Reuters Works to Railroad George Zimmerman

Posted, with running commentary, by Nicholas Stix

Trayvon Martin Friend, Rachel, to Testify at George Zimmerman Trial

Reuters | Posted: 06/25/2013 6:00 am EDT | Updated: 06/25/2013 2:14 pm EDT

 

George Zimmerman waits for his defense counsel to arrive in Seminole circuit court for his trial, in Sanford, Fla., Monday, June 24, 2013. Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder for the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin. (AP Photo/Orlando Sentinel, Joe Burbank/Pool)

By Barbara Liston

SANFORD, Fla., June 25 (Reuters) - Prosecutors in the Florida murder trial of neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman will reveal a star witness for the first time on Tuesday, the girl Trayvon Martin was talking with in the last minutes of his life.

[The so-called star witness was first revealed by the Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump in March, 2012.]

The teenage girl, known as Witness #8 until now, was due to testify about what Martin, the unarmed black 17-year-old shot and killed by Zimmerman last year, told her what he saw that night.

[Actually, she's 19, an age at which the MSM typically refer to a female as a "woman," not as a "girl." Note that Trayvon Martin was not unarmed. He was armed with his fists and the sidewalk.]

Identified in court on Monday only as Rachel, a friend of Martin from Miami, she received a running account about what was happening, starting when he noticed a man, Zimmerman, watching him in the gated central Florida community he was visiting.

Zimmerman, 29 and part Hispanic, was a neighborhood watch volunteer in the Retreat at Twin Lakes community in Sanford at the time of the Feb. 26, 2012, killing. He has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and could face life imprisonment if convicted.

[Reuters alleged reporter Barbara Liston knew at this point that the witness was named Rachel Jeantel. Jeantel's name had already been published elsewhere. Liston was acting as if Jeantel were a child, and needed to be protected, a strategy pioneered by Benjamin Crump, who demanded "privacy" for Jeantel in March, 2012. However, even if Jeantel had been under age, she would have had no right to have her identity hidden. One does not have the right to take a man's liberty form behind a veil of secrecy. What about alleged rape victims? That rule applies to them, as well.]

The racially charged case triggered civil rights protests and debates [sic] about the treatment of black Americans in the U.S. justice system, since police did not arrest Zimmerman for 44 days.

[There were no "debates" about "the treatment of black Americans in the U.S. justice system"; rather, there were one-sided, racist rants and dishonest reporting by the MSM.]

To win a conviction for second-degree murder, the prosecution must convince jurors that Zimmerman acted with "ill will, hatred, spite or an evil intent," and "an indifference to human life," according to Florida jury instructions.

In previous written testimony, Rachel described Martin as scared and trying to get away from the man. She was urging him to run. She last heard Martin say, "why are you following me" after which she said she heard what sounded like Martin falling. Then the phone line went dead.

The Martin family lawyer, Ben Crump, has said her testimony helps destroy Zimmerman's claim that he acted in self-defense.

[No real reporter would rely on Benjamin Crump; that's like taking Al Sharpton's word for anything.]

Zimmerman placed a four-minute phone call to police when he first spotted Martin, telling a dispatcher that the Miami teen looked "real suspicious."

Martin was a student at a Miami-area high school and a guest of one of the homeowners. He was walking back to the house after buying snacks at a nearby convenience store when he was shot in the chest during a confrontation [sic] with Zimmerman.

[This is the phony, neutral-sounding language of moral equivalence. Barbara Liston knew at the time of this "report" that Zimmerman had shot Martin, but also that Martin had inflicted terrible wounds on Zimmerman. That she would mention the one without the other constitutes a lie of omission, and putting her thumb on the scales of justice.]

Also on Tuesday, lawyers will continue to dissect witness testimony about Zimmerman's call to police. Jurors heard the "suspicious person" call three times on Monday, twice during the opening statements and again during witness testimony.

In opening statements Monday, the prosecution portrayed Zimmerman as a man with a concealed weapon who committed a vigilante-style killing. The defense suggested that Martin was the aggressor, and Zimmerman acted to protect his own life.

Six jurors, all women, were selected last week to hear the case. Florida law requires a minimum of six jurors except in cases where the death penalty is sought.

Under Florida's Stand Your Ground law, which was approved in 2005 and has since been copied by about 30 other states, people fearing for their lives can use deadly force without having to retreat from a confrontation, even when it is possible. (Editing by David Adams and Doina Chiacu)

[Florida's Stand Your Ground law is completely irrelevant to this story. Months ago, the defense announced in court that it was not pursuing an SYG defense, and was instead arguing self-defense. Thus, <EM>Reuters</EM> is still recycling the racist MSM lynch mob's March, 2012 talking points. The MSM seized on SYG at the time, because they sought to have it repealed.]