@hawkeye10,
Quote:did the state even ask at the bail hearing for a psych eval? If not why not? We have heard often about the alleged instability of Zimmerman, remember all of the hollering about him being suicidal when he was out on bail for the Martin killing about how he was a mental mess , and the short lived suicide watch while he was in prison....i am betting that he has recently been forcibly examined by a state shrink and been found to be not a clear and present danger, so there is no ability to play that card again.
You know, you're really out to lunch, even when it comes to basic understandings of laws and the court system.
The state was not going to ask for a psych eval of Zimmerman at his most recent bail hearing. They are charging him criminally, and will try to hold him criminally responsible for his actions. And the idea that the state has had him already "forcibly examined by a state shrink" is another of your paranoid fantasies. The state is only trying to prevent him from skipping town and harming his girlfriend right now--potential criminal actions--by having him wear an electronic monitor, and prohibiting him from having contact with her or with guns.
It's up to Zimmerman's defense if they want to offer a psychiatric defense for his criminal actions, and present a psychiatric evaluation for that purpose.
Any suicide watch that was placed on Zimmerman during his previous incarceration was likely routine, simply because he was a high profile inmate. And these suicide watches are often asked for by defense attorneys. And any contact with Zimmerman that the mental health service of the jail might have had, would not have found him to be a serious suicide risk at that time, otherwise he would have been transferred out of the jail, to a forensic psych unit of a hospital, because suicide watches are not intended for identified high risk inmates.
Even Mark O'Mara said recently, on the Anderson Cooper show, that he was in very close contact with Zimmerman for a year and a half, and the man was not acting the way he is now--with both recent domestic incidents, particularly the most recent one. O'Mara said he is "very worried" about Zimmerman and that he hopes he gets counseling. Zimmerman's estranged wife said that, while she could see the potential for some of his recent behavior while she was living with him, he was not acting this disturbed, and she thinks he's "unraveling". These people are actually concerned about Zimmerman's well being, and the threat he may pose to others, particularly if he is armed.
And Zimmerman's mental health issues, as well as his marital problems, started long before the night he killed Trayvon Martin.
His former fiancée, in 2005, said he was also voicing suicidal ideation when she obtained her restraining order against him for domestic violence. And a court did mandate anger management for him, to satisfy a criminal assault charge. And he was in therapy, and was prescribed some type of medication, at the time he killed Martin. And his wife had walked out on him the day
before he killed Martin.
It is not hard to see that he already had some pre-existing psychiatric problems before that homicide, and everything that has followed that--including his acquittal--appears to have further, and perhaps dangerously, exacerbated those problems.
It would not surprise me, at all, if Zimmerman's new lawyer, who doesn't feel anyone should have guns, resorts to some sort of psychiatric defense for him for his current charges.
It's not just amateur shrinks who have voiced concerns, I've heard several real shrinks on cable voicing the same concerns based on the way he's been behaving. And one way mental illness is evaluated is by a person's behavior, and by changes in behavior. And, with Zimmerman, we're likely seeing only the tip of the iceberg with his run-ins with the police.
