WHILE THE PROSECUTORS, IN THE GEORGE ZIMMERMAN TRIAL, RESTED THEIR CASE WITH A WHIMPER, THE DEFENSE APPEARS TO BE ENDING ITS CASE WITH A BANG No matter what side one has taken in the George Zimmerman trial, one has to be impressed with the methodical manner in which this case has been handled by defense attorneys, Don West, and Mark O’Mara. Any fair-minded person can see that they have simply out-classed the prosecution’s team, made the prosecutors in this case, repeatedly, appear amateurish, and turned the State’s own witnesses into witnesses more useful to the defense than to the prosecution. Whereas the State rested its case after calling a forensic expert, Dr. Bao, to the stand, whose testimony hurt the prosecution’s case, the defense appeared to put this case beyond the reach of the State, yesterday, by calling its own forensic expert, Dr. Vincent Di Maio, to testify. The contrast between the two experts could not have been greater. It appears unanimous that those, who watched Dr. Bao give his testimony last Friday, felt his performance was an unmitigated disaster for the prosecution. Dr. Di Maio’s testimony, on the other hand, was of textbook quality. Based upon his credentials, no one should have been surprised. Indeed, in Dr. Bao’s testimony before the jury on Friday of last week, he mentioned the experiments, and research done by Dr. Di Maio, which was a basis for some of his own testimony. Others, too, have acknowledged Dr. Vincent Di Maio as a leading expert in the field. The forensic pathologist has performed more than 9,000 autopsies, over a forty year career, written four books, and 88 articles, as well as testified in cases, in five countries. In Dr. Di Maio’s testimony in the Zimmerman case, he stated, that the weapon which killed Trayvon Martin, was discharged between 2 to 4 inches from Martin’s body. The distance could be determined, he said, by the residue that resulted from the firing of the weapon. Taking a pen from his inside coat pocket to demonstrate how the weapon, wielded by Zimmerman, would have been discharged, Dr. Di Maio stated that, when the gun was fired, the bullet entered Martin’s body on the left side of Martin’s chest, puncturing the sac around his heart, entering his right ventricle, and puncturing his right lung. In that state, Dr. Di Maio said, a person could function for another 10-15 seconds, given the fact that reserves of oxygen to the brain have not, at that point, been exhausted. This testimony was seen as important because Zimmerman testified that Martin had spoken after being shot, words to the effect of “You got me.” Zimmerman had also stated to the police that he had moved Martin’s arms outward, away from his body, but Martin’s arms were found underneath his body, which was face down, when the police arrived. The time-frame would have allowed Martin to re-position his arms, in an attempt to reach the area where he had been shot. According to Dr. Di Maio’s testimony, the forensic evidence was consistent with Zimmerman’s testimony. The highly acclaimed forensic expert testified that, when a gun is fired at a two-four-inch distance, which he said was the distance, in this case, the discharge would have caused a puncture in the fabric Martin was wearing, first, by the mixture of gas and air, followed by the bullet which would have made the puncture more emphatic, which, in turn, would have been followed by a soot, or sulfur, residue. The pattern left, which Dr. Di Maio described as a soot tattoo, allows a forensic scientist, he stated, to determine the distance, and the position of the clothing in relationship to the victim’s body, as well as the angle from which the weapon was discharged. It was Dr. Di Maio’s testimony that Trayvon Martin was on top of George Zimmerman at the time that the weapon, that killed him, was discharged, which was critical to the defense’s claim that Zimmerman fired his weapon in self-defense. During cross-examination, the prosecution asked if the wound, sustained by Martin, was consistent with a person pulling back from being on top of Zimmerman, and also consistent with both men standing in an upright position. Dr. Di Maio answered that the clothing, being away from Martin’s body, would be consistent with the prosecution’s latter premise, but not with the former, since gravity would not have allowed Martin’s clothing to be away from Martin’s body in the manner that it was at the time the weapon was discharged. He said the clothing, being away from Martin’s body, was consistent with Martin leaning over Zimmerman at the time the fatal shot was fired. The prosecution offered that some of Zimmerman’s wounds could have been sustained by nearby tree branches, rather than the sidewalk, which was the claim that was made by the defense. The forensic pathologist stated that the wounds were consistent with Zimmerman’s head striking a hard surface, multiple times. He indicated there were at least six different injuries to Zimmerman’s head. Many saw it as a moment of desperation when the prosecution team asked Dr. Di Maio how much he was getting paid by the defense for his testimony. He answered that his fee was the same in this case, as it has been in other cases, $400 an hour. When asked how much he had made, Dr. Di Maio answered it totaled $2400, adding it was not a difficult case. He had described the difficulty of the forensics in this case as “101,” when asked earlier, by the defense for his view of the level of difficulty in determining, through the use of forensic science in this case, what had happened, as it related to the injury sustained by Martin. There was one other witness, whose testimony, yesterday, might be of some importance in this case, but that is only because of her race, a black woman who was sick, and, thus, gave her testimony by video feed from her home. Her testimony was that she saw the injury to Zimmerman’s nose that he suffered on the night of the incident, and gave her opinion that it was Zimmerman’s voice that heard on the 911 tape calling for help. Her testimony did not offer any information, not already in evidence. Other witnesses, seven in all, had testified as to whose voice they thought was yelling for help on the 911 tape, saying it was Zimmerman’s voice. And, there was photographic evidence already submitted, which verified Zimmerman’s injuries. It is clear, therefore, that the defense wanted to place this particular witness’s statements before the jury to neutralize the prosecution’s claim that Zimmerman acted out of some racial malice for blacks, the night Trayvon Martin was killed. The testimony, given by this witness, was that Zimmerman was a “friendly neighbor.” One got a sense of how the defense felt the hearing went yesterday, and how others have gone throughout this case, when the defense announced that it had decided not to call some of its witnesses, and expected, instead, to wrap up its case today. It remains to be seen if the defense, indeed, will rest its case, sometime today, Wednesday, presumably in the late evening. After Tuesday’s testimony, there does not seem to be any reason to doubt that the defense wants to wrap things up, as soon as possible, given the fact that the jury has been sequestered for almost three weeks and also because it wants to end its case on a high note. There was certainly such a note made yesterday. As for George Zimmerman taking the stand, as was said last week, the chance of that taking place is “slim” and “none,” with “slim” having left town even before the trial started, and “none” hanging around to see if “slim” was needed. From this perspective, “slim” can remain out of town, and the defense can rest.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Jul 2013 14:16:39 +0000
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