July 19, 2013

What the Zimmerman Prosecution Did Not Do (and Why)

By Jason Kissner
Post-verdict analysis and commentary on the Zimmerman trial has run the gamut from predictably, ostentatiously, and dangerously clownish to the genuinely insightful.  Given such a broad range, it is most curious indeed that while there has been a surfeit of reflection on what the prosecution did charge, there has been none with respect to what the prosecution did not charge and why. Readers might agree that careful consideration of what the prosecution might well have done but did not do proves highly informative in connection with just how malicious Zimmerman's prosecution was. The prosecution could have requested the lesser included offense of aggravated assault at the same time it requested inclusion of the preposterous (given the nature of the evidence) lesser included offense of 3rd degree felony murder (with an underlying predicate of child abuse). This is not idle conjecture or speculation -- far from it. In fact, while strategizing, at the close of the case,...(Read Full Article)