Zimmerman’s lawyer: I want a new judge
George Zimmerman’s attorney on Monday asked the judge in the case to step down because of a possible conflict of interest.On Friday, O’Mara told Circuit Judge Jessica Recksiedler he was on the verge of asking her to step aside. Her husband is the law partner of Mark NeJame, who currently works for CNN as an analyst on the Zimmerman case.
O’Mara told reporters that he met with Zimmerman on Monday, and they discussed what to do about the judge and decided to ask for a new one.
“What I don’t want to happen,” O’Mara told reporters Monday, “is to wait a month or two then find out what we thought was a potential conflict is an actual conflict.”
Chief Judge Alan Dickey confirmed the filing late Monday afternoon.
Recksiedler is almost certain to grant the motion. Under Florida law, all a person needs to show is a reasonable belief that the judge might not be fair.
This should be a slam-dunk. Most states also allow a peremptory challenge which comes in handy if your case gets assigned to a hanging judge.
Meanwhile, the media wants to unseal all the files in People v. Zimmerman. I guess they don’t think there has been enough pretrial publicity yet. As much as I would like to seal the files, I think this motion should be denied in order to preserve what is left of Zimmerman’s right to a fair trial. A change of venue is pretty much a sure thing already.
From Hillaryis44
Angela Corey has some ’splaining to do for not interviewing relevant witnesses.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/16/us-usa-florida-shooting-idUSBRE83F19Y20120416
Hmmm, that doesn’t sound good. I thought a prosecutor was supposed to review all the evidence before pressing charges?
As to Zimmerman asking for a new judge, heck yeah! I’d be like, are you connected in anyway to anybody in the media trying to lynch me?
I can’t imagine how they’re going to pick a jury that hasn’t heard about the case. I guess they’re going to have to find people who don’t own a TV and don’t read the papers.
Reviewing the evidence and actually speaking to the witnesses yourself are two different things as there should be a record of their statements in the evidence file. Of course, seeing how their statements cause problems for a Murder 2 charge, yes, she probably should have spoken to them to judge their credibility for herself.
Completely off topic – which I try never to do- but I hope you all will indulge me this once – my son completed his 3rd Boston Marathon run today in 93 degree heat. He runs for Dana Farber Cancer Research and has raised $$$$ for them. When he was a cancer patient at 17, a young man ran the marathon in his name. My son said that when (not if) he survived and was well enough, he was going to run for another teenaged boy. I tried to talk him out of the run today, and the marathon officials offered any runner that wanted out the opportunity to move themselves into next year’s race, but my kid reminded me that a young man was counting on him today. I need new buttons for my shirt.
I don’t blame you for being bursting. That is so cool! Congrats and kudos to your son.
Wow. Congrats to your amazing son!!
what a wonderful son you raised.
You are allowed to bust your buttons with pride in him.
Awww, great story! I bet you are so proud!
With all the other news, it’s nice to hear something like this. Truly the best thing I’ve read today.
Wow! Congrats to your son!
Congratulations to you and your son.
My daughter ran in the 2007 Chicago marathon that had to be shut down mid- race due to the heat. I was happy to hear that Boston had offered their registrants the choice to run next year. Gl
this just sucks and there is NO excuse for it. People depend on the justice system to be truthful and for all evidence to be made available to both sides
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/convicted-defendants-left-uninformed-of-forensic-flaws-found-by-justice-dept/2012/04/16/gIQAWTcgMT_story.html
I just got called for jury duty again. I must be the only legal citizen voter in California. This is the 8th time in 11 years that i have been called. In reading this article, how can jurors be sure they are making the right decision without the evidence?
I get called every 3 years, which is as often as I can legally be called.
I have jury duty next week.
I’m debating whether to fake leprosy or not.
Man, if we could ever get my amendment for Congress-by-Jury-Pool passed and ratified, you’d be an eleventh term Representative!
And that’s why I didn’t vote for Kamala Harris as CA AG because she hid problems about her own lab and other disclosures which she didn’t reveal as SF’s DA. Hundreds of cases have been rightly dismissed as a result. Sorry, but running such a DAs office negates you for higher office in my eyes.
Previously, she hit my radar because she ran a dishonest race against SF DA Terrance Hallinan to get his job. Then wrote a book that took credit for some of his ideas, but with a layer of something else that wasn’t him at all. He is one of those kooky/fair DAs that used to be a defense attorney and wouldn’t file on certain cases while upsetting the local cops on more than one occasion.
Like when off duty cops beat up someone over fajitas. He had the temerity to not take their side and filed charges. So she saw her opportunity with the hub-bub that created, cozied up to the cops, distorted his record, and played fast and loose with campaign financing laws. As well as leveling false accusations against him stating that he was covering up staff issues. When he wasn’t, the cases had to work through normal internal human resources routes.
Truly, she reminds me of Obama, which is a shame, when looking for intelligent women to support for office.
She must’ve watched The Wire – a lot.
Any adn everything corrupt reminds me of obama.