What the heck?

[badrose]

Judge Confronts Zimmerman in Testy Exchange

A hostile exchange took place in the courtroom today where George Zimmerman is on trial for second degree murder as Judge Debra Nelson questioned the defendant about his plans to testify.

Nelson reminded Zimmerman that he has the “absolute right to remain silent” if he so desires and proceeded to ask him whether he was prepared to testify. Defense attorney Don West twice objected to the question, but was overruled by Nelson, who explained, “The court is entitled to inquire if Mr. Zimmerman’s determination [sic] as to whether or not he wants to testify.”

The judge then began asking Zimmerman how much time he requires to determine whether or not he would like to testify. West again objected to the question and asked for more time to speak with his client, prompting Judge Nelson to raise her voice and exclaim, “Your objection is overruled!”

The tension escalated as another of Zimmerman’s defense attorneys, Mark O’Mara, was overheard asking under his breath, “What is going on?”

Kathi Belich, a journalist following the trial for a local news channel, tweeted her surprise at the line of questioning, writing “I have never seen that in more than 30 years of court reporting.”






http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/353105/judge-confronts-zimmerman-testy-exchange-dimitrios-halikias

[Darrell KSR]

I'm not a criminal defense attorney, but that seemed strange.

[badrose]

There are what people, who people, and when people. I'm a why guy. I think the judge is a ringer and acted to sway the jury.

[Darrell KSR]

There are what people, who people, and when people. I'm a why guy. I think the judge is a ringer and acted to sway the jury.

Don't see that at all.

This occurred outside the presence of the jury (I believe--if not, I'll stand corrected), so it will have no effect on the jury. The judge did this to prevent an appeal, which is what she is supposed to do. In the past, attorneys have appealed convictions based on "ineffective counsel," because they claimed the defendant wanted to testify, but the defense counsel wouldn't let him.

Judges are supposed to ask if the defendant wants to testify to prevent that from occurring. All he had to do was to say he was relying upon his counsel or something like that. Maybe they didn't prepare him for this, but I suspect they did.

The only thing I found strange was her snapping at defense counsel like that. I suspect it was just frustration and impatience, since he had already made his objection, and she had overruled it, and he made the same exact objection again.

It reminds me of the scene in "A Few Good Men," where Demi Moore is objecting to testimony by the expert witness. The Judge overrules her objection, and then she repeats the objection by saying that "we STRENUOUSLY object, and demand some sort of hearing....blah, blah, blah."

Of course, in that movie, the Judge then overrules her again, gets very irritated, blasts her, and reiterates that the man is an expert in his field, spitting out some of his qualifications, and basically giving a stamp of approval to the jury that he didn't have before. Demi may have all the right moves in some areas (yum), but she messed up there.

[Doc]

I'm not a criminal defense attorney, but that seemed strange.

I'm not a criminal defense attorney either, but that seemed strange to me as well!