Key Witness Against George Zimmerman Is Hard to Understand, Harder to Believe

Reason Magazine's Hit & Run ^ | June 27, 2013 | Jacob Sullum

[2ndDivisionVet]

Yesterday and today, jurors in George Zimmerman's murder trial heard testimony from a key prosecution witness: Rachel Jeantel, the 19-year-old_friend of Trayvon Martin who was on the phone with him right before the scuffle that ended in his death. Jeantel said that Martin repeatedly complained to her about a "creepy-*ss cracker" who was following him and that she urged him to run, which he did. After the call was dropped, she said, she called him back about 20 seconds later, and he sounded tired from running. She said he told her he saw the man again, and she heard him say, "Why are you following me for?" She said she heard "a hard-breathing man" reply, "What you doing around here?" At that point, she said, she heard "a bump" as Martin's cellphone headset fell on the ground and "the sound of wet grass." After that, "I calling, 'Trayvon, Trayvon,'" Jeantel said. "I kind of heard Trayvon saying, 'Get off, get off.' Suddenly the phone hung up, shut off."

Jeantel's testimony, which continues as I write, contradicts Zimmerman's claim that he stopped following Martin and was assaulted by him without provocation. Her account implies that it was Zimmerman who tackled Martin, rather than the other way around. How credible is her version of events? Not very.

---snip---

Over all, Jeantel is a decidedly unimpressive witness, slurring her words and speaking so softly that at times she can barely be heard, becoming increasingly testy as West highlights the inconsistencies in her testimony. Virtually all of her responses so far have included the word sir, sometimes repeated several times in the same sentence, usually tinged with sarcasm. At one point, in response to West's suggestion that Martin planned to start a fight with Zimmerman, she responded, "That's real retarded, sir."(continued)

[re_nortex]

If she married Chumlee from Pawn Stars she’d be marrying up.

If she married Tennessee Tuxedo's pal, Chumley, she'd be marrying up. Come to think of it, she looks a lot like Chumley:

[re_nortex]

She looks like half of the farm bill.

Especially the pork. That creature really needs to be in hog confinement pen. She'd be a lot more comfortable there with her kin.

[Bullish]

I thought goiters went out with the turn of the century.

This 'lady' is so inbred that I think the goiters are just the beginning of her problems.

[vaudine]

Chumlee is a hoot. His stock in trade is to BE the proverbial witless one. I loved his Christmas appearance in Santa suit announcing the arrival of "Chumclaus"; likewise his serving of a red drink he called a Chumacolada.

About Ms. Jeantel--she acted high or deficient or both. I especially love that "white-ass cracker" is NOT racist.

vaudine

[funfan]

Ever see the Twilight Zone episode with the little boy who would turn people into two headed animals or send them to the cornfield if they didn’t say nice things about him?
His name was Anthony and everybody was to be nice to Anthony if they wanted to protect themselves. This woman is our Anthony. She is black and you have to say she is smart and does a good job-this creature is in college and she can’t read cursive writing?
She is a fat loser who will only be successful through affirmative action. If she was white or if she was black but a witness for Zimmerman she would be labeled an idiot.
Idiocracy The Movie- we are living it right now.

[2ndDivisionVet]

IIRC, he’s actually a partner there and is an expert on certain matters, like trading cards.

[Bullish]

No, a man is on trial for his life to feed the hatred and bigotry of race hustlers who form the base of the Democratic party. No one believes this liar. The prosecution doesn't care, the black lynch mob must be feed for political gain.

You nailed it right there.... It's Duke lacrosse and Nifong all over again.... guilt ridden, mentally ill liberals out for blood and revenge.

[2ndDivisionVet]

I foresee a bright future in bureaucracy for the young lady. I've seen far too many government apparatchiks who could be her sisters or cousins.

[PLMerite]

Okay, so she didn’t write the cursive letter that she also couldn’t read:

“A teenage friend of Trayvon Martin was forced to admit today in the George Zimmerman murder trial that she did not write a letter that was sent to Martin’s mother describing what she allegedly heard on a phone call with Martin moments before he was shot.”

[2ndDivisionVet]

Law school rule number one: Never ask a witness a question you don’t already know the answer to.

[funfan]

Shelia Jackson Lee and Shirley Sherrod come to mind.

It’s a mad mad world.

[Ditter]

I was called for jury duty a few years ago. The defendant was a black man who had shot and wounded a policeman while attempting to rob a store. I was in a group of about 30 people who were questioned before they selected 12 for the actual jury. There were several young black men in the group of 30. The black men announced to the other prospective jurors that they hoped they were selected for the jury because they intended to vote not guilty no matter what the evidence showed. I was not selected and neither were they.

[re_nortex]

[chris37]

Oh yes, that was a particularly good episode I thought, my favorite being The Obsolete Man.

Thing about her is, I don’t even think she knows where the cornfield is, or even what a cornfield is.

It was hilarious when the defense attorney asked what does wet grass sounded like, and it’s like you could see her go cross eyed and after like 20 seconds she says -wet...and leaf...WTF..!!!!!???

I almost died laughing

[Intolerant in NJ]

Amazing the amount of magical thinking displayed by so many of the analysts looking at this case - “well after all, she’s from the inner city” - as though that somehow neutralizes all her dysfunctions - her inability to keep her story straight, her tendency to fill in gaps in her memory with whatever comes to mind, her thinly veiled rage at being challenged ay the defense - she doesn’t even have the social wherewithal to understand that “crazy-ass cracker” is a racial epithet - suddenly I’m beginning to grasp why so many in our culture can see the utter incompetence and nastiness of Obama, and still approve of his presidency......

[luvbach1]

The dumber someone is, the worse they generally are at lying.

Think you're right. Jodie Arias was much better.

[Theophilus]

I see her in my fantasy...

...my fantasy football teeam!

[mykroar]

She will write dictate a best seller in cursive

Fix'd

[Bullish]

The real dumb ass on that show is Rick’s son Corey, chumlee’s dumbness is just an act.

[PLMerite]

“Law school rule number one: Never ask a witness a question you don’t already know the answer to.”

That’s also a good strategy for marriage proposals.