Some IMHO insightful comments left over from Legal Insurrection here:
nomadic100 | June 26, 2013 at 8:53 pm
I’m a psychiatrist and watched the Jeantel testimony today. In my opinion, Jeantel likely wanted to be Martin’s girlfriend – how else to account for the “hundreds” of texts and her presenting herself earlier in the case (to Crump?) as his girlfriend. In addition, her reluctance to speak to Trayvon’s mother is, in my opinion, not fully explained by her aversion to seeing the mother sad and, perhaps, weeping.
Jeantel seems to have a low I.Q. and to have difficulty in understanding the questions posed to her. She also wants to testify in a manner helpful to the prosecution. Accordingly, she answers questions in a fashion which seemed designed to baffle the defense – her answers are vague, strangely worded, and softly spoken. A psychiatrist might wonder whether she has a “thought disorder” – such that her understanding of the questions posed to her (and, therefore, her answers) are fundamentally different from the meaning of the questions as posed by the questioners and different from the commonly understood meanings of such questions.
The only point at which I felt that her behavior was understandable was when she expressed horror at the fact that she would be required to testify tomorrow. That was totally consistent with her statements earlier that she initially wanted no part of the proceedings after Martin died.
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Ragspierre | June 26, 2013 at 9:19 pm
Being a witness in court is hard.
I mean that. It is a public speaking forum, but on steroids, and ALLLLLL of us have a fear of public speaking.
In some respects, it is a venue designed to put the hoo-doo on lay people. You have a freaking JUDGE sitting on a raised dais, for crying out loud. And guys with guns all over. It is a very alien place for laymen.
Some people react to their discomfort by showing anger. (I LOVE those!) Some become very quiet and passive. Some, like I read DeeDee, become sullenly passive-aggressive, bouncing between bravado and combativeness and defensiveness.
DeeDee is a liar. It is obviously how she has learned to cope with a life that is probably hard for her to comprehend. But she is not an artful liar, as displayed by her candor in telling the court the things that Martin said.
Add all you’ve said to her struggling to read AND that TM lowering himself to thug hood parallel the beginning of his visiting her neighborhood and renewing their friendship.
She stated she did not know what TM was doing in the half hour between the store and the mail boxes. She knows alright but she ain’t no snitch. She’s got to go home to da hood and survive dar She’s more to be pitied then ....