Aggravated Manslaughter of a Child

The standard jury instruction for Manslaughter can be found on the Florida Supreme Court’s website under Jury Instruction 7.7.

The instruction contains a number of instructions that are applicable, depending on what is alleged in the formal charging document (called an Information).

As you will see, to prove the crime of Aggravated Manslaughter of a Child, the State must prove the following elements beyond a reasonable doubt:

1.The victim is dead.
2.The death of the victim was caused by the culpable negligence of the defendant.
3.The victim was was a child whose death was caused by the neglect of the defendant, a caregiver.

A “Caregiver” means a parent, adult household member, or other person responsible for a child’s welfare.

A review of the Information in George Zimmerman’s case shows he is charged with a single count of Second Degree Murder. The Information alleges he committed this act as follows:

By an act imminently dangerous to another, and evincing a depraved mind regardless of human life, although without any premeditated design …. kill Trayvon Martin by shooting [him].

The information does not allege that he committed the offense of Second Degree Murder in a culpably negligent way, that he was a caregiver of Trayvon Martin, or that he neglected Trayvon Martin as his caregiver.

Because neither of these elements were alleged, Aggravated Manslaughter of a Child (and its enhanced penalties) is not available as a lesser offense in George Zimmerman’s case. See Griffis v. State, 848 So. 2d 422, 427 (Fla. 1st DCA 2003) (“The information [charging second degree murder] did not allege either neglect or culpable negligence, and section 827.03(3) [Aggravated Manslaughter of a Child] is not a proper lesser offense.”)

Full Disclosure: The reason I’m even aware of this issue, and why I am so sure of it, is because I had it come up in a First Degree Murder trial before Judge Nelson. She upheld my objection and would not allow Aggravated Manslaughter of a Child to be considered as a lesser offense.
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The minions at Freddy Leatherhead's place are so disappointed that LIMPapa's videos haven't been shown or things they determined were important to proving 2nd degree murder has not been introduced by the prosecution. Goes to show that Freddy has done a poor job of teaching them actual law. However, anyone with a brain realizes he's milking them for every penny he can using this case as a cause and I hope eventually they will realize that 75% to 80% of what they've sent to him has lined his pockets.

Yes, I think it would be very informative for the defense to call Traymom during their case.

Yes, I think it would be very informative for the defense to call Traymom during their case.

Agreed. Care to expand a bit?

What a dope Parks is and HLN people don’t seem have any shame when it comes to spin and bias.
Parks should wear a IANAL hat.

Zimmerman Trial Day 8: Live Video, Analysis & Reader Poll: DNA Inconclusive & Judge Nelson Terse
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Trial Day 8: Nearing the Close of the State’s Case

We already covered the morning testimony in our mid-day analysis and video, which you can find here:

Zimmerman Update Exclusive — Mid-Day 8 — State Wins Evidentiary Battle, Loses Testimony War

Normally at this point we would be covering the multiple witnesses that testified in the afternoon.

As it happens, however, the combination of a late return from the lunch recess, some in court wrangling (outside of the juror’s hearing) between Judge Nelson and the defense around the subject of the still-to-be disposed Benjamin Crump, and a direct and cross of the State’s DNA expert that can perhaps be best described as excruciatingly long and uniformly uninformative, brought us to the end of a day that was supposed to see the State rest with no such milestone in sight.

Let’s get what must be done out of the way, and deal with the testimony of the State’s DNA expert.
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I have to disagree - I'd bet it's more than 75% to 80%. I hope you copy some of the daft and post it here!

Then I assume you're saying Nelson did not assign specific blame for any specific date missed by either party for the deposition.

Nelson assigned all blame to the defense and wouldn't allow explanation. There was no mention of any specific date set and missed that I heard.

http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/07/zimmerman-trial-day-8-live-video-analylsis-reader-poll-dna-inconclusive-nelson-terse/

Judge Nelson Takes the Defense to Task, Again

Perhaps the highlight of the afternoon, however, occurred prior to the testimony of Gorgone, when Judge Nelson took the opportunity to vent her frustrations at the defense team when they requested additional time to arrange for the deposition of Martin family advisor/attorney Benjamin Crump. She was markedly unsympathetic to the defense’s explanations that they had only been authorized by the 5th District Court of Appeals to depose Crump. It is notable that the authority to depose Crump at all was delivered to the defense by the 5th District Court of Appeals (DCA), which did so by overruling Nelson’s earlier ruling to deny the defense this opportunity. Judge Nelson was also unsympathetic to the defense’ explanations that they had been fully consumed in the intervening period with the Frye hearing, Jury selection, and the State’s presentation of the case. The sense seemed to be that if they’d had enough time to shower and take care of basic biological necessities during the last several weeks, then they had had enough time to depose Crump.

Suppose that the jury is hopelessly deadlocked & Nelson is forced to declare a mistrial. Will State of Florida allow George to walk from the courthouse or will Nelson revoke George's bail bond & hold him in custody until the State decides whether to retry the case?

The only juror that worries me is the transplant from Chicago.

As I posted at CTH... I'd love to see her "shredded" but NOT if it has the risk of being a negative that the Jury will take out on George.

Forgive my acronym ignorance, but what and where is CTH?

Here is the helpful part from that article that could be helpful in impeaching her recognition of TM's voice from the article:

NBC News has not independently authenticated that the voice is Martin’s. Ben Crump, a lawyer for the Martin family, says that Martin’s own mother isn’t sure it’s his voice.

If she can't tell if it is his voice on that much clearer recording in normal speech how can she now claim to recognize his voice in a very poor recording of a screaming voice?

The minions at Freddy Leatherhead's place are so disappointed that LIMPapa's videos haven't been shown or things they determined were important to proving 2nd degree murder has not been introduced by the prosecution. Goes to show that Freddy has done a poor job of teaching them actual law. However, anyone with a brain realizes he's milking them for every penny he can using this case as a cause and I hope eventually they will realize that 75% to 80% of what they've sent to him has lined his pockets.