Reliable Witnesses?
Woody'z not a lawyer, but:
From the opening knock-knock joke, to the fantastical suggestion that
Martin "armed" himself with the sidewalk and went hunting trouble (long
with skittles and a bottle/can of soda), to the treatment and
questioning of this witness, Zimmerman's atty, Don West (a high-profile
defense guy with a long record of successful defenses of vicious
killers) is working an intentional strategy.
He's trivializing the
prosecution's case and thereby trying to pull off a difficult maneuver,
the "reverse OJ," named in honor of the late Johnnie Cochran's defense
strategy which skillfully manipulated circumstances so that the man
Cochran knew was a vicious , cold-blooded killer would walk.
Cochran's success w/OJ depended on three factors: 1) Convincing the jury
that OJ was the victim; 2) recognizing that OJ had plenty of public
sympathy and 3) creating a circus in the courtroom. Amanda Marcotte writes:
If you ever want to get a full eyeball of how little value is put on the
life of a young black man by white nitwits, just watch all the
digressions and whining and mockery inspired by the George Zimmerman
trial. Like Hamilton Nolan said,
“The tragic shooting death of Trayvon Martin continues to be one of
America’s richest sources of tangentially-related arguments.” It would
be funny, except it’s awful, because someone was murdered
and it turns out that you can basically get away with murder in Florida
if you create even the barest bones plausibility for self-defense, up
to and including chasing someone down until they, fearing they have no
other choice, take a swing at you in hopes to escape your scary ass. If I
understand correctly, that’s Zimmerman’s defense and how fucking crazy
is that if it works?! You can legally murder someone so long as
you scared them enough they acted in self-defense first? (As long as
they’re black, of course, but that’s not explicitly stated.) That needs
to be the only thing being discussed right now.
There is no
doubt that West is absolutely CERTAIN of Zimmerman's guilt--as would
anyone be who viewed the evidence objectively. So he's making it
difficult to consider the evidence objectively, by conducting a legal
dog-and-pony show for the jury, turning it into a circus...Therewith is his 'treatment' of the prosecution witness explicable.
The strategy is to make prosecution witnesses--such as the "glowerting" Rachel Jeantel , pictured above--appear to be "alien," and "uncivilized," "primitive ," "uncultured," and therefore "unreliable."
Various
observers have suggested that West's shenanigans are preparation for a
mis-trial, and it's possible, though I don't think that is the strategy.
He's been successful enough, and he is smart enough, that no one should
underestimate the "power of the glove," though that piece --I don't
know what it is, but West does--isn't in evidence yet.
But it will be...
Woody'z not a lawyer, but:
From the opening knock-knock joke, to the fantastical suggestion that Martin "armed" himself with the sidewalk and went hunting trouble (long with skittles and a bottle/can of soda), to the treatment and questioning of this witness, Zimmerman's atty, Don West (a high-profile defense guy with a long record of successful defenses of vicious killers) is working an intentional strategy.
He's trivializing the prosecution's case and thereby trying to pull off a difficult maneuver, the "reverse OJ," named in honor of the late Johnnie Cochran's defense strategy which skillfully manipulated circumstances so that the man Cochran knew was a vicious , cold-blooded killer would walk.
Cochran's success w/OJ depended on three factors: 1) Convincing the jury that OJ was the victim; 2) recognizing that OJ had plenty of public sympathy and 3) creating a circus in the courtroom. Amanda Marcotte writes:
If you ever want to get a full eyeball of how little value is put on the life of a young black man by white nitwits, just watch all the digressions and whining and mockery inspired by the George Zimmerman trial. Like Hamilton Nolan said, “The tragic shooting death of Trayvon Martin continues to be one of America’s richest sources of tangentially-related arguments.” It would be funny, except it’s awful, because someone was murdered and it turns out that you can basically get away with murder in Florida if you create even the barest bones plausibility for self-defense, up to and including chasing someone down until they, fearing they have no other choice, take a swing at you in hopes to escape your scary ass. If I understand correctly, that’s Zimmerman’s defense and how fucking crazy is that if it works?! You can legally murder someone so long as you scared them enough they acted in self-defense first? (As long as they’re black, of course, but that’s not explicitly stated.) That needs to be the only thing being discussed right now.
There is no doubt that West is absolutely CERTAIN of Zimmerman's guilt--as would anyone be who viewed the evidence objectively. So he's making it difficult to consider the evidence objectively, by conducting a legal dog-and-pony show for the jury, turning it into a circus...Therewith is his 'treatment' of the prosecution witness explicable.
The strategy is to make prosecution witnesses--such as the "glowerting" Rachel Jeantel , pictured above--appear to be "alien," and "uncivilized," "primitive ," "uncultured," and therefore "unreliable."
Various observers have suggested that West's shenanigans are preparation for a mis-trial, and it's possible, though I don't think that is the strategy.
He's been successful enough, and he is smart enough, that no one should underestimate the "power of the glove," though that piece --I don't know what it is, but West does--isn't in evidence yet.
But it will be...
