Dershowitz: Zimmerman Affidavit ‘Irresponsible And Unethical’

Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz made an appearance on on MSNBC’s Hardball to discuss the Zimmerman arrest affidavit, and had some incredibly harsh language for Angela Corey concerning her actions in the George Zimmerman prosecution.

Dershowitz is a well-known Democrat with a column on the Huffington Post, but seemed stunned by how poorly written the affidavit was, going so far as to call it “irresponsible and unethical,” as well as Corey’s actions politically motivated. He also said that if the prosecution didn’t have more evidence for the case than what we’ve seen, “a good judge would throw it out.”

Smerconish: Joining me now, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz. Professor, I’ve really looked forward to this conversation. You’ve seen the affidavit of probable cause, what do you make of it?

Dershowitz: It won’t suffice. Most affidavits of probable cause are very thin; this is so thin that it won’t make it past a judge on a second degree murder charge. There’s simply nothing in there that would justify second degree murder. The elements of the crime aren’t established.

Basically what’s in the affidavit is what’s in the public domain, with the exception of a few little things that were put forward by your previous commentator. But the fact that the mother identified the voice as that of her son, of course, we all knew that was going to happen. There’s nothing in there of course either about the stains on the back of Zimmerman’s shirt, the blood on the back of his head, the bloody nose, all of that.

It’s not only thin, it’s irresponsible. I think that what you have here is an elected public official who made a campaign speech last night for reelection when she gave her presentation, and over-charged, way over-charged. This case will not, if the evidence is no stronger that what appears in the probable-cause affidavit, this case will result in an acquittal.

Very strongly worded statements from Dershowitz, who basically stopped just short of directly claiming Corey engaged in prosecutorial misconduct by her actions.

“The Florida authorities blinked at the Federal pressure. Obama needs the overwhelming support of the black community to carry the swing states of NC, VA, OH, and FL”

That seems a bit much for the sake of something that’s already in the bag. Can anyone honestly imagine Obama getting less than 95% of the black vote anywhere? He’s reached the point of diminishing returns with that demographic, methinks.

[[To respond to the public outcry, they charged Zimmerman with second degree murder]]

Let me rephrase that “In otrder to VIOLATE Zimmerman’s constitutional rights and civil rights, public offoicials decided to ignore his rights and arrest him because tghe crowd yelled loud enough that the public officials gotr scared and that’s when they decided Zimmermn wasn’t due hte same protectiosn as everyone else- So, they trumped up false charges agaisnty him in order to placate the howling mob’

YAY JUSTICE!

How woul;d that get her off the hook? Trading inaction for incompetence is a lateral move at best. She can cross her fingers and hope the judge get the blame, but I’m pretty sure people won’t forget it was her affidavit that wasn’t strong enough to make it to the jury.

Suppose you're a competent, experienced prosecutor who is faced with this situation. If you refuse to charge Zimmerman, you are hounded by the media for the rest of your days for failure to secure "justice" for poor Trayvon. However, if you arrest Zimmerman with what you know is a weak case that any semi-competent attorney can knock out of the park, you have at least got Zimmerman his day in court with a chance to clear his name. If he isn't charged and acquitted, he will likewise have to live in hiding for the rest of his life. However clumsily she did it, I think the prosecutor probably took the only course of action that will lead to a resolution of this case.

It's not in the percentage of blacks, but the number of blacks voting that counts. The black vote has been almost monolithicly Democrat for decades, since the Great Socity days. However, black turnout for white Democrats like Kerry or Gore was comparatively weak compared to Obama. Post-election, Obama has not performed any economic miracles; in fact, poverty rates and unemployment levels are worse now than in 2008. Obama is playing the race card for that very purpose.

However clumsily she did it, I think the prosecutor probably took the only course of action that will lead to a resolution of this case.”

You think the people who would riot and/or hunt down and lynch Zimmerman in the event of him not being arrested will relax and move onto the next thing in the event that his case is dismissed? Also, that they’d hound her out of office for not charging him yet shrug off her incompetence with an “Atta boy, girl; we’ll get them next time”? What kind of raging mobs have you followed in the past.

Arresting him is something, I’ll admit. But, again, trading inaction for incompetence is a lateral move at best. At best. Throwing chum to the masses may prevent a tar and feathering, but it won’t stop them from chucking you out of office for fumbling a slam dunk prosecution of an obviously guilty white (/hispanic) child killer.

Dershowitz may be a liberal, but he's got a sharp legal mind and has long been an advocate on behalf of people against the excessive (and often abusive) power of the state. He seems more libertarian than liberal on many of these issues.

I heard an interview with him on the radio some months ago in which he made an interesting point that you don't hear much from people engaged in partisan politics. He said he's opposed to private gun ownership personally ... but understands that the Second Amendment recognizes this absolute right among free citizens of the United States, so he's opposed to most forms of gun control on legal grounds.

Well, the turnout issue is something, I’ll admit. But I’ve found it’s not something the candidate can control. Is there anything you could have imagined Kerry doing to energize anyone? Then there’re the endless anti-apathy crusades intended to drive the Youth Vote. But the Youth Vote never grows because, get this, kids don’t care. They never will. So give it up, Democrats.

The Martin/Zimmerman case is a special example, of course, because it is the sort of thing that can possibly energize people. That is, unlike boring Occupy Wall Street theater or the umpteenth ad about how bad Bush was and how old people have to eat dog food, it’s something that just happened. Like the depression, bailouts, stimulus, and Obamacare that energized the Tea Party, it wasn’t manufactured by dunderheaded ideologues and overpaid PR strategists. The MSM is in the bag for Obama, surely, but not that in the bag for him. You couldn’t get them to cook up the Martin/Zimmerman case out of thin air. It had to be a bonafide phenomenon.

It isn’t as big as what birthed the Tea Party thing. Though it doesn’t have to be, as, appropos of your point, it only has to stick with black people. Still, it’s a long way til November. The story will stay in the news, but not in the headlines, or all the headlines anyway. Does it have legs enough to carry black people’s interest for months and months? Or is it just another Jackson/Sharpton flash in the pan? Also, are black people like the Youth? Are they waiting for the right push, or are they already maxed out? I cannot imagine they’d be better motivated by some random teenager in Florida who may or may not have been murdered than voting for potentially the first black president.

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