Posted on 07/05/2013 7:16:21 PM PDT by IChing
After another dramatic day of dicey testimony and legal maneuvers in the George Zimmerman murder trial, the prosecution rested and the judge denied the defense’s request for Judgment of Acquittal based on lack of evidence.
I guess there’s just no way judge Debra Nelson was going to make the call on her own, given the ominous gravity of promised violence and even murder from mobs and mobs of “Trayvonistas.”
The day started out with dishonesty under oath on the witness stand from Trayvon Martin’s mother, Sabrina Fulton, during opening testimony.
When asked, under cross-examination by defense attorney Mark O’Mara, about the first time the audiotape of a witnesses’s 911 call was played for her, Fulton eventually said something utterly preposterous (I’m not merely referring to her claiming that the screams for help on the tape were from Trayvon).
The tape was first played for her, allegedly, at the Sanford mayor’s office in a room full of lawyers and others, including Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump and the mayor of Sanford. O’Mara asked her if anyone in the room had told Ms. Fulton (known by some bloggers as “TradeMom” for trademarking/commercializing her deceased son’s first name) anything regarding the contents of the tape before they played it for her, as a way of preparing her for what she was about to hear. Fulton said no, nobody gave her any indication of the nature of what she was about to hear.
If anyone reading this actually thinks that that gathering of schemers all got together in the mayor’s office to play the tape for Martin’s mother without first at least giving her a description of what it was, where it was from, and why it was important, then I have a health care plan to sell you.
The obvious prevarication didn’t end with that. O’Mara moved on, posing the idea to Fulton that if she were to consider the alternative, that the screams on the tape were not those of Trayvon, then of course she would have to conclude that they were from the accused, George Zimmerman; and therefore that her son had caused his own death–wouldn’t she?. Fulton hemmed and hawed, then indignantly claimed she didn’t understand the question. Where I come from, we call that bovine scat; of course she understood the question. She just refused to answer it, pretending she didn’t get it.
O’Mara then slightly altered the approach, suggesting very gently that it would naturally be her hope that her son would not have caused his own death, wouldn’t it? Fulton again evaded, pretending to need O’Mara to repeat the question and clarify it, which he very politely did. Again, Fulton tried to deflect by defiantly saying she would instead hope that the incident never happened, that her son would still be alive, etc.–and when O’Mara asked one more time, she stubbornly insisted that she didn’t understand the question. O’Mara tenderly gave up, ending his cross-examination there.
Now, before you go thinking O’Mara was some kind of callous bully beating up on a grieving mother who lost a son, be advised that he had tried to open his cross examination with a heartfelt statement of apology for her loss, but that he was cut off mid-sentence by an objection from the prosecution’s table–on the grounds that his gesture was not an actual question to the witness–and judge Nelson sustained the objection. You tell me who is heartless in that exchange.
Trayvon Martin’s older brother, Jahvaris Fulton, then took the stand, and said not what he’d originally said when he’d first heard the tape. He had originally said that he couldn’t say that it was his brother’s voice yelling for help, but in court he testified that it was. O’Mara began a meticulous impeachment of his testimony on a related timeline of a previous statement captured on an audio recording, but judge Nelson interrupted O’Mara and declared the impeachment to be inappropriate, forbidden for O’Mara to carry out.
Next we saw a train-wreck of non-testimony from the Chinese immigrant medical examiner who did the autopsy on Trayvon Martin. It would have been comical if it wasn’t so annoyingly awful and pointless. Dr. Shiping Bao’s English was halting and heavily-accented, which was not the real problem. Incidentally, the state of Florida apparently finds and hires medical examiners (remember Dr. Rao from last week? Rao & Bao, eh) by importing the most culturally-incompatible foreign voodoo practitioners from all corners of the planet, with whom attempting communication is worse than dying itself if you are a creepy-azz, English-speaking cracka such as myself.
From the witness stand, Bao basically tried to hijack the proceedings, going rogue and actually trying to argue about trial procedure and the nature of legal testimony with defense attorney Don West and whoever else might try to get him to cooperate. Instead of just answering questions, Bao wanted to speak up whenever he felt like it, and ask questions of his own! He tried to lecture the court about the way things should go. I was ready to murder the guy myself just to get him off the stand.
Bao balked at answering questions regarding his professional, medical opinion, protesting defiantly that he was under oath (to West, “I’m under oath, do you understand? If I give my opinion, it’s not fact! It’s not fact!”) and that he could change his opinion at any time from what it was weeks ago, to what it was an two days ago, from hour to hour, and so on. Again and again, he tried to interrupt his testimony to pontificate on the difference between opinion and fact, as if the attorneys before him needed to be told. West grew visibly incredulous at the piece of work before him, and made me respect him even more for his sheer patience. Even judge Nelson, normally willing to endlessly indulge any witness’ difficult conduct if it caused problems for the defense, sort of tried to get the guy to shape up.
