on Monday THERE was pandemonium on the premises of the City Higher Sharia Court, Kanwurin Sarki, Gusau in Zamfara State, as a 27-year-old man, Safiyanu Musa, stormed the court with a cutlass and attempted to behead the judge, Alhaji Hadi Sani Gusau. Eyewitnesses told the Saturday Tribune that Musa broke into the court session about 11.30 a.m. a few days ago charging at the judge and announcing his intention to kill him. The judge was said to have, in an earlier judgment a year ago, sentenced Musa...

At a pre-trial hearing on May 28, the attorney for accused murderer George Zimmerman, Mark O'Mara, slipped a time bomb into the public record that no one in the major media seemed to notice. It had to do with a homeless man, and the relationship between that man and the victim of Zimmerman's alleged crime, Trayvon Martin. O'Mara's allusion had particular resonance in this case because Zimmerman first surfaced publicly in Sanford, Florida, in a case involving a homeless man. As it happened, in December 2010, a police lieutenant's son named Justin Collison sucker-punched a black homeless man named Sherman...

With just two weeks remaining before his trial, George Zimmerman's attorneys returned to court this morning for an important pre-trial hearing. Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson has been be asked to decide a long list of issues, things that will determine how the trial plays out and what jurors will see and hear.

Today was supposed to be a fun one for liberals on the Investigations subcommittee for the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. They were going to haul in Apple’s CEO, CFO, and head of Tax Operations to browbeat them over their lack of — what, patriotism? Dumbness? — for having avoided tax liability last year. This was supposed to provide a little diversion from a week of wall-to-wall Obama administration scandals. Instead, Sen. Rand Paul rained on everyone’s parade, providing an exemplary rebuttal of the brain-dead populism that politicians so often engage in when it comes to corporate...

The prosecution in the George Zimmerman murder case has asked a judge to prohibit testimony about shooting victim Trayvon Martin's personal life, including whether he had been suspended from school, used marijuana or been in a fight. The information is irrelevant and would prejudice a jury, the state contends in the motion, filed late Friday. The motion also asks the judge to disallow: •Screen names used by Trayvon on social media. •The fact that he wore or owned a set of gold teeth. •The contents of text messages received or sent by Trayvon before Feb. 26, the day he died....

According to the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), on Nov 1, 2012, vascular surgeon John Natale, M.D., 63, of Arlington, Ill., reported to the federal Bureau of Prisons to serve a 10-month sentence. According to a U.S. Department of Justice press release, he was convicted on two counts of making false statements in connection with surgeries performed between August 2002 and October 2004, and acquitted on two counts of Medicare fraud. Dr. Natale had saved the lives of five seriously ill patients, average age 78, by complicated repairs of abdominal aortic aneurysms. He was, however, accused of describing...

Khaled El-Masri, the Lebanese-born German national who claims the CIA abducted him in Macedonia in 2003 before subjecting him to unlawful imprisonment and torture, has become accustomed to his case being thrown out of court. But on Thursday, he was finally able to claim a victory. The European Court of Human Rights ruled in El-Masri’s favor and ordered that the government of Macedonia to pay him €60,000 ($78,456) in damages. Based in Strasbourg, the court found that his account of having been flown secretly to Afghanistan, brutally interrogated there at a prison run by the US intelligence agency and then...