Posted on 07/08/2013 5:10:03 PM PDT by IChing
It’s George Zimmerman’s defense team’s turn to put forth their case, and quite frankly, they have a fairly easy path ahead. The wind is at their backs because no real, compelling evidence was brought before the jury by the prosecution in their initiative phase of this kangaroo charade (because none actually exists).
Nonetheless, despite the lack of evidence against the accused, rather than issue a judgment of acquittal last Friday, the judge punted the whole matter onward, and eventually toward the jury phase. So now we watch attorneys Mark O’Mara and Don West solidify the fortress of exculpatory factors for their client. Meanwhile, prosecutors can only make rather vain displays of flailing stabs at discrediting defense witness’ statements, while trying to throw out evidence & throw up procedural blocks to the defense.
This having been the first full day of defense testimony in this unsavory spectacle of prosecutorial misconduct, it started off featuring witness after witness taking the stand to swear that the voice of someone yelling desperately for help on the 911 call recording which has come to be known as the “Lauer tape” (after the last name of the witness who made the phone call) is that belonging to George Zimmerman.
The parade of highly competent defense witnesses making that same testimony actually began late last Friday, after the prosecution rested its case and the judge denied a defense motion for a Judgement of Acquittal based on lack of evidence against their client (earlier that day, Trayvon Martin’s mother and older brother had claimed it is Trayvon’s voice).
At the end of Friday’s drama, Zimmerman’s mother and uncle briefly took the stand in the first volley of the defense phase, and both stated very firmly and with steadily-controlled passion that it is George’s voice screaming on the tape. Their statements, delivered in thick “Spanglish” accents, seemed to come from a visceral level, and evoked visible reaction from Zimmerman himself, to the point where his eyes appeared to be tearing up while locked onto his uncle–a former U.S. Army command sergeant major and current sheriff’s deputy–speaking forcefully of his role in George’s early life, and of his adamant conviction about the subject of his testimony; that his nephew is the one yelling over and over for help on the tape.
This morning’s developments saw and heard no less than five close friends of Zimmerman, at least two of whom have direct past experience hearing Zimmerman’s voice yelling loudly at multiple political rallies, support his story. Furthermore, at least two also testified that the kinds of profanity used by Zimmerman on his calls to police non-emergency dispatch did not, in their view, indicate ill will, hatred, nor the depraved state of mind required for a charge of second-degree murder.
Remember, the police dispatcher himself said the same thing on the witness stand last week–that Zimmerman’s comments about “these a**holes always get away” and “f***ing punks” were, in his six years’ experience as a 911 dispatcher, fairly normal remarks, of the type which often come from ordinary citizens calling police to report suspicious activity.
Zimmerman’s friend from last week, federal air marshal Mark Osterman, was again on the stand, describing how no law enforcement agency (that he knows of) has a policy which allows any officer to carry out duties without having a live round in the chamber of their weapon, and that the lack of an external safety on a semi-automatic pistol is not necessarily a safety feature in all circumstances. (for what it’s worth, I can corroborate what Osterman says, from a professional standpoint.)
Adding fuel to the fire in the belly of the defense juggernaut, encore performances were given by both of the Sanford police detectives who’d already been called to testify for the state last week, Doris Singleton and Chris Serino.
Singleton and Serino both testified that upon playing the Lauer tape for Trayvon Martin’s father, Tracy Martin, he had said in their presence that it is not his son’s voice screaming.
Later, when Tracy Martin himself was called to the witness stand by Mark O’Mara, he told a different story than Singleton and Serino did: Martin swore that he had at that time said instead that he couldn’t tell whether it was Trayvon’s voice or not. He also acknowledged that he changed his position later on, claiming that the voice is Trayvon’s.
Between the testimony of the two detectives and Martin came that of a rather interesting and compelling witness, the owner/operator of the gym of which Zimmerman was a member in the year leading up to the incident in question.
Adam Pollock presented a somewhat charismatic, energetic, and forceful personality, describing his involvement in bodybuilding, martial arts, and all kinds of fitness-related competition, training, and instruction from his early childhood to his current professional standing as a consultant and entrepreneur.
O’Mara put Pollock through the paces for awhile, picking his brain as to the different kinds of fighting skills and mixed-martial arts techniques which exist, and which are taught in classes at his gym.
O’Mara then had Pollock physically, positionally mock-demonstrate on him, on the courtroom floor in front of the jury, the same “ground-n-pound” technique that primary eyewitness John Good described last week, when he testified as to what he saw Trayvon Martin doing to Zimmerman while mounted on him “MMA style.”
Pollock described Zimmerman having come to him and to his gym as a flabby, soft, heavy, and utterly non-athletic specimen with the goal of “losing weight and getting in shape.”
Although Zimmerman did succeed in losing quite a lot of weight through his exercise and dieting efforts–Pollock said 70-80 lbs.–he simply did not have the adequate athletic background from childhood sports activities, nor the overall inclination/scheduling flexibility, to really develop any fighting skills at all. Pollock described at length and in detail the heavy commitment required for someone of Zimmerman’s profile to attain accomplishments of proficiency in the realm of even basic boxing, and that Zimmerman’s non-athletic softness and lack of total dedication/sparse class participation just couldn’t cut it in the least. When asked over and over again by both the defense and prosecuting attorneys, Pollock was steadfast and rock-solid in insisting, rather forcefully, that someone like Zimmerman was only a “0.5″ on a scale from 1-10 in terms of being able to even throw a punch effectively. He refused to let Zimmerman ever get in the ring, not rating him beyond mere shadow-boxing out of safety & liability concerns.
