Posted on 06/24/2013 11:37:01 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
A prominent African-American legal scholar is criticizing the prosecution’s tactics in the trial of half-Latino neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman, and says that a conflict-of-interest in the case could earn Zimmerman a re-trial if he is convicted.
Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder for shooting unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012. Zimmerman, whose fate will be decided by an all-female jury in Florida, claims he feared for his life and shot Martin after a violent fistfight.
“I think the prosecution clearly believes the all-female jury is not going to be interested in the law or the facts of the case,” Horace Cooper, co-chairman of the conservative Project 21, told The Daily Caller.
Opening arguments in the Zimmerman case began Monday morning, with prosecutor John Guy portraying Zimmerman as a pistol-toting vigilante who used the term “f***ing punks…they always get away” when approaching Martin, who was “armed” merely with iced tea and Skittles. Defense lawyer Don West, meanwhile, opened with a joke criticizing media bias surrounding the case.
“Knock. Knock. Who is there? George Zimmerman. George Zimmerman who? Ah, good. You’re on the jury,” West joked.
Cooper believes that a specific conflict Zimmerman had with the Sanford Police Department years before the incident may have played a role in the neighborhood watchman’s prosecution.....
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
I think so, too.
Unless the fix is in, Zimmerman won’t need any “new trial”.
That's a big "unless."
The prosecutor took a tactic from the OJ defense team, to condemn Zimmerman in the same manner they hung Mark Furman out to dry: i.e., using an old quote.
Also, Cooper's joke fell flat. The state's hard-hitting opening clearly rocked the defense team back on their heels for a bit.
I hope these lady jurors are old and wise enough to see through "the shock treatment" they are going to get. They may try to avoid unpleasantness and do what they perceive to be the "nice" non-controversial thing, punish Zimmerman.
half-Latino????
LOL!!!!
Is Barak 1/2 white? or something like that...
Agreed.
Zimmerman's lawyers would have to be in on it, and I am - - so far, at least - - impressed with the way they are going about the defense. The corrupt judge is dancing around on just this side of obvious corruption. She's been very careful at gauging that fine line.
“In Sanford, Zimmerman was the one who led the inquiry into the official death of a black homeless man. It turned out that the son of one of the investigators in the case was responsible for the crime. So there’s longstanding animosity from the Sanford Police Department toward Mr. Zimmerman,” Cooper said. “I think the defense is going to put witnesses on the stand that will show there may have been mixed motives.”
Zimmerman criticized the Sanford Police Department at a public forum for allegedly covering up the January 2011 beating of a black homeless man by the son of a white police officer, which resulted in the resignation of then-Sanford police chief Brian Tooley.
PREACH IT BRUTHUH!!!
HALLELUH-YAH!
Would his lawyers really have to be in on it? Besides the corruption on the part of the judge and prosecutors, couldn’t it be as simple as a communication to the jury to the effect of either
a) “If you acquit, this town is going to burn. Do you want that on your conscience?”
or
b) “If you acquit, you’ll be the most hated people in Florida. It’d be a real shame if your names and addresses were ‘accidentally’ released, wouldn’t it?”
DISCLAIMER: IANAL. I am, however, just a wee bit paranoid.
I don’t trust people who aren’t paranoid.
Anyway, it takes a unanimous decision to convict for murder, and I just can’t see it.
Unless, like I said, the defense takes a dive.
A hung jury is a distinct possibility.
Counting on the "wise Latina"?
That I can definitely see. Somehow the name "Fatty Arbuckle" pops to mind.
Was the homeless man killed? I hadn’t heard that.
Anyone know if the ROBBERIES STOPPED after Trayvon was killed??
Trayvon was not involved in ‘the robberies’. He had recently been sent to live with his dad.
ARe you POSITIVE?
How do you know this? Was someone else arrested?
Don’t know.
HeWuz homohless..
This was not his first trip to Sanford. Remember -- he knew Moe Larry and Curley at the 7 Eleven and seemed quite familiar with the lay of the land around the RATL complex.
It’s pretty clear from what took place in the courtroom yesterday that the judge intends to mis-instruct this jury regarding the law of self-defense just before they go into deliberations.
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