Zimmerman: Anticipating Mark O'Mara's Closing
Mark O'Mara will give his closing argument tomorrow morning, using a vivid computer animation showing step by step the defense theory of how the encounter occurred. There were hours of testimony about the accuracy of the animation, and the Judge ruled it would not come into evidence but O'Mara could use it as a demonstrative exhibit during his closing.
In his closing today, State's Attorney Bernardo de la Rionda used Powerpoint slides that seemed straight out of a 1990's continuing legal education seminar. They were impersonal and had too much text. The jurors couldn't possibly read it all and listen to him talk at the same time. I said in my earlier post that his theme of "assumptions" was a poor one, because coupled with his tossing rhetorical questions at the jury asking "isn't it possible" that such and such happened without answers, he merely created the very reasonable doubt he is obligated to overcome for a a conviction. Surely it wasn't lost on the jurors that when he told them (more than once) to "use your G-d given common sense" he was really telling them he didn't have the goods and wanted them to ignore the contrary evidence and rely on "assumptions" instead of proof. [More...]
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