Pollock greatly helped the defense by firmly putting into the jury’s minds that Zimmerman was not in any way in a capacity to counter nor withstand the physically overwhelming, blitzkrieg onslaught of flying fists from Trayvon Martin, especially once Martin had him pinned underneath him flat on his back, even attempting to smother him.
What the jury may or may not know is that Martin was a strapping, athletically-conditioned high school football player who had an ardent lust for fighting, even texting to a friend that he wanted a rematch with one opponent he’d already beaten because the guy “didn’t bleed enough for me, only his nose.”
Otserman’s additional testimony helps show the jury that Zimmerman carried his concealed firearm in a conventional, responsible, and safe way, and that Zimmerman deployed it only as a last resort to save his own life.
As for the rest of the day’s courtroom action, once the day’s witnesses had been heard, things pretty much bogged down in involved arguments over prosecutors trying to get judge Nelson to throw out testimony and evidence unfavorable to their side.
Nelson has been helping the prosecution all along, as everyone has been able to see for themselves. I can understand why De la Rionda and his cohorts are grasping for all the help they can get, because they are pushing a train that has no tracks underneath it.
We can only pray that the jury can also recognize this for what it is.
Hmmm.
>>Is there a difficulty in re-creating the kind of screaming he made that night?<<
In a word, YES! One of the voice recognition experts said that trying to do research on subject screaming in abject terror would never get by the reseach ethics committees. :-)
Thank-you for the day’s synopsis.
I have read that Tracy Martin testified that either he called or had his girlfriend, Brand Green, call the juvenile detention center where she works to see if Trayvon was there.
Can you clear up whether or not this is true.
Thanks so much!
Good point, possible withdrawal = possible high irritability and edginess, etc. But I’m inclined to attribute TM’s violent attack on Zimmerman more to the same violent criminal subculture which gives us “the knockout game,” and “beat whitey night,” and “polar bear hunting.”
Think I heard something like that too, but I can’t confirm it.
Thanks for the post. Nice work there.
My pleasure, Lancey, and thank you.
No, but you sure think you hear it making sounds.
Just checking in, and only up to this post. Want to remind all that HE is not posting from HIS blog!
He posts to just another website, like Hot Air, American Thinker, PJMedia, or any of the others where people post articles they think might be of interest to Freepers.
But, for the sake of keeping Freeper peace, I will do my best to post a link to his articles, just as if I were posting a link to WND, Zero Hedge, The Daily Caller, etc.
I am delighted, because Donald Joy is my first born son. He has always been good with pen and paper - writing, and it makes me happy that some find his summaries of the Zimmerman helpful.
Not all of us can afford sit with numb, blue butts in front of the TV or ‘net all day long.
I don’t understand why people accuse him of pimping a blog he does not have. Can anyone explain this to me? I have been here long enough - even before my “sign up” date as jacquej.
First, I was housemouse, and wish I could have that “hat” and my original sign up date back, but not worth putting Jim and John through that hassle. They have enough to do to put up with the lot of us!
Now back to reading the gratuitous insults being tossed around. Seems silly to me, considering the catastrophic problems we are facing in our beloved country. Some of you really need to lighten up!
wonderful come-back!
Ask IChing about the poor baby-sitter that had to put up with the four of them - he could tell you stories of what that poor girl went through!
She surely earned her way into heaven. His little brother was the baby-sitter’sworst nightmare!
Fortunately, and maybe thanks to her patience, he turned out ok.
All good points.
Thank you for giving a thorough explanation.
But this is not a sane world, governed by the rule of law. It is a dumbed down idiocracy, governed by the rule of sex ed teachers and commie journalists. They could still get a conviction in that world if they convince a group of dimwits that GZ started it by following a guy because he was black. If you had a jury of Jeantals, you could tell them to assume that Trayvon was beating the hell out of GZ, that there was video of it, but they would still want to know why GZ got out of the jeep and whether it was because Trayvon was black. If so, then GZ should fry.
As a result, the defense clearly feels the need for overkill, to beat it into the heads of the dummies that GZ is innocent and to give them no excuses to buy into some prosecution theory that isn't even legally supported--like GZ is guilty because he followed Trayvon. So that is why they had 4 people saying it was GZ's voice, not one or two. And that is why it would be sweet to have that lying money grubber Mrs. Fulton on the stand and play a tape that you recently recorded of Zimmerman, and have her identify it as her son's. The defense doesn't want to win under the actual rules, it wants to embarrass the other side into submission. It may be a good idea, if they do it well enough, it may just keep the riots from happening.
Unfortunately, yes. The level of adrenaline in a person is a true fear-for-life situation cannot be simulated, and it affects every muscle in the body including those that are used while screaming. IOW it would be a horrible risk for the defense that they have no cause to take.
Good idea, though. No sarc.
Really, I’ve seen violent potheads dozens of times. My brother was like a crackhead when just smoking homegrown pot.
I would give it a try and then compare the two recordings. If he can’t recreate it, he can’t. Maybe they did try it, we wouldn’t know if they did.
Piss off, no one wants to hear your whiney crap. You contribute nothing to FR but have time to pick at everyone else. Go eat some cheese!
Thanks, packrat. You speak what many of us are thinking, but too polite to say.
But in memory of my two very southern grandmothers, I will say this, in my best southern accent to our very own humblegunner...
“Bless your heart, dear, for we all know you mean so well”
humblegunner does one hell of a job exposing POS blog pimps.
As my southern grandmothers would say,
“Lil’ fellers like you should be seen and not heard especially around grownups. Not toddle off wee ones.”
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