Goodness I guess nobody reads the dang thread before commenting. This judge does have a legitimate appearance of conflict that needed to be publicly acknowledged. Her husband is the one who gave the Zimmerman family his current attorney Mark O’Mara’s name for helping with the defense.
“This judge does have a legitimate appearance of conflict”
Actually it does not appear that it was her husband who recommended Mark O’Mara, only that it was someone else who happens to be in the same law firm who recommended him.
Unless there is something more to it, it is questionable that there is even an appearance of impropriety. If it was just the recommendation we’re talking about and not the disclosure of confidences, then it’s a pretty weak “appearance of impropriety.”
If you are a lawyer and someone contacts you to take a case, and you decline because of a conflict or some other reason, it’s not unusual to point that person to other law firms in the area who specialize in handling those types of cases. That does not in and of itself create a conflict for another person in your firm.
But anyone can argue pretty much anything is an “appearance” of impropriety, so if someone doesn’t want to be involved, it’s a good way to get off the hook because no one can really second guess it.
I believe she said her husband *works for* the CNN commentator who recommended O’Mara, among others, to Zimmerman.