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Showing posts with label george zimmerman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label george zimmerman. Show all posts
"George Zimmerman breaks silence on 'Hannity'"

"George Zimmerman breaks silence on 'Hannity'"

It is incredibly rare that a defense attorney would let his client go public and do a TV interview. Any tiny mistake will be used against the defendant. The fact that Zimmerman did the interview suggests two things.

(1) That Zimmerman has nothing to hide.

(2) That the prosecutors and judge have been trying this case in the media and the defense attorneys probably felt that they couldn't let these attacks go unanswered. The fact that a woman claims that see started being sexually molested at age 6 by a boy who was a year older than she was just doesn't seem credible to me.

Zimmerman asks for new judge, it is about time

Zimmerman asks for new judge, it is about time

I have long been concerned that Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester, the judge presiding over Zimmerman's case, has been biased against Zimmerman and has been doing what he can to poison the water. Bond is supposed to be set, not on the basis of an individual's wealth, but on whether they are going to flee the jurisdiction of the court. As far as I can tell, Lester provided no evidence that Zimmerman, who has voluntarily shown up at court multiple times, was preparing to flee the court's jurisdiction.
The ex-neighborhood watch volunteer charged with killing Trayvon Martin asked for a new judge Friday, claiming the current one is biased because he said George Zimmerman had "flaunted the system."

Zimmerman said in a motion he feared he would be unable to get a fair "stand your ground" hearing or a fair trial with Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester presiding over the case. Lester was appointed in April after Zimmerman claimed a potential conflict of interest with the original judge.

Earlier this month, Lester said in an order granting Zimmerman bond that Zimmerman had "under any definition ... flaunted the system" by failing to disclose at an April bond hearing that he had raised $135,000 from donations for his legal defense.

Zimmerman's wife, Shellie, testified at the bond hearing that they had limited resources since she was a student and Zimmerman wasn't working. Zimmerman said nothing to correct his wife's testimony.

Lester at the time allowed Zimmerman to be released on a $150,000 bond. The judge revoked the bond after prosecutors presented jailhouse recordings of Zimmerman instructing his wife on how to transfer funds raised from a website to different bank accounts.

Zimmerman returned to jail in June but left last week after Lester granted him a $1 million bond, saying state law compelled him to grant bail. In the second bond order, the judge said it appeared Zimmerman was preparing to flee to avoid prosecution based on the money he had raised and his possession of second passport that he had failed to disclose to the court.

Zimmerman argued that showed bias.

"The court makes sweeping generalizations about Mr. Zimmerman based on limited information and disregards the evidence that contradicts those conclusions," Zimmerman said in the motion.

A spokeswoman for the state attorney's office said in an email Friday that prosecutors object to the defense motion and will file a formal response early next week. . . .

Zimmerman passed a lie detector the day after the shoting

Zimmerman passed a lie detector the day after the shoting

Why has this has gotten no news coverage?  Whatever the problems with lie detectors, the police asked Zimmerman to do it and he did it without a lawyer.  Zimmerman certainly acts like an innocent guy. From The Smoking Gun:
A day after killing Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman passed a police lie detector test when asked if he confronted the teenager and whether he feared for his life "when you shot the guy," according to documents released today by Florida prosecutors.According to a “confidential report” prepared by the Sanford Police Department, Zimmerman, 28, willingly submitted to a computer voice stress analyzer (CVSA) “truth verification” on February 27.  Investigators concluded that he “has told substantially the complete truth in regards to this examination.”
Zimmerman, the report noted, “was classified as No Deception Indicated (NDI).”
Along with questions about whether his first name was George and if it was Monday, Zimmerman was asked, “Did you confront the guy you shot?’ He answered, “No.” He was also asked, “Were you in fear for your life, when you shot the guy.” Zimmerman replied, “Yes.” . . .
Zimmerman's extraordinary release of re-enactment video

Zimmerman's extraordinary release of re-enactment video

A lawyer who I know wrote this:
In an extraordinary step, George Zimmerman’s attorneys just released a large amount of evidence in the case -- including a police tape of Z’s being questioned right after he shot Martin.
   This evidence speaks for itself. In and of itself it is routine and
there is no occasion for me to comment on it. But what is so EXTRAORDINARY is that an accused’s lawyers would release all this
evidence. That is what deserves comment.
   In an ordinary criminal case, the accused’s COUNSEL will TALK. But
they never release their client’s statements or any of the other
evidence – they themselves just talk to try to spin the evidence. Why
not let their client talk? Because their client is guilty and the more
he talks, i.e. lies, the more he gives the prosecution to shoot at:
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we have shown you that after the
crime was committed the defendant claimed ... [X] But the physical
evidence we have presented shows [not-X]. We have shown you that after
the crime was committed the defendant claimed    ...[Y]. But we have
presented the testimony of disinterested witnesses who say ... [not Y].
Etc., etc. Why did the defendant lie about what happened? Because
telling the truth would convict him as we have charged. Etc., etc."
So the ordinary criminal defendant’s lawyers do everything they can to
obfuscate the evidence and confuse the issues. That is because the
ordinary criminal defendant is guilty.
   Defense counsel’s actions here strongly suggest that they have the
EXTRAORDINARY client who is innocent.


The video here is pretty extraordinary and needs to be seen.





A discussion of the video with some parts of the video also shown.





