Alan Dershowitz: Prosecutor has jack ****; indictment of Zimmerman unethical

I'm trying to show libtards how bad and how stupid they look to normal people. Thanks for helping me make the point.

The Florida judge assigned to George Zimmerman’s case is among the newest on the circuit court’s bench, but former colleagues and adversaries say Jessica Recksiedler’s previous life as a tough-as-nails trial lawyer and prosecutor makes her a good fit for what could be one of the highest-profile trials in recent memory.

After graduating Stetson University College of Law, she spent about two years as a state prosecutor in Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit, leaving for private practice in 1998. Judge Recksiedler, 39, was elected to the bench in 2010.

“Her main claim to fame is she knows her way around the courtroom,” said Paul Thompson, her former law partner at Thompson & Evangelo in Altamonte Springs, Fla.

Thompson’s firm handles insurance defense and personal injury cases, and Judge Recksiedler handled both during her time there.

She is among the 1% of Florida’s roughly 90,000 attorneys to earn board-certification as a civil trial lawyer, which means Recksiedler has handled a heap of trial work and passed a written examination. Recksiedler also picked up some criminal defense work on the side, Thompson said.

“If you ever hear her talk, she’s pure Italian,” he said of her courtroom demeanor. “She talks with her hands, a mile a minute. She was always very good in front of juries.”

“She’s like a lightening bolt,” added Kevin Weiss of Weiss Legal Group in Maitland, Fla. Weiss, a plaintiffs’ lawyer who handled numerous cases against over the years and endorsed her for judge.

One of Judge Recksiedler top clients in private practice was insurance giant Allstate, Thompson said. Weiss’s clients were usually people who had been injured in a car wreck. ”I think she was always fair, but tough as hell.”

Rutledge Bradford, who worked with Recksiedler when she started out in private practice, described her as “a complete bulldog of a lawyer, aggressive and tenacious.”

The Central Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers polled its members in 2011 and graded her overall skill on the bench at 3.75 out of five, with one lawyer noting sourly that she gives preferential treatment to defendants who dress in “suitable attire.”

Another anonymous lawyer said Recksiedler has shown herself to be “an intelligent, fair and studious judge who conducts court in a manner that makes it a pleasure to be in her courtroom.”

Her friends and former colleagues say she will likely move quickly in the case and put in long hours, as she did in private practice.

“She’ll stay up late at night reading this stuff,” Thompson said.

Thomson and Weiss predicted that Recksiedler will closely manage the courtroom, regardless of crowds and intense interest in the case.

“I think you’re going to see a lot of confidence coming out of her,” Weiss said. “She will no have a problem putting her fist down.”

He went on to criticize the decision to charge Zimmerman for second degree murder by special prosecutor Angela Cory as being politically motivated.

Our precious victim,” said the state’s special prosecutor, Angela B. Corey, referring to Martin as she announced Wednesday that neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who said he shot the unarmed 17-year-old in self-defense, was being charged with second-degree murder.
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Colleagues say Corey, a graduate of the University of Florida Law School, is known for the way she tries to bond with victims’ families, a trait evident Wednesday as she spoke of Martin’s “sweet parents” and said she called them personally before announcing charges against Zimmerman

Our oath will be upheld for our victim, Trayvon Martin, and for the man responsible for his death, George Zimmerman...
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We thank Mr. Crump and Mr. Parks for their daily assistance in communicating with our victim’s family

JEFFREY BROWN: Now, just yesterday, George Zimmerman's lawyers withdrew from the case. They said that they were having trouble contacting him. They said they were worried about his emotional, his physical state. So where does that -- where does that leave things for him?

JEFFREY WEINER: Well, I'm not sure if he's going to have a private lawyer or an appointed lawyer, if he qualifies.

Frankly, the behavior of the lawyers, in my opinion, was shocking. I have never witnessed anything like that in almost 39 years as a criminal defense lawyer. I think the conduct of those lawyers will be subject to scrutiny by the Florida bar.

JEFFREY BROWN: It was very interesting to hear the prosecutor there talk about not trying this in -- not trying this in the public, not trying this in the media.

Of course, this case has aroused national attention and no doubt in Florida as well. Would you think that that played -- or put some special pressure on her to act quickly?

JEFFREY WEINER: Yes.

I don't think she acted that quickly, frankly. But she had pressure, international pressure even, to make a decision in this case. I think she feels she has enough evidence to go forward. She made the obligatory comments of looking out for a defendant's rights. We'll see about that as the case goes on

JEFFREY BROWN: But so -- but staying with this stand your ground, so just to be clear, the prosecutor wasn't necessarily building a case around it; she was just saying it doesn't apply or here's the charge in spite of what that law is?

