Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Zimmerman Charged - (Continued)

The Zimmerman case prosecutor made some seriously dumb remarks at her press conference today.

These quotes reported in the NYTimes are astonishing to have come from a senior prosecutor.

1) Ms. Corey opened the news conference by saying that she had spoken to Trayvon Martin’s parents shortly after she took on the case, and that the investigation was driven by “the search for justice for Trayvon.”
--- This quote gives the impression that the prosecution's investigation was driven by a desire to achieve a desired outcome IE- Zimmerman being charged, rather than being driven by objective analysis of the facts then applied to law. This stupid statement will be used by the defense as purported evidence of a failure on the part of the prosecution to objectively (and fairly) analyze the facts of the case in the conduct of their investigation.
2) “We did not come to this decision lightly,” Ms. Corey said. She added, “Let me emphasize that we do not prosecute by public pressure or by petition.”
 --- The perceivable veracity of this statement is already seriously weakened by quote 1... And then appears even more disingenuous in the context of quote 3.
3) “We will continue to seek the truth about this case,”
?? This quote is truly ridiculous. As with any criminal charge, the decision to charge Zimmerman should have been made on the basis of the prosecution's established belief that Zimmerman is guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. Further, that all the relevant facts of the case had been established to the degree that the prosecution (on charging Zimmerman) believed it knew exactly what occurred.  Suggesting that the truth is still not known will play straight into the hands of the Zimmerman defense team.
The problem with all three of these statements is that they provide the Zimmerman defense team with new material to suggest that the prosecution's decision to charge  was not vested in objective analysis of the facts applied to law, but instead, in the prosecution's desire to placate public opinion without having established exactly what occurred and why . Because Zimmerman will likely use a SYG defense, to succeed at trial, the prosecution will have to show a certainty of objectivity and certainty of established facts. They did not purvey that image today.
In short, the prosecution got off to a bad start today. 


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