Trayvon Martin

Trayvon Martin

Zimmerman defense looking for new clues on Trayvon

 

Lawyers for George Zimmerman, accused of killing Trayvon Martin, have gone into attack mode as they prepare their case.

 

George Zimmerman, the former neighborhood watch volunteer who killed Trayvon Martin.
George Zimmerman, the former neighborhood watch volunteer who killed Trayvon Martin.
AP

frobles@MiamiHerald.com

He stressed that the medical records Zimmerman is refusing to turn over are far more relevant than Trayvon’s grades.

Corey’s office declined to comment. It’s unclear whether she will fight the subpoena considering that her office got copies of Zimmerman’s high school and college records for its investigation and inadvertently released the sealed transcripts to the media.

Miami-Dade Schools spokesman John Schuster said the district will likely turn over the records.

“The district’s established practice is to comply with any lawfully issued subpoena,” Schuster said in an email. “Upon receipt, the parents are afforded reasonable notice of the subpoena and of our intent to comply with the subpoena unless we are provided with a court order that would preclude our compliance with the subpoena.”

The defense could face resistance from Twitter and Facebook.

Twitter is currently in litigation with the New York Police Department over a subpoena for the account records of an Occupy Wall Street protester. Twitter has refused to turn over the account information, and asked an appellate court to stay a lower court’s order.

Twitter spokeswoman Carolyn Penner declined to answer questions about the company’s subpoena policy.

A Facebook spokeswoman said the company “adheres to applicable laws” and cited company guidelines, which suggest that user content is only turned over in response to a law enforcement search warrant.

The Facebook guidelines also say that if the account was deleted, the company would no longer be able to access it. Trayvon’s account is no longer active, but it’s unclear whether it was deactivated or deleted.

“This is how you defend someone charged with second-degree murder, a charge that presumes ill will and hate,” O’Mara said. “If that’s the way they are charging it, we have to know as much as we can about everybody involved -- every state witness. We’ll do everything we can to get that out there. It’s not character assassination; it’s investigation.”

Zimmerman claims he killed the unarmed Miami Gardens teenager in an act of self defense. The Sanford Police said the evidence supported his story, but the public outcry that ensued after the Feb. 26 attack led to a special prosecutor and a charge that most legal experts say went overboard.

Former Miami-Dade prosecutor David Waksman said O’Mara may request all the information he wants — but that does not mean he will be allowed to present it at trial.

“This isn’t Judge Judy: You don’t just go up there and tell your story,” Waksman said. “What the defense lawyer wants to do is make Trayvon look like a bad guy. Whatever the rules of evidence will allow, he’ll do it.”

He said O’Mara will probably make posters “as large as the courthouse walls” from Trayvon’s more menacing Twitter photo, which showed him with a white sleeveless T-shirt and gold grills over his teeth.

While character evidence is usually inadmissible, O’Mara might be able to get it in if it shows a propensity toward violence, Waksman said.

“If Martin was a tough guy, a bad guy, that might be relevant,” Waksman said. “The defense will try to get any information that could corroborate Zimmerman’s story. Whether he can use it at trial is another matter.”

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