JEFFREY WEINER: I think it's the latter. Here's the charge. You defend yourself now, and good luck.

Now, whether she's looking for a trial, whether she's looking to try to coerce a plea to a less-serious charge, such as manslaughter, we'll have to see

Dershowitz may be right that they wont convict him which just shows how fucked up our justice system is.

We need a law and possibly a constitutional amendment requiring a person to be a US citizen for 18 years before they ever vote in a US election. That would not be difficult to justify; I had to be a US citizen for eighteen years before I ever voted in a US election and I don't see any immigrant group which appears better or more deserving of rights than I am.

This should be part and parcel of a Voters Bill of Rights which we desperately need. To me at least such a bill would look more or less as follows:

The first item of such a bill HAS TO BE runoff elections or instant runoff elections for all public offices.
Nobody should ever fear to vote his first choice, at least on a first ballot, and nobody should ever hold any public office with less than 50% of the vote.

There should also be a None-Of-Above choice on all ballots for public office and if that choice ever wins, then the other candidates should be barred for life from holding any public office and the parties sponsoring them should be barred for at least ten years from sponsoring candidates for that particular office. The penalty for running dead wood for public offices should be severe.

Another item on such a voters' bill of rights should be something which would eliminate voting fraud and stolen elections as in the case of Al Franken for all time. That might mean getting rid of the secret ballot, or it could mean that when an election is within one percentage point, send both people to congress with half of a vote each. You could expect them to split their vote on ideological issues but vote identically on issues which affect their own district.

There should be a provision that when a president is impeached and removed, his VP goes out the door with him and the office is either vacant until the next election or an emergency election is held to fill the office for the remainder of the current term. Granted removing a president should be difficult but it should not be impossible and if we couldn't remove Slick, we'd not have been able to remove Hitler or Nero either.

What happened in 98/99 was that Trent Lott simply refused to hand the presidency over to Algor with a year to go on Slick's second term, for obvious reasons. The situation should not be possible.

A person should need to be a US citizen for 18 years before voting in a US election. It should not be possible for a rogue political party to rule our land by simply importing large voting blocks for itself.

There should also be some mechanism to prevent utterly unqualified people from holding high offices. Certainly a candidate for president or vice president, or for US Senator or member of the House of Representatives should need to obtain the same basic and simple secret level security clearance which anybody would need to be a guard at the gate of any military base in our land. That isn't asking for much but it would have spared us from the last two democrat presidents.

There are a few other things you'd want but that's the main gist of it. There is also a question as to the extent the people should be voting on issues directly since we now have the technology to allow that while the founding fathers did not. You could get some of these evil social issues settled once and for all and out of politics, and you could limit the scope for corruption and bribery by letting the people themselves settle at least some kinds of issues.

Unfortunately this case has drawn a very rookie judge, just a couple of months on the job. You have to wonder about why this was allowed to happen, a case of this importance should have rated a judge who has the proven ability to run a high profile case like this.

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/harvard-prof-alan-dershowitz-zimmerman-arrest-affidavit-irresponsible-and-unethical/

Quote:

Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz appeared on MSNBC’s Hardball where fill-in host Michel Smerconish asked him his opinions of the arrest warrant issued and carried out for alleged Trayvon Martin murderer, George Zimmerman. Dershowitz called the affidavit justifying Zimmerman’s arrest “not only thin, it’s irresponsible.” He went on to criticize the decision to charge Zimmerman for second degree murder by special prosecutor Angela Cory as being politically motivated.

“You’ve seen the affidavit of probable cause. What do you make of it,” Smerconish asked. “It won’t suffice,” Dershowitz replied without hesitation.

“Most affidavits of probable cause are very thin. This is so thin that it won’t make it past a judge on a second degree murder charge,” Dershowitz said. “There’s simply nothing in there that would justify second degree murder.”

Dershowitz said that the elements that would constitute that crime are non-existent in the affidavit. “It’s not only thin, it’s irresponsible,” said Dershowitz.

Dershowitz went on to strongly criticize Cory’s decision to move forward with the case against Zimmerman. “I think what you have here is an elected public official who made a campaign speech last night for reelection when she gave her presentation and overcharged. This case will not – if the evidence is no stronger than what appears in the probable cause affidavit – this case will result in an acquittal.”

Smerconish identified the total lack of any mention of the supposed fight that occurred between Martin and Zimmerman prior to Martin being shot. He said he was disappointed that he did not see any mention of that conflict that led to Martin’s murder.

“But it’s worse than that,” said Dershowitz. “It’s irresponsible and unethical in not including material that favors the defendant.”

“This affidavit does not even make it to probable cause,” Dershowitz concluded. “everything in the affidavit is completely consistent with a defense of self-defense. Everything.”