Under Florida laws (and if such facts are not telephone records), is the prosecution allowed to withhold these facts from defense, and thus from public record?
The problem appears to be that no one else, perhaps even her own investigators, the SPD, has found any evidence for second degree murder. if the evidence is from the echoes in her own mind than it’s going to be difficult to get a conviction.
Ok, what could Corey have known on April 11th that would justify the charges? We haven’t seen all the evidence, but it should be referenced in the evidence lists.
That doesn’t seem likely. Unless he had a Virgin Mobile account, The texts would only be retained for a few days.
The only alternative would be that someone he texted the confession to passed it along to the police. Even then it is easy to spoof the number on a text message.
As I have speculated earlier, a text message that said he (Zimmerman) wasn’t afraid of Martin could negate the claim of self-defense.
And if it went on to express hatred or malice towards the victim, it could establish the missing element necessary for second degree.
Who cares? That’s an argument about the weight of evidence, not about its existence.
So then that’s about the only thing possible that would justify the charge… Nothing else left.
Not that I can think of – which may be a failure of my imagination, mind you.
Just because individuals on a message board (who aren’t poring over the case daily) can’t think of what may be left doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Perhaps there is nothing, perhaps there is.
The only thing I’m saying is that I find it odd that Corey would pursue a murder charge based on the publicly available evidence. One way to reconcile that oddity is that there is something still not publicly available that is significant.
Is it cell phone records? Possibly. I don’t know.
Since the defense is asking the court to force the prosecution and Crump to turn over evidence, I’m not sure you can assume that all the evidence is referenced in the evidence lists. Corey “may/might” be holding something back until some time closer to the actual start of trial???
That evidence, whatever it could be, could change a lot of minds about what happened that night. “IF” any such evidence exists.
The FBI has already conducted their investigation into possible racist connections and possible civil rights violations and found none. GZ wasn’t intending to murder hoodie wearers, black people, young people, watermelon fruit juice drinkers, peeping toms, or suspicious people.
IMHO, as things stand now, I’m not seeing evidence of 2nd degree. I’m not seeing a case for a manslaughter conviction either (but juries can be a crap shoot). Fla law allows for the use of lethal force if someone believes their life is in immediate danger. GZ was being beaten. He says he was in fear for his life. There is no admissable evidence, so far, that this was not, or could not, have been GZ motivation to save his own life by shooting TM.
It is quite easy to understand her actions if you assume the Governor told her to arrest Zimmerman before rioting started. The situation improved a lot after Zimmerman was arrested, so one could contend that their action was effective.
There’s actually a very, very long list of assumptions you have to pick from if we’re just gonna start doing that..
If Corey is holding it back, she is running a very real risk of not having it admitted at trial, since she is supposed to turn any such evidence to defense in a “timely” manner. If it can be shown that she didn’t, I think (the lawyers here will correct me if I am wrong, I am sure) it will not be admissible.
You ignore the link I provided that suggests it is unlikely that such evidence exists because most phone companies don’t retain the actual text in SMS messages. When I studied SMS messages in Florida, I couldn’t find a single case where the message was obtained from phone company records. They got the records from the suspect’s phone. That doesn’t apply to Zimmerman because he wasn’t arrested.
What other evidence could there be? What other evidence is on the lists that could convict Zimmerman. We also have to wonder why Corey didn’t mention it her affidavit? She got a lot of flak for submitting such a lame affidavit.
What would be Corey’s position be if she had strong evidence, but didn’t notify the court or the defense of it’s existence? Could she be disbarred?
I can understand why she might hold back exculpatory evidence, why would she withhold evidence that would help her case?
I take issue with the continued assumption by many people in this and other threads that since they personally believe the evidence doesn’t justify a conviction that GZ will not be convicted. This seems to fly in the face of logic.
What you’ve seen in these threads is that - however right you may think you are - there are any number of other people who passionately disagree. There are some posters to this thread who, were they on the jury, would vote to convict on the most severe charges possible. So it all boils down to who is on the jury.
Which is something of a crapshoot. But the prosecution has the upper hand here. Because they would have a much easier time stacking the jury with African Americans than the defense would have in excluding them. And African Americans are the group most predisposed to convict GZ.
Yes and no. As **Bricker **pointed out repeatedly, if the judge during the trial sees that there is just no evidence that warrants the charge levied, it will not go to the jury.
Holding back or witholding exculpatory evidence would help her case. This ain’t Corey’s first rodeo. Even the lynch-mob media seemed to back off once she was appointed (and “suggested” that they back off and let the law run it’s course) and she’s even threatened to sue the Harvard Law School. She has a history of being able to get convictions, is very intimidating, and has a lot of influencial friends. I’m sure she knows how far she can push an issue before she gets her hand officially slapped by the court. She may be hoping for a plea to a lessor charge or assuming that she can find a jury that will find for 2nd degree??? Maybe she’s hoping GZ will break down and confess???
WADR I disagree with Bricker. We are already past that point.
It’s being speculated that the judge will rule against GZ at the SYG hearing simply because she won’t want to take the political heat of stopping the trial at that point. Ruling to dismiss the case without even letting it go to the jury would be an even bolder move. Very unlikely to happen.