From Fox News:

A newly-released video shows Florida neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman at the scene of Trayvon Martin's fatal shooting a day later giving police a blow-by-blow account of his fight with the teen.
In a video posted on a website by Zimmerman's defense team, Zimmerman said Martin saw his gun and reached for it as the two scuffled on the sidewalk at a gated apartment community in Sanford. That's when Zimmerman said he pulled the gun and shot the teenager.
The tape shows two butterfly bandages on the back of Zimmerman's head and another on his nose. There are red marks on the front of his head.
On the tape, Zimmerman did a reenactment of the scuffle with Martin in the moments before he shot the 17-year-old from Miami. Zimmerman said Martin kept "slamming and slamming" his head on the sidewalk. "It felt like my head was going to explode," he said. . . .
Here is a summary of events by Jeralyn Merrit at talk left.  There is more at his website, and it is worth reading the entire post, the vast majority of what he posted is consistent with what I have put down up to now.  There are a couple of differences that I have with it.  One is noted below.  And the second deals with his discussion about Stand Your Ground laws (not quoted below), since Zimmerman was unable to retreat any further.

. . . Here’s my interpretation of George’s version of events, which undoubtedly will be disputed by the state. Again, these are not undisputed truths, but my interpretation of George’s version.
George’s suspicion was aroused because he saw someone milling around between houses in the rain. He knew this person didn’t live at the house he was standing by because it had been burglarized before and he knew who lived there. The guy wasn’t exercising. He did nothing to get out of the rain. He thought to himself, who stands out in the rain and stares at houses? He did what the Sanford Police had instructed members of the community to do when they see something suspicious. He called the non-emergency number for the police to report his suspicion.
He pulled over at the clubhouse to make the 911 call. Trayvon walked past him, staring at him and turned down Twin Trees Lane. He drove to Twin Trees Lane while he was still on the phone with the non-emergency dispatcher and parked at the cut-through, in front of the white truck which happens to be located at 1211 Twin Trees Lane. He saw Trayvon go down the path between the shared backyards. Then Trayvon returned and circled his car. The dispatcher tells him police are on their way.
George tries to give him directions to where his truck is parked. . . . Then Trayvon took off running. The dispatcher asks him which way Trayvon had gone. He gets out of his car to look. He says toward the other entrance, and confirms to the dispatcher that would be the back entrance. The dispatcher tells him they don’t need him to follow Trayvon, and he says “okay.” But he still wants to tell the dispatcher where he is so the cops can find him, and he doesn’t know the name of the street since there is no street sign. Trayvon had gone off and was out of his sight.
He keeps walking to the front of Retreat View Circle to get an address. He had a flashlight but it wasn’t working. His purpose at this point was not to follow Trayvon, who had left the immediate area. He told the dispatcher he would stop following him and he did. He continued walking to Retreat View Circle to get the address for the dispatcher to give the cops who were on their way, and hen he then turned around to walk back to his car.
Just west of the “T” Trayvon appeared out of the darkness and confronted him. He (GZ) was right by the bushes along the side of the house at 1211 Twin Trees Lane. Trayvon was on the shared back path, in back of 1211 Twin Trees Lane. Trayvon confronted George, asking him if he had a problem. He said he didn’t and reached for his phone to call 911. As he reached for his phone, Trayvon punched him, he stumbled.

[John Lott: there is a little more that goes on here, such as a struggle where Trayvon was trying to knock Zimmerman down to the ground. See video above.]

Trayvon got on top of him and started banging his head into the cement. His body was on the grass, his head on the cement. He struggled to get up. As they continued struggling, George was crying out for help. Trayvon put his hands over his mouth and nose and told him to shut the F* up. He thought he was going to lose consciousness.
A neighbor behind them (W-6, John, at 1221 Twin Trees Lane) yelled out asking what was going on and if he should call 911. George yelled for help again. He wanted W-6 to help him get away from Trayvon, rather than call 911, because he knew police were already on their way. But W-6 went inside to call 911. No one came to help George as he kept struggling to get out from under Trayvon. W-6 says they were moving as they were struggling, first in the grass, then onto the sidewalk. As George tried to move so his head would be onto the grass and he could get Trayvon’s hands off his mouth and nose, his jacket lifted and his gun was exposed. Trayvon reached for his gun and told him he was going to die. . . .
The changing opinion polls on the Zimmerman/Martin case

The changing opinion polls on the Zimmerman/Martin case

From Inforum:

. . . In late March, while people were still marching in the streets demanding his arrest, 33 percent of the country believed Zimmerman was guilty of murder, according to a poll by Rasmussen Reports.
The same poll showed that fewer than half that number – 15 percent – believed Zimmerman had acted in self-defense.
Two months later, however, those numbers had flip-flopped. In a May 19-20 Rasmussen poll, 40 percent said they believed Zimmerman had acted in self-defense vs. 24 percent who called him a murderer. . . .
Early polls, the ones that reflect the most hostility toward Zimmerman, were conducted when news organizations relied heavily on outdated photos of both Martin and Zimmerman, Irby said. The Martin photos, released by his family through a public relations professional, showed an adolescent boy – not a 17-year-old. . . .
There was a stark difference, though, between how the story resonated with blacks and whites. In the April 1 survey, 58 percent of blacks identified the Martin/Zimmerman story as the country’s most important vs. 24 percent for whites, Pew reported. . . .
House Democrat puts forward bill to end "Stand Your Ground" laws

House Democrat puts forward bill to end "Stand Your Ground" laws

With no explanation for why the Zimmerman/Martin shooting was related to "Stand Your Ground" laws, Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) has introduced a new bill to ban these laws.  Wasn't it just over the last month or so that Democrats were talking about letting states make these decisions?

. . . The House Democrat who represents Trayvon Martin’s district will soon propose legislation repealing the nation's “Stand Your Ground” laws, which are under a microscope following the shooting death of the Florida teenager earlier this year.
Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.) said eliminating such laws might have prevented February’s fatal confrontation between the 17-year-old Martin, an unarmed African-American, and George Zimmerman, 28, an Hispanic neighborhood watch volunteer . . . 
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