O'mara is confident so we shall see. Hoping this does not turn out to be a civil rights case.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... s/2399235/Excerpt
Now, 15 months after the teen's death and in a Seminole County courthouse just 6 miles from where Zimmerman shot Martin, a jury will decide a case in which racial profiling and Florida's self-defense laws are on trial alongside Zimmerman.
Did Zimmerman kill Martin because of his race or was Martin the aggressor and Zimmerman legally defended himself with lethal force?
Jury selection for the televised trial was set to begin Monday.
"Both sides are going to have to be careful in juror selection because the race issues in this case are highly charged," said Randy Reep, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor in Jacksonville. "If I was the prosecutor in this case, I would be desiring to have black people or other minorities who have had bad experiences based solely on their 'profileable' characteristics."
Those people, Reep said, are more likely to relate and side with Martin. He added that's a departure from common scenarios because usually defense attorneys want black jurors who they believe are more likely to be distrustful of law enforcement officials.
In this case, defense attorneys will be looking for people who don't believe police enforce rules enough, Reep said.
"The most important thing will be picking a jury that will follow the law, will look at the facts in a fair manner, and that is going to not be sidetracked by the other issues," said Elizabeth Parker, a former prosecutor who is now is now a criminal defense attorney in Palm Beach, Fla. "What is important is what happened that night."
Circuit Judge Debra Nelson, who has already ruled that the 500 potential jurors' identities will remain anonymous, will likely ask those summoned what they know about the case, Parker said. Nelson may later sequester the jurors selected to hear the case.
Zimmerman, who has pleaded not guilty to a second-degree murder charge, is claiming he shot Martin in self-defense. Free on $1 million bond, Zimmerman remains in hiding. Talks of Zimmerman's injuries from the alleged fight, the firing of Sanford's police chief, residents' 911 calls, and court hearings about voice experts have kept the case in media headlines.
Prosecutors plan to argue that Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, profiled Martin, wrongly assumed he was a criminal, disregarded a police dispatcher's instructions not to follow the teen, confronted the young man, and killed him.
What the six-person jury deciding Zimmerman's fate rules comes down to several key questions that experts say sit at the crux of the case: Who initiated the confrontation on that dark rainy night in Florida? Whose voice is heard screaming for help on a 911 tape moments before the shooting? And, can prosecutors overcome reasonable doubt without any eyewitnesses to the fight?
"Without eyewitnesses, without somebody saying this is exactly how it happened, it is a circumstantial case," Parker said. "Those are difficult cases for prosecutors. Reasonable doubt is a really high burden."
Still, what is clear is this: At about 7 p.m., Martin, wearing a dark hoodie, bought Skittles and iced tea at a 7-Eleven and then walked back to Retreat at Twin Lakes, a gated community, in Sanford, Fla. He staying with a friend of his father's after being suspended from his high school in Miami for having marijuana residue in a bag.
Five to 10 minutes later, Zimmerman spotted Martin walking in the neighborhood and called police. "We've had some break-ins in my neighborhood, and there's a real suspicious guy," he told a dispatcher. "This guy looks like he's up to no good or he's on drugs or something."
Zimmerman began to follow Martin, remaining on the phone with the officer who later tells Zimmerman he doesn't need to follow Martin. The call continues for a few moments and then Zimmerman says police can call him when they arrive.
Exactly what happened next remains a mystery.
A 911 recording of a resident's call is an important clue. During the person's conversation with a dispatcher, a voice is heard screaming "Help!" The screaming abruptly ends with a loud gunshot.
Zimmerman's lawyer, Mark O'Mara, says the voice on the 911 call belongs to Zimmmerman, who was walking back to his vehicle when Martin punched him out of nowhere.
The two fought, began wrestling on the ground, and Zimmerman says Martin started slamming his head into a concrete sidewalk. Zimmerman then says Martin reached for Zimmerman's gun and that he shot the teen in response
O'Mara says he's confident that once a jury hears the facts, they will realize the case that's garnered the nation's attention is a straightforward self-defense case.
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