When the news that Zimmerman was being charged with Murder in the Second Degree hit the wires, a great disturbance was felt across The Farce. When almost every single defense lawyer and former prosecutor very politely and without stridency comments for the media that Angela Corey might have overreached with the accusation, you know they are saying “Holy crap! She f***** by the numbers.”
Everybody was expecting a Manslaughter charge. It is the one to with a substantially less burden of proof and with a stiff penalty. If Ms. Corey’s strategy is to gamble that Zimmerman will take a plea and quickly sweep everything under the rug, I think she is whistling Dixie in the dark. And it did not help her cause one bit the way the affidavit of probable cause was written: It reads less like a legal document and more like she copy and pasted selected quotes from different newspapers during the height of “Let’s Get Zimmerman” craze.
Two words no Florida prosecutor wants to hear are now starting to bubble to the surface: Casey Anthony.
Nancy Grace surely is licking her lips with anticipation on this one. Let the legal games begin.
I’m currently glad it’s a court date right now. At least Zimmerman is allowed to defend himself on this one. The court of public opinion? Not so much.
“Zimmerman is allowed to defend himself”
Twice.
You weren’t kidding, that reads just like one of those ‘news’ reports. They’re making an awful lot of assumptions, either they have evidence we don’t, or they’re going to have a hard time convicting him.
Can the affidavit be used as evidence for a malicious prosecution suit? It reads like it was written by Al Sharpton and includes several unsupported or outright false assertions.
That and a bit more.
If Zimmerman is found Not-Guilty under the provisions of STG, Seminole County may end up shedding some bucks his way.
The feds can still try and charge Zimmerman if he’s found not guilty in a state court IIRC. Which would be a monumental fuck up on the Fed’s part. OTOH they’re more likely to try him in civil court, as opposed to criminal court.
Lott brings up an important point with the prosecutor not using a grand jury implying that a grand jury would not indict Zimmerman – but he doesn’t state one important point. State’s attorneys, like Angela Corey, are elected, grand juries aren’t.
Can you say “Duke Lacross”? The state’s attorney in that case was up for re-election and wanted to look good for his black constituents. Same thing with Ms. Corey?
From a political standpoint, it’s pure win for her. If she loses the case, it was “that jury was a crazy as the Casey Anthony jury”. If she wins, her constituents may like her even more.