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Opinion

ZIMMERMAN TRIAL UPDATE: FULTON FALSIFIES, MEDICAL EXAMINER WORTHLESS, JUDGE NELSON CHICKENS OUT

Screen Shot 2013-07-05 at 9.36.56 PMThere came a point where it became apparent that Bao was reading answers to anticipated questions from notes, and West asked him if that was the case.  There ensued a standoff among Bao, West, prosecutor De la Rionda, and judge Nelson over whether Bao would/must allow his personal notes made the night before (not the actual official notes from the autopsy) to be seen by the attorneys, and a copy made of them for the court.  Bao tried to dig in his heels and insist that they were his notes, that no one else had seen them nor would he surrender them at all.  He came across like a rat trapped in an outside cellar window-well, as he looked around in paranoid, smirking anxiety as the lawyers closed in around him to study the notes in his hands, and seize them from him as Nelson declared that he had to give them over.

Defeated on the question of relinquishing control of his notes, Bao sat in brief silence as defense attorneys brought them back to their table and pored over them together.  The courtroom was still.  Suddenly, Bao blurted into the microphone, “You see something funny there?!”  Nelson had to tell him to put a sock in it yet again.

Bao’s testimony continued for another agonizing few years until he was dismissed, the court not having learned anything really except that he claimed not to remember a single detail from the autopsy of Martin, even though he claimed to be the most supremely expert and skilled performer of autopsies the world ’round, having done so many of them that everyone present should listen to his rambling blather.  Bao had repeatedly changed his assessment of things such as the injuries to Martin’s hands and knuckles, and the length of time it took from the time of the gunshot to the estimated time Martin finally died.  He seemed genuinely irritated that West would try to get him to commit to providing a cogent professional analysis, or an explanation of why he kept changing his opinions.

Whew.

So then it came to a cliffhanger.  Mark O’Mara stood before judge Nelson and delivered a magnificent, lengthy monologue, replete with an amazingly detailed recitation of piles and piles of case law and precedents, on the manifold legal reasons why the defense believed that Nelson was obliged to render a Judgment of Acquittal, finding Zimmerman not guilty by directed verdict.  That meant that if granted, the defense wouldn’t have to present a case, because the judge would have agreed with O’Mara that there simply wasn’t a valid case made by the prosecution.

O’Mara spoke for a very long time.  His brain seems to be some kind of marvel of biology, storing facts from prior cases and collating aspects of the case presently before the court in a compelling, sensitive, urgent and pleasant way.  He virtually never had to look down to read from notes or papers, only pausing here and there to recall a name or take a sip of water.

The upshot of O’Mara’s marathon motion was his declaration that the prosecution, even with what facts and evidence presented seen in the light most favorable to the state as is required, had not disproved the defense’s reasonable claim of self-defense.  Further, O’Mara argued that no ill-will, hatred, nor depraved mind existed in Zimmerman on the night in question; nor had the state proven any such state of mind, therefore the charge of 2nd degree murder was utterly unfounded and the case should not continue on to the jury.

After one of the prosecuting attorneys (a rather toad-like creature named Mantei) mounted a somewhat sullen and snotty but forcefully-spoken, fairly well-articulated rebuttal to O’Mara’s overture (with obligatory amounts of case law quoted as well), O’Mara took one more run at closing the deal, with yet another masterpiece of speech and reasoned appeal.

No dice.  Judge Nelson acted as if she never even considered not letting the case move on to the jury’s deliberations.  She let O’Mara finish, then abruptly announced to the court that the case would go on.

I have to confess here, I can’t say I completely blame her for chickening out and putting it on the jury’s shoulders.  The case is so highly controversial and potentially explosive that for a moment today, I saw her as a human being with a truly tremendous burden on her shoulders.

But that was only for a moment.  I’m now back to seeing her as cravenly and unfairly hostile to the defense all along.  She’s probably a lesbetarian, besides.

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Donald Joy

Following his service in the United State Air Force, Donald Joy earned a bachelor of science in business administration from SUNY while serving in the army national guard. As a special deputy U.S. marshal, Don was on the protection detail for Attorney General John Ashcroft following the attacks of 9/11. He lives in the D.C. suburbs of Northern Virginia with his wife and son.

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