Plea it down? Who do you suppose is going to be on the other side of the bargaining table? Angela Corey.
This is not a run of the mill crime. This is a bargaining chip in the most famous crime in… years? This is about threats, and potentials. The prosecution won’t make a deal with her until they use the charges for all they’re worth against him.
Maybe it won’t work. Maybe, for once, Zimmerman will listen to his lawyer, and realize that jail time for his wife is pretty low probability. Still, even aside from the jail issue, they can keep her under threat for a very long time and put more pressure on the family finances (how many charges can they afford to fight).
I see that Larry Mudd suggested that another charge could be added, something I hadn’t even thought of. But it makes me think that maybe there are even more charges that could be dropped on both of them. The first thing that comes to mind is some kind of conspiracy charge – that’s already practically built in to the crime, if it actually happened the way the prosecution alleges. Conspiracy to commit perjury, conspiracy to obstruct justice – I’m not enough of a lawyer (ie, no lawyer at all) to think of all the possible permutations.
Seriously, you have to ask? The charges are directly related to her case. It’s a state crime, she’s a state prosecutor, with the governor backing her up. She’ll be involved because she’ll want to be involved. Even if she doesn’t sit across the conference table from the wife, she will certainly have input on any deals that are made.
Yes, seriously I have to ask. His Wife’s perjury has nothing to do with Corey any more than if she had a hit-and-run traffic accident. George Zimmerman’s perjury would fall under Corey’s jurisdiction.
It was Corey’s case the wife was allegedly perjuring herself over. It was a hearing that was part of George’s case. Corey is absolutely, and directly, involved. She was probably even a witness to it, assuming she was in the courtroom at the time.
It looks like it was signed off by John Guy, assistant prosecuting attorney.
I really don’t see Cory getting involved in this. She was appointed special prosecutor for the Martin/Zimmerman case, not a bunch of small potato stuff.
On its own, it might be a small potato, but it’s tied to a HUGE case. Corey probably filed these charges as leverage in the case against George. He pleads guilty to… something (probably something less than murder 2), and the charges against his wife go away.
To start with it’s not a HUGE case. It’s a case with a lot of public exposure.
And it would be unethical to leverage a case against a loved one.
On top of that, The perjury case is a relatively small case. It will be a fine, some community service and possibly a short time in jail. I would be surprised if Corey gets involved with it.
Ask yourself how important a “short time in jail” would be to you, if your spouse was facing it and you could make it go away? Particularly if she got in that position while trying to help you.
Let’s say that you killed somebody. Your wife had absolutely nothing to do with the killing, but out of love for you she helps you hide some evidence later. The prosecution finds out, and files some kind of “accessory after the fact” charges. I can’t even conceive how anyone would consider it unethical to offer to drop the charges against her in exchange for your guilty plea, which saves the state time and money.
What WOULD be unethical is if they just made up bullshit charges out of thin air and used baseless threats as leverage. That does not appear to be the case here.
The level of public exposure makes it a huge case. That is why a special prosecutor was assigned.
The perjury charge has a potential 5 year sentence. The point of pressing for a deal is to avoid the risk of the worst case scenario. And I noted, and others as well, that it is possible there may be further charges against her.
No, the level of public exposure makes it a high profile case.
the potential for 5 years generally equates to a small sentence. The state has no vested interested in incarcerating her. It costs money and she poses no threat to society.
From a legal standpoint this is a small potatoes case. The high profile side of it is with her husband.
Angela Corey can’t file structuring charges because that is a federal crime, not a state crime or are you suggesting that the feds will be in cahoots with her?
The state has a very large interest in threatening her with the largest possible penalty in order to leverage a plea from her husband, whether or not they can ultimately deliver on that threat.
It is a huge case to Angela Corey. She’s the one who said she didn’t need a grand jury in order to decide on whether or not to charge Zimmerman. She’s the one who leveled the murder 2 charge, which many lawyers think was a serious overreach.
A different set of lawyers said she leveled the harshest possible charges as leverage for negotiating a plea bargain to lower charges later. This charge against the wife is like a gift to Corey – another (and pretty strong) bargaining chip with her husband (assuming he actually loves her). There’s a very good likelihood he believes in his own innocence, perhaps rightly so given the nature of the SYG law, and would be willing to fight the charges rather than go to prison for a crime he believes he didn’t commit. But he probably understands that his wife DID commit perjury, and faces a possible prison term for trying to help him, and that changes the whole dynamics of future negotiations.
again, it’s not a huge case beyond publicity. There is no leverage to use. George would be a fool to fall for the suggestion of it. It is more likely that any time sentenced will be done as supervised release such as in this case.