by M. Bruce, Guest Columnist
Knock knock, who’s there? Don West, Don West who? Don West, the attorney for George Zimmerman, who lost the trial for his client because he did not take the death of a young boy seriously. Every good defense attorney knows that the fate of your client rests in the hands of the jury and you can easily lose the jury in voir dire or in the opening. Mr. Zimmerman’s attorneys lost any good graces they had garnered with the jury pool and their veneer of seriousness with the jury with this ridiculous and offensive opening.
Undoubtedly, there is more than enough evidence already introduced to convict Mr. Zimmerman, as charged, or of a lesser included manslaughter charge. The best bet he had was a standalone motion based on the immoral and illogical extension of castle doctrine called “Stand your ground law.” But his defense team decided to forego the motion and to incorporate their self-defense argument within the body of the case. A big mistake that will come to bite their client.
The first week proved that Zimmerman has a weak Defense team, keep in mind that the opening statement which includes the “knock knock joke” made by Mr.West was a year in making. Everything said in that statement, including the “knock knock joke,” had to be seriously considered, rehearsed, and finally chosen as the opening of their case. During that year, the Defense team waged a moderately successful media war against the victim’s family, after the family had been through hell and high water just to get Mr. Zimmerman charged. The defense dragged Trayvon’s school records and personal effects, including pictures taking from his cell phone, into the public eye and desperately went to the 5th District Court of Appeals to get the right to depose Mr. Crump, the family’s attorney, and after getting that right granted, they have yet to depose Mr. Crump. Mr. O’Mara also “allegedly” mischaracterized, to the press, a video shot by the victim in order to take one final shot across the bow before the trial began.
It is clear that Mr. O’Mara’s team still seems more interested in playing this trial out in public rather than providing a serious strategic defense for their client. Mr. O’Mara took the time to appear on CNN to defend the insensitive joke made during the opening statements. Shouldn’t he have been focusing on day three of the trial? Mr. O’Mara brought out the evidence that Trayvon was interested in fighting, brought about the unintended consequence of evidence coming out that Mr. Zimmerman was himself taking MMA classes. The jury will balance out who was more justifiably interested in fighting. A teenage boy? Or a paranoid grown man, who carried a weapon and stopped people walking through his neighborhood because he found them to be “suspicious”?
Mr. Don West, made his cross-examination of Rachel Jeantel, the victim’s girlfriend, a “wild west show,” showing very little control over his witness and even less control over his own questioning. He engaged this very genuine teenager in a conversation, badgered her, and failed to understand the environmental reality of his witness. At times it seemed like an older white male teacher was schooling an African-American teenager for bad grades, which was very bad optics in the context of this trial.
His impeachment of her was based on certain white lies she had told in order to get out of seeing the victim’s dead body, or about her age, which had nothing to do with what she “ear-witnessed.” It is automatically understood that she is biased towards the Defense, just because she is Trayvon’s friend, but having to badger her and make her sound like she is the biggest liar in the world, might have made her more credible in the eyes of the jury.
Even more useless, was Mr. West’s attempt to turn Trayvon Martin into a racist, at which he failed miserably, thanks to a young girl who kept her authenticity in check and did not play to the cameras or to the jury. The prosecution will certainly be able to argue in their closing argument, that nothing about Ms. Jeantel’s personality was a lie, and that should go a long way for the jury.
Due to the flawed opening, and overzealous and unnecessary witness badgering, Mr. Zimmerman has been put in an unenviable position where he may have to take the stand in his own defense. That will be a disaster. In hindsight, Mr. Zimmerman might have been better off retaining a seasoned Public Defender who knows the courtroom better and understands, at the very least, that “knock knock jokes” are not appropriate in matters of life and death.