There came a point where it became apparent that Bao was reading answers to anticipated questions from notes, and West asked him if that was the case. There ensued a standoff among Bao, West, prosecutor De la Rionda, and judge Nelson over whether Bao would/must allow his personal notes made the night before (not the actual official notes from the autopsy) to be seen by the attorneys, and a copy made of them for the court. Bao tried to dig in his heels and insist that they were his notes, that no one else had seen them nor would he surrender them at all. He came across like a rat trapped in an outside cellar window-well, as he looked around in paranoid, smirking anxiety as the lawyers closed in around him to study the notes in his hands, and seize them from him as Nelson declared that he had to give them over.
Defeated on the question of relinquishing control of his notes, Bao sat in brief silence as defense attorneys brought them back to their table and pored over them together. The courtroom was still. Suddenly, Bao blurted into the microphone, “You see something funny there?!” Nelson had to tell him to put a sock in it yet again.
Bao’s testimony continued for another agonizing few years until he was dismissed, the court not having learned anything really except that he claimed not to remember a single detail from the autopsy of Martin, even though he claimed to be the most supremely expert and skilled performer of autopsies the world ’round, having done so many of them that everyone present should listen to his rambling blather. Bao had repeatedly changed his assessment of things such as the injuries to Martin’s hands and knuckles, and the length of time it took from the time of the gunshot to the estimated time Martin finally died. He seemed genuinely irritated that West would try to get him to commit to providing a cogent professional analysis, or an explanation of why he kept changing his opinions.
Whew.
So then it came to a cliffhanger. Mark O’Mara stood before judge Nelson and delivered a magnificent, lengthy monologue, replete with an amazingly detailed recitation of piles and piles of case law and precedents, on the manifold legal reasons why the defense believed that Nelson was obliged to render a Judgment of Acquittal, finding Zimmerman not guilty by directed verdict. That meant that if granted, the defense wouldn’t have to present a case, because the judge would have agreed with O’Mara that there simply wasn’t a valid case made by the prosecution.
O’Mara spoke for a very long time. His brain seems to be some kind of marvel of biology, storing facts from prior cases and collating aspects of the case presently before the court in a compelling, sensitive, urgent and pleasant way. He virtually never had to look down to read from notes or papers, only pausing here and there to recall a name or take a sip of water.
The upshot of O’Mara’s marathon motion was his declaration that the prosecution, even with what facts and evidence presented seen in the light most favorable to the state as is required, had not disproved the defense’s reasonable claim of self-defense. Further, O’Mara argued that no ill-will, hatred, nor depraved mind existed in Zimmerman on the night in question; nor had the state proven any such state of mind, therefore the charge of 2nd degree murder was utterly unfounded and the case should not continue on to the jury.
After one of the prosecuting attorneys (a rather toad-like creature named Mantei) mounted a somewhat sullen and snotty but forcefully-spoken, fairly well-articulated rebuttal to O’Mara’s overture (with obligatory amounts of case law quoted as well), O’Mara took one more run at closing the deal, with yet another masterpiece of speech and reasoned appeal.
No dice. Judge Nelson acted as if she never even considered not letting the case move on to the jury’s deliberations. She let O’Mara finish, then abruptly announced to the court that the case would go on.
I have to confess here, I can’t say I completely blame her for chickening out and putting it on the jury’s shoulders. The case is so highly controversial and potentially explosive that for a moment today, I saw her as a human being with a truly tremendous burden on her shoulders.
But that was only for a moment. I’m now back to seeing her as cravenly and unfairly hostile to the defense all along. She’s probably a lesbetarian, besides.
Well, I’m of the opinion that one should be VERY nice to the Dogter of one’s dog. They may be the best source of personal medical opinions/treatment in the near future.
"The Double Jeopardy Clause bars a postacquittal appeal by the prosecution not only when it might result in a second trial, but also if reversal would translate into “further proceedings of some sort”
White's opinion which overturned a ruling by the PA Supreme Court, was on behalf of a UNANIMOUS Supreme Court. http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/476/140/
I await your rebuttal.
There is no way he could scream loudly again and again.
I shoulda been a lawyer!
Apparently, you coulda been at least a medical examiner for the State of Florida.
You say sarcasm but I think you might be right. I had my knee cartilage removed 20 years ago and know I will need a fake one, but have put it off until I am older so I might get by without replacing the fake one from wear. Lately I have been thinking more and more about getting it done before this mess falls on us all.
Plus, it went between the ribs apparently without breaking them. Any pain would probably have been similar to a heart attack...with rapid loss of consciousness.
The medical examiner also said all the blood loss was collected inside body cavity, nothing outside.
That is exactly what would happen if a huge hole is made in the heart. There is zero blood pressure left to pump blood out of entry wound. All the blood just drained out of the heart and stayed inside the body cavity.
There are tens of thousands of these foreign doctors manning government jobs such as medical examiner and pathologists.
After Obamacare goes into full gear on Jan 2014, not many hi-IQ Americans will want to pursue medical field. We will soon look like UK healthcare.
Very well done.
