Page 4 - Lon Question News Today

Specific question regarding clarification of the instructions regarding manslaughter. if you have a specific question, please submit. >> yes, your honor. >> yes, your honor. >> okay. this will be given by the deputies to the jurors. just so you know, they have ordered dinner. if counsel wants to have an hour to go to dinner, you may do so. >> your honor, if we may want to be on standby if they come back with a question. >> thats a good idea. lets be on standby for about 15 minutes in case they h...

Answer to the question is what clarification would you like? but theyre hammering the language out. >> john, i interrupted you. i guess my nonlawyer question of whats confusing you is probably not going to make the cut. >> this is such a critical point for the judge and the lawyers because neither one of the defense wants areas for them and the prosecution for them. but each of them know -- >> i think theyre speaking again. >> i remember it to be something like can we get a clarification on the ...

>> so theres a conference there. what seems to be so straight forward for the rest of us gets to be complicated by your people, as you call them. >> my people. >> this is the first indication theyve had, even reading tea leaves of what theyve had going on. >> so you have the proposed answer -- you heard the jurys question, correct? >> yes, your honor. >> the proposed answer that has been agreed upon by both your counsel and the state is as follows: the court cannot engage in general discussions ...

Answer any particular question the jury had. i think that should be at this point, the extent would be, ladies and gentlemen, if you have a more specific question, theres as possibility we could answer it or something like that. >> it sounds like an agreement. it seems like those cases including the recent supreme court case about three months ago haygood and diaz, it might have been cited by the state, 957, 72nd, 104, it significant in that it references perriman,

For the proposition that the judge can answer with a quick legal answer depending on what the question is. i would expect the next round to be much more contentious. now the two sides will duke it out in front of the judge as to what the answer should be. >> how unusual is this? >> not unusual at all. >> in unison. >> this is a fight at the end of the case. >> could it be unusual if she actually gives some detailed answer? >> right. there should be some skirmishing as to what that answer will be...

Stop talking while you go back and look for it. >> john, since you suggested this is very critical and, you know, i think the general feeling has been that this favors the prosecutions, the fact that theyve even asked about this clarification of manslaughter, if youre george zimmermans attorneys, is the wording particular wording, that important? >> absolutely. the wording is important because it may be that the wording is such that the jurors may decide the question of -- issues around self-def...

Defense? >> yes, your honor. >> ill rewrite it so its one handwriting instead of two. >> at that point do you intend to bring them into the courtroom? >> i was just going to give it to them. that way they can reread it over and offver again instead of me just reading it once. >> so obviously what they want them to do, lisa bloom, is lets get a question back from you that is very focused, very specific. >> right. all this boils down to the jury saying we have a question about manslaughter and eve...

Can go in any order they want. i think its possible and possibly probably that they have rejected murder in the second degree. >> john, do you think they tend to take things in order as they look at these forms? >> absolutely. that is the most serious one and people have to get some consensus about that. i would say this, clarification here by the judge is most, most critical. because the manslaughter instruction as i heard it the other day was kind of confusing. and a juror still could say that...

That testimony was something almost all of us could understand from personal experience. but theres no question that george zimmerman did get some injuries. the only went kwe is how se-- question is how serious are they? even his own attorney in closing argument conceded, yeah, it probably wasnt a couple dozen times, he probably was exaggerating. >> craig, were in this half hour recess. we assume when judge nelson comes back, shell have a decision about whether shes going to give any sort of cla...

They can inquire specifically and perhaps get a response. >> and what john said, if you go through second degree murder and maybe theyve come to an agreement, but if theyre going in order, theyve gone through second degree murder and they say, well, it did not meet that standard, do you find that juries tend to go line by line and there will be a specific line that tripped them up? >> there will be an individual line. and there are so many different lines here, it can be confusing. the prosecuti...