Prosecutors' wording in affadavit screws Georgie's S.Y.G. pooch: "Zimmerman confronted Martin"

[thucythucy]

112. It seems to me the only way such an alleged conflict

could be raised by the defense is if the defense questions each parent in front of the jury during the trial. Statements to the press by themselves wouldn't suffice, they're basically hear-say. So, again, a defense attorney would be faced with the prospect of asking the father whether or not he could identify the voice on the tape at the time of the trial.

One rule of thumb in any trial, as I'm sure you know, is that a good attorney never asks a question to which he or she doesn't already know the answer. Suppose the father is on the stand, and says, "Yes, that's my son's voice." "But didn't you tell the press earlier on that it wasn't?" The list of possible explanations for this alleged discrepancy is nearly endless. "The recording I heard wasn't very good quality" or "I only heard a small portion of it" or "my statement was taken out of context" or "I was in such shock from my son's death I didn't know what I was saying," or "I meant I'd never heard him sound so scared, it just wasn't like Trayvon to be so terrified," and on and on and on. None of these explanations can be easily refuted. What the defense then would face is both parents identifying the voice, with a defense attorney badgering a pair of grieving parents, essentially calling them liars, in front of the jury. Doesn't sound like a winning strategy to me.

It seems to me, and this again is another basic rule of thumb, that the more time the grieving parents of an alleged murder victim spend in front of a jury during trial, the worse it is for the defense. If I were arguing this case I wouldn't touch that kind of testimony with a ten foot pole. I certainly wouldn't call them as witnesses for the defense. If the parents are called by the prosecution (and as defense counsel I'd object, since they weren't material witnesses) I'd simply say, "No questions, your honor"--reserve my right to call them back to the stand if absolutely necessary--and move on. Depending on their testimony I might file a motion for a mistrial. And if the verdict went against my client, I'd file an appeal on the basis that the testimony of the parents was immaterial, irrelevant, and prejudicial.

But of course we'll all have to wait and see how this plays out during the actual trial. Until then, all this is just speculation.