There was another exchange about the TCH in the bloodstream. “So your opinion is that it affected Mr. Martin none at all or some?” “No, that’s YOUR opinion. My opinion is my opinion. My opinion is what I say. It is that it affected him not at all or some.”
Then the “Judge” who based her entire granting of the inadmissability of the pot use evidence on this clown saying it didn’t effect behavior AT ALL for TM still won’t allow the jury to hear anything about it.
It certainly explained George saying, “This guy is acting strangely. I think he’s on drugs or something.”
So instead of knowing that TM was using pot, which may have explained a strange walk or odd behavior or perhaps his poor reasoning skills (paranoia, aggression), the jury hears nothing about it.
Every chance to screw over the defense this Judge has taken.
NEver seen something so obvious a show trial. Was self defense from day one and obvious to anyone using any level of rational thinking.
Another post elsewhere by a medical professional said it was absolute b.s. TM couldn’t move after the shooting, unless his spinal cord was severed, which it wasn’t.
I honestly don’t understand the State’s position on what took place.
1. TM is on the ground being beaten by GZ.
2. TM cries out “help help”
3. Any eye witness who saw GZ being beaten is lying
4. In the midst of ‘ground and pounding’ GZ takes out his gun and shoots TM in the chest.
He then (and I’ve seen morons online suggest this) hits himself and causes the injuries.... knowing that there are no camera phones or witnesses observing.
The ‘black common folk’ position is: George Zimmerman was told not to follow. He did. Was his fault after that and he ‘deserve to get his ass beat.’
TM’s buddy, Jabba, said TM knew he was being followed and she was worried TM would be raped by this guy (her testimony). So, in fear for his anal rapage, TM confronted GZ and then GZ punched TM (causing no bruises or injuries at all).
I mean,
can ANYONE explain to me what the State’s position is?
Does he live in a Hut in Kenya like Obama’s Half Brother?
Am stuck, like a moth to the flame, fascinated, but sensing that this trial is a harbinger for the demise of the judicial system we once thought we could trust.
Such a fragile thing, really. It only works as long as we agree and support, as a community, the rules of “equal under the law”, and that justice should be blind.
What happens when we are no longer equals, and some are given, like Rachel Jeantel, a pass that the rest of us do not get.
What happens when a “birth mother” who pretty much left her 3 year old toddler to another woman’s care for 15 years, gets a pass on negligence by the prosecution, for what appears to be “political” reasons.
What about a father who was into the Crips, or at a minimum,”wannbe Crip like behavior “- who then was tolerated by a bunch of foolish, but willing women who were tolerant of or who put up with his disreputable, faithless behavior.
But none of this seems to matter in the collective hive mind of the ignorant low information populace, in the search for truth.
I feel pity for Trayvon, because he had such lousy role parental role models.
Even in his death, the one woman who seemed to love him, who cared for him from 3yrs to 16yrs, (now passed over for a new “honey-pot”) has been “blacked out” (pun intended), of the story, and ignored by the MSM, as if she never existed, and didn’t matter to the betrayal of Trayvon by the adults in his young life.
Before passing judgement, we must remember that children from intact families also ended up refusing/ignoring parental advice, resulting in equally troubled lives. And, some children who came from mixed up/multiple coupling/uncoupling/poor role model parents managed to make decent lives for themselves.
There is so much to learn from this trial, but none of us seem to grasp the whole of it’s meaning.
Each of the various factions in our so called USA “melting pot” see/feel a different part of the elephant, then become so attached to their own “reality”. They are ready to riot, like toddlers, because their vision of what they want in the candy aisle of the mega-mart might not be confirmed by the whole.
Personally, I agree with George Zimmerman, that this was an act of God, so He could, in His own way, hold up a mirror - to give us a chance to see ourselves, the mess we are in, as a country, as a culture, and as a society.
There are no easy answers/solutions, and my guess is that this is the beginning of the end. I feel so sad from everything I watched these past two weeks. My faith has been shattered, but maybe that is a good thing.
I now know not to look to “man/laws/governments” nor to trust any of these, but only in our Creator.
May His will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. May we forgive those who trespass against us. May we be delivered from temptation, and from evil.
Rant off - it is getting way to late for me, and I am wandering into the metaphysical. Time to head for bed.
Maybe H0lder can provide some nuance here?
Trayvon = HELP ME (kill this creepy ass cracker)...
Good Rebuttal!
Did anyone else catch Mantei’s statement that use of a gun in self defense is in itself evidence of a depraved mind? My ears aren’t the best but I think I got it right.
I took a typing course in high school and got pretty good, now I know where the letters are but using all my fingers overloads what is left of my brain.
And, inside his head, there’s a voice saying, “Trayvon wouldn’t be caught dead squealing like a girl”...
Looks like Roy "Big Country" Nelson
However, we are living in a new world, again, in other words, the now. And don' look for it to be overturned. As far as appealing goes, Zimmerman will have to do his own appeal from the prison law library because the State of Florida will make sure he has no money to hire a lawyer. The lynch Zimmerman mob did their job thoroughly and well.
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