• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!
  • Welcome to our archives. No new posts are allowed here.

Defense attorneys ask judge to let jurors travel to scene of shooting during trial

JackFrost

Banned
Joined
Jul 12, 2012
Messages
3,471
Reaction score
513
Location
El Monte, California
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Libertarian
George Zimmerman's attorney today filed paperwork, asking the judge to allow jurors to leave the courthouse during the trial and travel to the Sanford neighborhood where the defendant killed Trayvon Martin.

That would allow jurors to better understand the vantage point of individual eye- and ear-witnesses, many of whom are expected to describe what they saw and heard, wrote defense attorney Mark O'Mara.


None saw or heard the entire altercation, he noted.

"In this way, the jury can best decide how reliable each witness' testimony is," he wrote.

Zimmerman is the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who shot Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old, Feb. 26, 2012, in Sanford after calling police and describing him as suspicious.

O'Mara's latest request is unusual but not unprecedented. Typically, when a judge agrees to such an outing, he or she orders a van or bus to transport jurors together to the scene, allows them to get out, look around then orders them back on board and returns them to the courthouse.

It can be an eerily quiet undertaking. Attorneys often go along, often in separate vehicles, but they are not allowed to talk to jurors or point out things while at the scene.

According to O'Mara's motion, state law requires the judge and defendant to be present, but it's up to the judge to decide whether attorneys will be allowed to accompany them.

O'Mara wrote that he wants to go along, to make sure the scene has been properly secured and that the process works the way it's supposed to.

George Zimmerman trial - OrlandoSentinel.com

A good idea regardless of which side you support or believe.
 
Re: Defense attorneys ask judge to let jurors travel to scene of shooting during tria

I have no problem with this as long as the State gets the same opportunity to "secure" the scene and makes sure the "process works as it is supposed to."
 
Re: Defense attorneys ask judge to let jurors travel to scene of shooting during tria

Absolutely. The relevant section of the sidewalk should have been removed, still should, and brought to court as an exhibit.

Why, is there something so unique about this sidewalk that jurors couldn't understand without seeing it?. I would think most people know what a sidewalk is, looks like, etc.
 
Re: Defense attorneys ask judge to let jurors travel to scene of shooting during tria

I have no problem with this as long as the State gets the same opportunity to "secure" the scene and makes sure the "process works as it is supposed to."

Often neither side gets to put on any evidence during a field trip. Jurors just get to see for themselves and that is about it.
 
Re: Defense attorneys ask judge to let jurors travel to scene of shooting during tria

I have no problem with this as long as the State gets the same opportunity to "secure" the scene and makes sure the "process works as it is supposed to."

I don't believe the prosecution will allow Mark O'Mara to go by himself, nor would the judge grant one side and not the other.
 
Re: Defense attorneys ask judge to let jurors travel to scene of shooting during tria

The state should ask the the jurors walk from the convenience store.
 
Re: Defense attorneys ask judge to let jurors travel to scene of shooting during tria

The state should ask the the jurors walk from the convenience store.

Or wherever the tower pings show Trayvon walked to/from.. I assume you meant...
 
Re: Defense attorneys ask judge to let jurors travel to scene of shooting during tria

Or wherever the tower pings show Trayvon walked to/from.. I assume you meant...

Sure, if there's anything to it. Then they would understand how long T had been hiking and why he would be tired and out of breath.
 
Re: Defense attorneys ask judge to let jurors travel to scene of shooting during tria

Sure, if there's anything to it. Then they would understand how long T had been hiking and why he would be tired and out of breath.

...after running out of complete and utter fear for about 100 feet. Yeah... I'm sure they'll understand that.
 
Re: Defense attorneys ask judge to let jurors travel to scene of shooting during tria

...after running out of complete and utter fear for about 100 feet. Yeah... I'm sure they'll understand that.

Is there a mandatory distance for running in fear?

P.S. Was he running? I forget. Help me out George.

32 Days, George - YouTube
 
Re: Defense attorneys ask judge to let jurors travel to scene of shooting during tria

Why, is there something so unique about this sidewalk that jurors couldn't understand without seeing it?. I would think most people know what a sidewalk is, looks like, etc.

Really? By that logic no gun should ever be produced at trial because everyone knows what a gun is.

Actually, all sidewalks are not the same.
 
Re: Defense attorneys ask judge to let jurors travel to scene of shooting during tria

Is there a mandatory distance for running in fear?

P.S. Was he running? I forget. Help me out George.

