The defense is trying to make a big deal out of minutia. West tried to nail Rachel on whether she knew it was Martin’s voice who was screaming or whether she just thought it sounded like Martin. But, like, who the fuck cares? The defense just spent thousands of dollars arguing that it’s impossible to absolutely identify the yeller on the tape, so attempting to impeach Rachel on such a trivality is weak. They are boring the jury with this tactic, too. It’s easy to forget their experience is completely different than ours because they are forced to sit there and watch the lawyers perseverate on details that are of questionable relevance, while we watch entertaining snippets from the news.
While the defense attacks inconsequential bullshit, what is obvious is that all the prosecution witnesses are corroborating each other stories. And most importantly, there are certain things NOT showing up in their testimoney as well. Zimmerman’s narrative is inconsistent with what the witnesses are claiming, and the defense is busily trying to mask that fact by trying to convince the jury that they are all liars. Problem is, even the witnesses who are semi-hostile to the state are not claiming the same things Zimmerman claimed.
They don’t report any head slamming on the concrete. None have said they witnessed any extensive ground struggle or hearing “you gotta a problem, homie?”. They report hearing running and the sound of sneakers, which indicates there was a chase during the conflict. They don’t report hearing anyone say “tonight you’re gonna die mother fucker” or any threats. The sound of trampled grass is reported by multiple witnesses too. The grass thing is significant. Why would this be such a common theme among witnesses, if Zimmerman’s account was true? And most importantly, Zimmerman is consistently being identified as the person who was seen on top. Before and after the gun went off. No one has yet identified seeing Martin leaning on top of Zimmerman, smothering, or punching him.
What’s fascinating is watching the defense, in its attempt to rattle and confuse the witnesses, only really succeed in driving home the prosecution’s key messages to the jury. “Zimmerman followed Martin first by truck then on foot” was today’s take home message, brought to you courtesy of West himself. Not only did he not dispute the idea of Zimmerman pursuing the kid at length, he kept emphasizing it, and he kept eliciting this from Rachel too. Forget about not knowing street names. The defense isn’t even using that to excuse Zimmerman’s behavior at the point. The jury knows he went after Martin in his truck and then got out to follow him. And worse (for the defense), it’s indisputable that Martin knew he was being followed and that he ran away.
I have to wonder what the jury is thinking when witnesses are asked to relive what they saw and they break down in tears when they talk about the killing, and they see Martin’s parents crying too, and then the graphic pictures of Martin’s body and the 911 tape being played over and over again…and all the while, Zimmerman sits across from them completely expressionless. He doesn’t even have it in him to pretend like he is emotionally present, and yet O’Mara and West are doing their best to make the room think he was the one yelling for help like that.