The Trayvon Martin Case, Update 32.5: The Prosecution Rests; The ME Explodes!

Stately McDaniel Manor ^ | July 6, 2013 | Mike McDaniel

[Uncle Chip]

The final day of the prosecution’s case remained true to form in every respect, and also provided another glimpse—actually, a substantial look—into the prosecution’s closing arguments.

Sybrina Martin, Trayvon Martin’s Mother: The first witness of the day was Sybrina Martin, who testified that the screaming voice in the Lauer 911 recording is Trayvon Martin. The prosecution, not wanting to open the field to anything she might know about Trayvon, kept their questions limited to only that.

On cross O’Mara tried to make it clear that Sybrina might have reasons other than absolute truth to identify the voice as Trayvon. He may have had some success in that Sybrina seemed not only coached, but potentially rehearsed. She often tried to avoid directly answering O’Mara’s questions and parsed her answers so as not to concede even the most obvious points, even those not harmful to the prosecution. Her overall appearance was stoic, and the potential waterworks did not materialize.

It was clear that she was a prosecution witness through and through–a strangely rare occurance. It’s unfortunate that the jury will never hear that she has already won a seven-figure settlement, and has a continuing financial interest in the outcome of the case.

Jaharvis Martin, Trayvon’s Brother: A soft-spoken and well-spoken young man, Jaharvis confirmed his mother’s testimony, and like his mother, testified to nothing else. On cross, however, his credibility suffered badly. O’Mara caused him to admit that when he first heard the recording in the office of the Sanford Mayor with a substantial number of other people, he told others he was not sure the voice was Trayvon’s, but later changed his mind. He said he didn’t want to believe it was Trayvon due to “shock,” “sadness” and “denial.”

As with his mother, I detected coaching, and his answer regarding why he didn’t identify the voice as Trayvon’s at his first exposure to the recording seemed rehearsed, however, his demeanor was substantially more effective than his mother’s, and I suspect many viewers not familiar with these matters might not have picked up on that. He did not, for example, give the appearance of trying to avoid cooperating with the defense.

Dr. Shipping Bao, Medical Examiner: Dr. Bao, unlike Dr. Rao, actually conducted the autopsy on Trayvon Martin, which gave the prosecution the opportunity to display a wide variety of graphic autopsy photographs so that Bao could, in a perfunctory manner, identify them. The primary purpose, of course, was to elicit revulsion and sympathy in the jury................

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Two weeks of prosecution witnesses have ended without the prosecution proving, beyond any doubt, the three elements of the offense. As they offered no probable cause to prove those elements in the affidavit for the charge (Update 2) this is hardly surprising. In the many months from Zimmerman’s arrest to the trial, the prosecution could find no new evidence to demonstrate that the decision of the Sanford Police and the local prosecutor was wrong. The prosecution was also unable to prove beyond any doubt that Zimmerman’s self-defense account was unsupportable. In fact, most of their witnesses supported it, either fully or in part.

For readers unfamiliar with the workings of the law and the criminal justice system, it’s difficult to explain how utterly amazing and bizarre this is. As I’ve written, it’s as though the entire system suddenly turned backwards. For a prosecutor to complete his case and to be unable to disprove self-defense, offering nothing but theories unsupported by any credible evidence, and for a prosecutor to be unable to offer evidence to fulfill the elements of the offense is simply astonishing. It demonstrates what I, and others, have been saying for a very long time: this case should never have been filed; there is no evidence of a crime.

I expect a very aggressive, effective and devastating defense case. Consider how badly the prosecution did on offense, when they had every advantage in presenting and proving their case. Will they do better when they’re playing catch up?

[Kenny Bunk]

In re the "Two Dee-Dee Issue"

IMO, We really missed the low end market when we did not publish a laminated program for the trial ($2.99 MSRP) so that the jury and the others in the court could tell the players apart.

Should this go to appeal, I am suggesting that we assign players numbers and print both name and number on the St. Trayvon Hoodies. That way, prosecution fans could closely identify with their favorite player and the rest of us could tell who's who, and what's what. It would help me as a hopelessly confused creepy cracker stuck like a broken record on the "Double Dee-Dee."

Seems to me that the Prosecution is using a state-sponsored variation of the "Tyrone Defense." i.e.,
"Your honor I am going to ask the witness to tell the court which of these two people he saw on that dark and stormy night after he had lost his eyeglasses, my client, or Tyrone."

"Tyrone, he look a lot like the guy I seed. Yo, dat be him!"

"Now Reverend Antwan, you says that Tyrone here be at Bible Study at your church all night?"

Case dismissed.