32 Days, George - YouTube

I don't know.. He obviously wasn't running fast or far... Dee claims he was running out of fear. George downplays that a bit. George's statement is more supported by the evidence of T only ending up moving about 100 feet in about 3-4 minutes. Think you could have run more then 100 feet to get away from some guy you were greatly in fear of? I know I could have and i'm old and out of shape at this point in my life.
 
Re: Defense attorneys ask judge to let jurors travel to scene of shooting during tria

I don't know.. He obviously wasn't running fast or far... Dee claims he was running out of fear. George downplays that a bit. George's statement is more supported by the evidence of T only ending up moving about 100 feet in about 3-4 minutes. Think you could have run more then 100 feet to get away from some guy you were greatly in fear of? I know I could have and i'm old and out of shape at this point in my life.

I don't know either but I do know it's going to be fun watching the prosecution break down the SH interview with Z's prior statements.
 
Re: Defense attorneys ask judge to let jurors travel to scene of shooting during tria

I don't know either but I do know it's going to be fun watching the prosecution break down the SH interview with Z's prior statements.

There's nothing to break down. It's consistent with, the version Z gave to the police

Stop being disruptive
 
Re: Defense attorneys ask judge to let jurors travel to scene of shooting during tria

I don't know either but I do know it's going to be fun watching the prosecution break down the SH interview with Z's prior statements.

There are many different levels of running. Flat out running a slow jog and anything in between. Obviously Trayvon wasn't flat out running out of fear... Otherwise he certainly would have made it more than 100 feet in about 4 minutes. Context is important, and I really don't suspect that the jury will have a problem understanding what the context was once explained.

get into the mind-set” of the teen, and questioned whether he might have been running from Zimmerman because he was afraid of him and didn’t know who Zimmerman was
...
“more … like skipping, going away quickly. But he wasn’t running out of fear.”
 
Re: Defense attorneys ask judge to let jurors travel to scene of shooting during tria

There are many different levels of running. Flat out running a slow jog and anything in between. Obviously Trayvon wasn't flat out running out of fear... Otherwise he certainly would have made it more than 100 feet in about 4 minutes. Context is important, and I really don't suspect that the jury will have a problem understanding what the context was once explained.


...

That's just one of many Z's lies. They are all going to come out a trial. It's no accident that the first person the State subpoenaed was the custodian of audio records for the jail that housed Z. What do you think the jury is going to make of Z getting on the stand at the bond hearing and pretending to apologize to the family (and lying about how old he though T was) and then later, in jail, making jokes about the dead kid in a phone call to his wife?
 
Re: Defense attorneys ask judge to let jurors travel to scene of shooting during tria

Sure, if there's anything to it. Then they would understand how long T had been hiking and why he would be tired and out of breath.

0.8 miles in 47 minutes. not a long hike and definitely not long enough or at a pace that your average 17 y/o should be tired or out of breath.
 
Re: Defense attorneys ask judge to let jurors travel to scene of shooting during tria

No, you are not going to get off with a video

Tell me in your own words...the so-called break down, eh?

Oh, I think I did. It's not for you. It's for everybody else reading this.
 
Re: Defense attorneys ask judge to let jurors travel to scene of shooting during tria

0.8 miles in 47 minutes. not a long hike and definitely not long enough or at a pace that your average 17 y/o should be tired or out of breath.

So let the jury hike for an hour and see what happens.
 
Re: Defense attorneys ask judge to let jurors travel to scene of shooting during tria

0.8 miles in 47 minutes. not a long hike and definitely not long enough or at a pace that your average 17 y/o should be tired or out of breath.

less than a mile in 47 minutes?! That is beyond slow. A teenager should be able to to a mile in 20 minutes without being out of breath.
 
Re: Defense attorneys ask judge to let jurors travel to scene of shooting during tria

That's just one of many Z's lies. They are all going to come out a trial. It's no accident that the first person the State subpoenaed was the custodian of audio records for the jail that housed Z. What do you think the jury is going to make of Z getting on the stand at the bond hearing and pretending to apologize to the family (and lying about how old he though T was) and then later, in jail, making jokes about the dead kid in a phone call to his wife?

You see lies where they do not exist. You are either incapable of understanding the context of the running in fear of the SH interview or just refuse to. But it is clearly not a lie and I suspect that many (if not all) on the jury will understand.
 
Re: Defense attorneys ask judge to let jurors travel to scene of shooting during tria

less than a mile in 47 minutes?! That is beyond slow. A teenager should be able to to a mile in 20 minutes without being out of breath.

I do three miles in 30 - 45 minutes on the treadmill.. and I could run after that if necessary... and again, im way out of shape - at least compared to how I was when in HS/college.
 
Back
Top Bottom