Tag: Trayvon Martin (page 3)

Update: The jury has ordered in dinner. The parties and judge agreed the judge will respond to the jury's question as follows:

The court cannot engage in general discussion but may be able to address a specific question regarding clarification of the instructions regarding manslaughter. if you have a specific question please submit it.

What this means: The jury had a question on manslaughter and wanted to ask the judge about it. The jury didn't specify what question they had. The parties submitted case law about the extent to which a judge can meet with a jury to answer questions about the law. They agreed upon a response which tells them they to submit a more specific question and the judge will try to answer it.

See original post below: If the jury is following the court's instructions, their consideration of manslaughter means they have rejected Murder 2 but it does not mean they have considered or rejected self-defense. They may or may not have gotten to self-defense yet. [More...]

Update: Sat. 5:55 pm ET: Jurors have a question. Court will reconvene to hear it.

Our thread on closing arguments is full, so here is a place to continue the discussion of the trial, the legal aspects of the case and the media coverage while we wait for a verdict.

From earlier posts:

• Here are the final jury instructions (source: court's website)
• Here is the verdict form jurors will fill out (source: court's website)
• Here are some expanded profiles of the six jurors taken from our forums where readers live-blogged the voir dire.
• For jury updates, here is the Twitter Feed of Michelle Kennedy, Public Information Officer for the Eighteenth Judicial Circuit.

If you are just discovering TalkLeft, please read our commenting rules for this case before chiming in.

The jury in the George Zimmerman trial has recessed for the day. They will deliberate tomorrow beginning at 9:00 a.m.

News10 in Miami has profiles of the six jurors, with links to segments of their voir dire. If you'd rather read than watch video, check our forums where commenters live-blogged the voir dire. (Thanks especially to No Matter Never Mind, and CBoldt). If you just want the highlights, see below: [More...]

I haven't seen John Guy's rebuttal closing yet in the George Zimmerman trial, but from the reactions online, it seems he didn't play tricks with the evidence as I predicted, he just pulled out the race, gender and emotion cards. Maybe he couldn't find any evidentiary rabbits.

In any event, the jury has been instructed and is now deliberating. Since it hasn't been mentioned in a while, I just want to point out that if this jury acquits George Zimmerman, the credit begins with jury consultant Robert Hirschhorn.

Regardless of what the verdict is, I think all criminal defense lawyers can take great pride in Mark O'Mara and Don West. They represent the tireless, dedicated, fearless advocates we all aspire to be. O'Mara and West have displayed the utmost integrity throughout this difficult case. They also worked for 16 months without yet receiving a dime (all the money raised so far has gone to case expenses, experts, and Zimmerman's living expenses and security.)

As I wind down 16 months of intensive coverage of this case, I'd like to thank the readers who have contributed to the discussion here and at our forums. As news articles are gradually pulled offline and the media deletes its document archives, the forums in particular will serve as a historical account of the evidence and court proceedings, and the political and partisan pressures and media hype that elevated this case into feeding frenzy.

I'd also like to thank Jim Talent of National Review and Bob Somerby of the Daily Howler for featuring my recent post with thoughts on the legacy of this case, and Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune, who recognized that the injustice in this case went far beyond the guilt or innocence of George Zimmerman, for his frequent citing of our coverage, as well as law professor Ann Althouse.

Mark O'Mara has begun his closing argument for George Zimmerman.

He begins with a chart showing the burden of proof in a self-defense case. I happen to have a similar chart, called The Meaning of a Not Guilty Verdict. Here's what's included: [More...]

These are the final jury instructions that will be given in the George Zimmerman trial, posted on the court's website. The court site with most of the pleadings and minutes of the trial is here.

[Heads up: The rest of this post is a technical/legal one which will bore anyone not interested in minute details of statutory construction and word games. [More...]

I ended my last post on today's closing argument by the state and Mark Mara's anticipated closing tomorrow, with this thought:

Since I'm convinced there's no match between what O'Mara will do tomorrow and what de la Rionda did today, I'm focused on the state's next move.

The prosecution gets the last word because they have the burden of proof. De la Rionda's closing was so weak, I'm wondering if it wasn't planned to be that way, to keep the defense from guessing what John Guy will unleash in his closing. It's Guy's rebuttal, not O'Mara, that I'm focused on now.

[More...]

Mark O'Mara will give his closing argument tomorrow morning, using a vivid computer animation showing step by step the defense theory of how the encounter occurred. There were hours of testimony about the accuracy of the animation, and the Judge ruled it would not come into evidence but O'Mara could use it as a demonstrative exhibit during his closing.

In his closing today, State's Attorney Bernardo de la Rionda used Powerpoint slides that seemed straight out of a 1990's continuing legal education seminar. They were impersonal and had too much text. The jurors couldn't possibly read it all and listen to him talk at the same time. I said in my earlier post that his theme of "assumptions" was a poor one, because coupled with his tossing rhetorical questions at the jury asking "isn't it possible" that such and such happened without answers, he merely created the very reasonable doubt he is obligated to overcome for a a conviction. Surely it wasn't lost on the jurors that when he told them (more than once) to "use your G-d given common sense" he was really telling them he didn't have the goods and wanted them to ignore the contrary evidence and rely on "assumptions" instead of proof. [More...]

The state will begin the first of its two closing arguments at 1:40 ET.

The judge has rejected the state's request to include the lesser offense of third degree murder resulting from child abuse and the portion of the self-defense statute on aggressor/provocation. Update: I live-blogged most of the closing without commentary here. (Don't everyone go at once because the server will crash again.)[More...]

This thread is for a discussion of the jury instructions and lesser included offenses the judge will provide the jury.

I'll update as soon as I find out what the final decision was. If you've been watching, please fill us in.

Update: There will be no third degree murder from child abuse instruction. There will be no instruction on provoking the use of force (aggressor.) The judge rejected the defense request for a circumstantial evidence instruction. Thanks to Cylinder, here are the links to video of the charge conference.

Unbelievable flip-flop. Benjamin Crump, the lawyer for the Martin family, was on CNN's Piers Morgan Live last night. When asked about the state's concession today that Trayvon Martin was probably on top of George Zimmerman during the struggle that ended in Martin's death, and how that impacts his and his clients' insistence that Martin was the one who was crying out for help, Crump said who screamed doesn't matter.

The cries for help, all of that is inconsequential when you think about who started this.

Inconsequential? (Start at the 3 minute mark)

[More...]

The defense has rested in the George Zimmerman trial. It did not introduce any evidence of Tryavon Martin's marijuana use or fighting.

Its final two witnesses were Olivia Beltaran, a former resident at Retreat at Twin Lakes whose home was burglarized in August, 2011, and Robert Zimmerman, George's father. Mr.Zimmerman was only asked about the voice screaming for help in Jenna Lauer's 911 call, and his identification of George as the person screaming when he was interviewed by FDLE early on in the case, before Zimmerman was charged.