During that hearing, [Zimmerman's lawyer Mark] O'Mara said his client had been the subject of a carefully orchestrated national media campaign by attorneys for Trayvon's family, who had traveled the country, portraying the former Neighborhood Watch volunteer as a racist murderer.
De la Rionda accused O'Mara of trying to taint potential jurors. All he wanted, de la Rionda said, is to have a fair trial, and the best way to do that is to prohibit all attorneys from talking about or publishing information about the case....
In arguing against the gag order Friday, O'Mara said that when he first took Zimmerman's case, his office was inundated with thousands of pieces of email and media queries, so he created a website, where he regularly posts blogs and court documents....
A dozen news organizations, including the Orlando Sentinel, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and CNN, opposed the gag order, calling it extreme and unnecessary.
November 1, 2012
George Zimmerman's lawyer can keep blogging about the Trayvon Martin case.
Says the judge.
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13 comments:
I guess it makes sense to do this with such a high-profile case. People probably ask more questions than he can respond to and it helps to feel like he's countering all the bad press Zimmerman had received before. I'm not sure I'd want the lawyer doing it, but there's no one else well equipped to do so.
If the Fourth Estate were up to the challenge, would the lawyer need to do it?
IOW, yet another failure made evident and then rectified the new media way.
Thousands of other cases where defendants are just pieces of meat are wending their way through the system in Fl, their judges thankful that nobody is paying attention.
I would argue that this anonymous justice is better than the Circus that this case has become.
In any case, unless the trial is moved to Miami, Zimmerman will walk free and be murdered or sued into oblivion, or both.
There doesn't seem to be an up side for Zimmerman in this, so whatever can be done to present him positively is probably a good thing for him. The court of public opinion has already taken over. Whatever the actual courts do about it is almost irrelevant.
Prawl, I think Zimmerman is judgment proof. Why sue him if no recovery?
Here’s the link to the site for those who may be interested.
Why do reports about this case refer to Martin as "Trayvon" but never refer to Zimmerman as "George"?
If the Fourth Estate were up to the challenge, would the lawyer need to do it?
Good point, I’m not sure what I think about the defense attorney maintaining a blog for his client but it doesn’t appear on its face to violate any ethical rules that I’m aware of and the court seems to allow it. It seems to me that a regular blog dedicated to covering the legal proceedings and providing access to documents would be a VERY useful thing for news organization to provide to its readers. I know that I appreciated with the Sanford Police Department provided copies of the 9/11 reports that Zimmerman had made as well as other documents that they had made about the shooting. It provided a means for people interested in the FACTS rather than the pre-constructed NARRATIVE to get a better idea of what may have happened.
Palladian: "Why do reports about this case refer to Martin as "Trayvon" but never refer to Zimmerman as "George"?"
Because Zimmerman is a WHITE hispanic and thus needs to be demonized while simultaneously Martin is not.........WHITE.. and therefore it is important to humanize him in order for JUSTICE to be done.
Here's a site which has done yeomans' work digging for the truth about this case.
theconservativetreehouse.com
To PaulV:
The Martins sue Zimmerman in order to also sue the homeowner's association he ran the neighborhood watch for. Since he wasn't on shift it's a very tangential connection, but that's where the deep pockets are so that's who you sue.
The first rule of justice club is you can't blog about justice club.
I want to second the link to the Last Refuge. They are doing the most detailed and in-depth research and advocacy for George:
http://theconservativetreehouse.com/
One of the regulars, Michael Mortimer, has put up YouTube videos with commentary on legal procedure and litigation strategy of recent hearings in the case that might be of use to Ann's students:
http://youtu.be/s_8FwWE9814
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