Page 25 - Couldnt Get News Today

Arguments making a case of why the neighborhood watch volunteer should be acquitted for murder. thursday, prosecutors made their final pitch saying zimmerman lied about what happened that february night. zimmerman did not testify in the case. the jury of six women did hear his statements to police. a pittsburgh area man accused of setting a 7-year-old boy on fire. edward myers doused his girlfriends son with a flammable liquid and his own son. the pair along with another are accused of shootin...

>> the non-enumerated felony alleged as child abuse. obviously the information alleges that the defendant shot and killed the victim, that the victim was under the age of 18. and child abuse must be, according to the third degree felony murder instruction defined. >> reporter: the defense attorney was outraged. >> oh, my god. just when i thought this case couldnt get anymore bizarre. >> reporter: the debate brought more testy exchanges between west and judge debra nelson. >> ive already ruled an...

Bail, so he could have been out the whole time. forget about george zimmerman for a second. doesnt that team somewhat unethical for a prosecutor to overcharge you, to go the entire case, to not be able in their own mind to have the confidence to think theyre going to convict you, and then the morning before you argue say oh, by the way, heres the other one, maybe you should have defended against this. this isnt a game. it is somebodys life. >> exactly. and manslaughter is a crime, a very serious...

>> you can ask. and fortunately, the judge did the right thing here, which was exclude it. its not part of the case. but manslaughter, which i think weve all assumed has -- would be a lesser included offense, is part of the case, and so there are only two options for the jury now. guilty or not guilty on second second murder. the same question on manslaughter. this was, i thought, dirty pool to ask for the felony murder child abuse. but the judge saw that and excluded it. >> mark, it goes to wha...

Couldnt get anymore bizarre, the state is seeking third degree murder based on child abuse? >> reporter: defense attorney don west didnt mince words during the hearing on the states request to include a lesser charge of third degree felony murder as an option for jurors to consider. west called the strategy a trick. >> this is outrageous. its outrageous they would bring this up at this time. they will consider manslaughter as an alternative to second degree murder. after more that you know a two...

Shes too busy keeping the lawyers in their place. >> i have told counsel first of all, no one talks over the other. please dont go off focus here. >> no -- >> dont "no, no" me either. >> here style may be a turnoff to some, but to attorney nejame, who has presented cases before judge nelson, its a breath of fresh air. >> this case could easily have unravelled. shes going to let everybody who was in charge and its going to be her. >> judge nelson replaced another judge who the defense claim had a...

Do which i hate, i dont think that will be very effective but well see. >> but mark omara was saying hes lived with this case for a year and a half and doesnt need to write it down at this point. he knows what he wants to say. >> i will tell you something, a very small circle of friends that are almost all trial lawyers and great try lawyers. and the great -- the guys who are the greatest at it can get up -- and having lived the case, they can emote, modulate, they can talk from the heart and th...

To agree more with the state, on display today as she clashed with the defense on instructions. >> you continually disagree with this court every time i make a ruling. if i have made a mistake in this case, you will appeal. this is my ruling on this issue. >> reporter: but it was this moment after a hearing late into the night that will forever be scemented in trial watchers mind. >> im not physically able to keep up this pace much longer. its 10:00 at night. we started this morning. weve had fu...

Everybody else says, i think the reason this gained traction because in any other situation without a cop who is doing the shooting and killing somebody, they arrest first and ask questions later. and i think that the prosecution has been on their heels the entire time, because they didnt know what to make of this case. because it was forced upon them. i also think that theres a certain prosecutorial ski schizophren schizophrenia. they keep saying on one hand this 17-year-old and they keep calli...

Death. did he are a right to be upset? >> yes, i think he does. i think it was frankly outray jouls and hes been upset all along. i dont know that it was a good idea to channel that anger towards her honor. but ultimately the manslaughter was going to be given. we had that argument yesterday about the propriety of lesser includeds, and the judge did what sthe law calls on her to d. >> you can say what you want about this case. it has nothing to do with child abuse. i thought, again, the judge wa...