The George Zimmerman Crimefile News, Murder Trial Playbook

George Zimmerman with his lawyers and a jury consultant. 

Sanford, FL—Let me begin by reminding my readers that I’ve been a cop and licensed private investigator for more than 40 years.  I specialize in criminal defense cases where self-defense is the primary legal defense of the accused.

Governor Jeb Bush appointed 18th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Debra Nelson in 1999.  She served three years as a Broward County prosecutor in the very beginning of her legal career in 1979.  She’s never been a criminal defense lawyer.  This murder trial of George Zimmerman will provide challenges that few judges could ever equitably handle. 

Emotional and racist African-Americans and various Left Wing wackos will threaten the judge daily.   I say this based on the already exhibited behavior of pro-Trayvon Martin demonstrators.  Judge Nelson’s life is about to change and not for the better.

So far, I don’t see any real attempt to preclude prejudicial and illicit outside influences because the trial will be televised live and the jury will not be sequestered.  Trust me when I say most or all of the jury will be searching for material on the Internet every night to support their personal preferences of a verdict.

Let me also say that the members of the jury will be justifiably fearful of retribution if they don’t convict Zimmerman.  The jury is made from members of the local community and they all have already seen the massive hate directed at Zimmerman by very vocal neighbors.  This trial will be a lot of things, but I seriously doubt fair will be one of them.

The media will continue to portray Travon Martin with angelic pictures of a baby-faced pre-teen.  They will avoid all of the much more current tough guy poses with guns and drugs like the ones that were discovered on his cell phone. 

The media will continue to portray Martin as a happy lad skipping merrily through an apartment complex with tea and skittles.  They will portray Zimmerman as a ruthless vigilante stalking Martin only because of his race.  The media has their own long-standing agenda here of audience building sensationalism and to abolish American gun rights. 

The media led by Nancy Grace of HLN will relentlessly harp that Zimmerman disobeyed “orders” from a 911 operator to discontinue his efforts to watch Martin.  They will never once mention that the 911 operators have no training in the laws of citizen’s arrest or probable cause.  911 operators are not qualified nor authorized by law to order anyone to do anything at all.  They can however recommend options to their callers. 

The one thing we do know for sure is that the 911 operator was unable to do was to put a capable and well-trained cop at the scene to deal with Trayvon Martin’s suspicious conduct.  Hopefully the defense will make that point.

What the prosecutors hope to accomplish is the total shifting of the burden of proof making Zimmerman prove his justification to use deadly force.  That’s un-American and wrong but I have seen this happen in the majority of similar cases when defense lawyers are not skillful or when judges are biased against the use of weapons in self-defense cases.  Frankly most criminal defense lawyers don’t understand the dynamics of self-defense and can’t convey the needed information to a judge or jury.

The defense will show the jury the grass stains on the back of Zimmerman's clothing and his injuries.  They will show the disparity of force between the out-of-shape Zimmerman and the athletic Martin.

In the end witnesses will testify and the jury will be instructed.  The jury will make their guesses and Zimmerman will be lucky if he survives this ordeal at all.  I will be providing more information during the trial and will be on Twitter as @crimefile time permitting.   Please, stay tuned!

Special Update!  Since this was written Judge Nelson entered an order that the jury is to be sequestered.