Tag: Trayvon Martin (page 5)

After losing the battle to present expert voice testimony, the state's first witness is FBI senior scientist Nakasone, who is testifying as he did before, that the 911 call by Jenna Lauer in which cries for help and the gunshot can be heard, is inadequate for analysis. Prosecutor Mantei is trying to get him to say he can determine age by pitch. Nakasone so far isn't going along. He's giving him a little bit on familial (lay) voice identification, but I don't know what that gets him. Zimmerman has as many lay witnesses that will say its his voice as the State has that says its Martin's voice.

Here's a thread to discuss today's developments. You can watch live here. For more detailed analysis, visit our forums. You can find the discussion of today's witnesses by name here.

The Court has published the cell phone records for Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman.

There are a few things to know when examining Martin's records. First, the two columns on the right represent minutes and seconds, respectively.

Second, according to this site, the outgoing calls to 1-805-637-6249 represent incoming calls that go to voicemail.

When you travel with your phone, as soon as you roam on a foreign network T-Mobile knows that you are roaming. From then, anytime somebody leaves you a voicemail, they will register it as a roaming call to 805-637-7249 and will charge you at $.99 per minute.

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Eric Zorn at the Chicago Tribune, who has been following the George Zimmerman case since its inception and carefully reviewed the discovery as it became available, has a new article today, Zimmerman Trial Has All the Ingredients for a Miscarriage of Justice.

It builds upon his article about Rachel Jeantel's testimony written earlier this week, The State's Star Witness Testifies Against George Zimmerman, which is a must-read. ( In re-reading it just now, I see he has added a quote from TalkLeft, but I recommend reading it for his words, not mine.)

Once you read his article on Jeantel, you will understand why he concludes in today's article:

...if they [the presumed-guilty crowd]can just take a few steps back for perspective, my friends will see in themselves here the very police and prosecutors whom they've justly criticized in so many other instances. They will see a rush to judgment, tunnel vision and an almost desperate attempt to sidestep accumulating reasonable doubts. They will see that skepticism about the legal process is not something to be set aside when a prosecution suits your politics.

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Lawyers for the Martin family now say the case is not about racial profiling or race.

An attorney for Martin’s family, meanwhile, suddenly declared Thursday that the high-profile case was not about race.

“It’s not about racial profiling,” Daryl Parks told reporters. “He was profiled (criminally). George Zimmerman profiled him.”

....Asked why he changed his take on the matter, Parks replied: “We never claimed this was about race.”

Really? Then why did Benjamin Crump say race was "the elephant in the room." Racial injustice was the core of their argument. It was always about race to them. Race was what they used to transform this local shooting into a case of national importance. [More...]

Rachel Jeantel was grilled again today on the witness stand by George Zimmerman attorney Don West. The above is a five minute clip about her reference yesterday to Trayvon Martin calling Zimmerman a creepy as* cracker. West asked her whether she thought that was a racial comment and whether it wasn't really Trayvon Martin who profiled George Zimmerman rather than the other way around. (she answered no.)

There was some disagreement between lawyers at the end of her testimony, the judge sent out the jury and the judge dismissed her, telling her she could be recalled and was still under subpoena.

I will watch her entire testimony before posting an update and analysis. You can also read the comments on her testimony today on our forums. They begin here.

Rachel Jeantel, identified by the State and defense in opening statements as the young woman who was on the phone with Trayvon Martin minutes before the shooting, is ready to take the stand. (She tweeted the photo above this weekend, with the caption "court nails.") Apparently, the state intends to call her as a witness after all.

So who is Rachel Jeantel? Smoking Gun reviews her twitter account, but only tells half the story. [More...]

Selene Bahaddor testified today in the George Zimmerman trial. She has previously been known as witness 1 while her sister, who lives with her, has been known as Witness 2. Sister/Witness 2 has previously said in interviews that that she saw shadows running from left to right . Today, for the first time, Selene Bahadoor said she heard figures moving from left to right. She never mentioned movement before.

On March 1, when she gave her first statement to Detective Chris Serino, Selene Bahadoor didn't see anything moving from left to right or moving in any direction. She said she only saw flailing arms. Even after Serino told her that her sister saw someone chasing someone else, she said she didn't see that.

On March 20, when Selene Bahadoor was interviewed by FDLE Agent John Batchelor, she didn't mention a direction of movement, either one she heard or one she saw. Nor did she mention it when deposed by the defense. Why? [More...]

After 15 months of following the George Zimmerman case here and at our forums, the time for trial has arrived. Opening arguments begin at 9 am ET, 7 am MT. Virtually every station in mid Florida is carrying a live feed online. I recommend skipping the shows with commentary.

Don West will open for the defense. I'll be covering significant developments here, and there will be much more detailed coverage at our forums. I doubt I'll have time to follow the trial, work and blog, so you may see a lot of open threads until evening during the trial.

I'm sending good thoughts to Mark O'Mara and Don West. I think they are ready, and I hope they win. [More...]

Judge Debra Nelson has issued her order on the admissibility of the testimony of the state's proposed voice/speaker identification experts: They will not be allowed to testify. The experts, Tom Owen and Alan Reich, had claimed to be able to analyze the cries for help in the background of a witness' 911 call.

The order is here. It is very easy to read and understand. Shorter version: The techniques and methodologies used by Owen and Reich to determine who was or was not crying out in the background of the call are new and novel, are not generally accepted in the scientific community, and are unreliable and backed only by Owen and Reich, each of whom have a personal stake in the acceptance of their opinions. In addition, Reich's testimony is likely to confuse the issues and mislead the jury. [More...]

At a short hearing today, the Judge in the George Zimmerman trial ruled on a defense motion to preclude the use of certain words at trial. Previously, she deferred ruling on the motion when both sides said they wouldn't mention the words in opening arguments. Diwataman has the video of the hearing. Today, the Judge ruled:

• Racial profiling may not be mentioned by the state. Profiling without reference to race is allowable, such as profiling by clothing or age. (the state has previously claimed Zimmerman profiled Martin as a criminal.)
• The state may not use the term "self-appointed" to describe his role in the Neighborhood Watch. The state agreed Zimmerman was appointed to to his position on the Watch. [More...]

The final 6 jurors in the George Zimmerman trial will be:

• B29
• B76
• B37
• B51
• E6
• E40

Alternates

• E54
• E13
• B72
• E28

Opening arguments begin Monday morning. Details of jurors, challenged jurors for whom race and gender neutral explanations had to be given by the parties, and the judges ruling on each to follow.

The hearing over voice/speaker identification is starting now, with Tom Owen as the state's rebuttal witness. He is present in court, not testifying by video conference as he did on direct examination at the earlier hearing.

Voir Dire of 40 prospective jurors is underway. The jurors, identified only by number, and whose faces are shielded from the cameras, are being questioned as a group.

In the first round, the questioning was limited to exposure to pre-trial publicity and whether sequestration would be a hardship. In this round, the juror's opinions and experiences on a variety of topics relevant to the case will be explored.

The goal during jury selection, from a defense standpoint, is to try to identify the most dangerous or biased jurors, not the best jurors. It is more a process of de-selection. [More...]