Zimmerman Trial: Watch State’s Closing Argument LIVE
Today we will again be covering the Zimmerman Trial live, all day, with streaming video. Continuing commentary will be posted in the Twitter feed of selected contributors below the first video feed, below.
The State is scheduled to begin its closing argument at 1:30PM today, and the defense tomorrow morning. By tomorrow afternoon the jury should have been charged and begun their deliberations.
Judge Nelson, Florida v. Zimmerman
We covered this morning’s charging hearing here:
Zimmerman Trial Day 13: Live Video, Analysis of State’s Closing Argument
And posted up a general overview of the various jury instructions here:
Zimmerman Trial: The Jury Instructions
We also have brief summaries of the previous day’s events Zimmerman Defense Rests, Closing Statements Start Tomorrow along with links to more detailed posts below the second video feed at the bottom of this post.
In addition, last night Professor Jacobson posted an analysis of the racial politics driving the Zimmerman prosecution, here:
Racial politics supported by State power come down on George Zimmerman
Also, a quick note, in thanks to the Professor and all of you I’ve put in place a 10% discount/free shipping coupon for Legal Insurrection followers interested in “The Law of Self Defense, 2nd Edition”–use code LOSD2-LI at checkout.
Live Stream Video
WITH COMMENTARY FROM CHANNEL 9 IN SANFORD
[For live-stream video without commentary, see NBC live feed at bottom of this post.]
Twitter Feed:
(My tweets can be identified as coming from @lawselfdefense, or @lawselfdefense2 if I’m in Twitmo–follow both!.)
Tweets from @LegInsurrection/zimmerman-trial
Live Stream Video Alternative
LIVE-STREAM WITHOUT COMMENTARY FROM NBC
Thursday, July 11 Commentary
During the lunch recess, or immediately thereafter, we will TRY to post a mid-day update. We’ll then follow up with the usual detailed end-of-day wrap up, including video and embedded Tweets, at the usual time in the evening.
For all of our prior coverage on day-to-day events in court, as covered here at Legal Insurrection, click here:
ARCHIVE: Zimmerman Trial LIVE coverage all day, every day
For all of our prior coverage on issues specific to the Law of Self Defense as covered at my own blog, click here:
Law of Self Defense Blog: Zimmerman Trial
(NOTE: If you do wander over to the LOSD blog, be sure to come back to Legal Insurrection to comment, as nearly all my time is spent here for the duration of the trial.)
Andrew F. Branca is an MA lawyer and author of the seminal book “The Law of Self Defense,” now available in its just released 2nd Edition, which shows you how to successfully fight the 20-to-life legal battle everyone faces after defending themselves. Take advantage of the 20% “Zimmerman trial” discount & free shipping (ends when the jury returns a verdict). NRA & IDPA members can also use checkout coupon LOSD2-NRA for an additional 10% off. To do so simply visit the Law of Self Defense blog. I have also instituted a similar coupon for Legal Insurrection followers LOSD2-LI(Coupons works ONLY at www.lawofselfdefense.com.) “The Law of Self Defense, 2nd Edition” is also available at Amazon.com.
Many thanks to Professor Jacobson for the invitation to guest-blog on the Zimmerman trial here on Legal Insurrection!
You can follow Andrew on Twitter on @LawSelfDefense (or @LawSelfDefense2 if I’m in Twitmo, follow both!) on Facebook, and at his blog, The Law of Self Defense.
Comments
How badly will the State massage the truth in their closing statements? Watch out Stretch Armstong – you’ve got competition!
The state’s argument against the motion for a judgment of acquittal was a preview of their closing argument. Very heavy on inflammatory rhetoric and low on actual evidence presented.
A teenager is dead because Zimmerman made the wrong assumptions?
No, a teenager is dead because the teenager made the wrong assumptions. The teenager assumed that he could jump and beat up a stranger with no consequences to himself.
I suspect O’Mara will deftly handle that point.
First lie! GZ said ‘Just tell her I shot someone.’ not ‘Just tell her I killed someone.’
Screw you, Bernie! You’re a reptile…
I have no doubt the defense is taking notes. BDLR is going to look like the arse he is in the eyes of the jury if MOM calls out his blatant lies.
Shame on you, Fabi. Are you trying to give reptiles a bad name?
The state just can’t stop mischaracterizing the evidence, can they? GZ didn’t say, “just tell her I killed someone.” He said, “just tell her I shot someone.” He didn’t even KNOW he had killed him until the next day.
I don’t remember what exactly George said to the neighbor. What did he say, killed or shot?
He said shot.
He didn’t even know he was dead until later at the police station…he was shocked when Officer Singleton told him. Of course that was probably just more of his elaborate diabolical plot.
Love the recordings being played! GZ is very calm, with a mid-to-high pitched voice!
Bernie, the histrionics gotta go! These lady jurors are buying this crap!!
Bernie said watermelon! Finally!
Wacist ! Wacist ! What’s he gonna say next, fried chicken ???
I can’t decide who I like to listen to more:
BDLR or Barack Obama.
At least BHO can have a good reading voice. BdlR is annoying at all times…
I like the third option:
NEITHER
In my experience, white female jurors do NOT respond well to being shouted at.
In my experience, most women don’t respond too well to weasels. Period.
His screaming and histrionics are really turning me off. But I’m biased.
Another lie! TM wasn’t gonna watch basketball! Chad wasn’t watching basketball – he was playing his Nintendo! Pants on fire, BdR!
GZ presumed something that can’t be proven to be correct, doesn’t mean TM wasn’t doing anything wrong – indeterminable!
Another lie – #3 at least! Serino didn’t say he would assume TM lived there! Said he would not have found TM suspicious!
While Serino wouldn’t find him suspicious, GZ – as a resident of the neighborhood and a member of neighborhood watch – has MORE information than Serino to make that judgement. GZ knows most, if not all, residents, so he knows who would not be suspicious for looking in their own windows.
Summary of State’s fantasy – I mean closing:
Trayvon was an innocent choirboy just minding his own business and heading home with some thoughtfully purchased skittles for his brother. Then Trayvon noticed a menacing figure scouting him out and following him. This menace was GZ, a champion martial artist who was lying in wait to assault any black child with a hoodie.
Trayvon tried to escape, but when backed into the wall (or bushes in this case), he politely asked the depraved, racist White man why he was following. “Is there a problem?” Trayvon inquired.
Suddenly, GZ rammed his face into Trayvon’s fist, knocking Trayvon onto the ground and mounting him from above. After moving his hands downwards near Trayvon for a while, GZ switched sweatshirts with Trayvon. GZ then yanked up the sweatshirt that Trayvon was now wearing and held the gun to it. While the morbidly skinny Trayvon screamed for help for 40 seconds, GZ continued to taunt him and child abuse him until GZ finally pulled the trigger. Then, GZ moved the body into a different position for some unknown depraved reason.
GZ then proceeded to lay on the grass and hit his own head into the concrete, just before the police arrived.
full marks for imagination
That is hilarious. And sad at the same time.
Poor little Trayvon, whose only crime was buying Skittles and wearing a hoodie . . . and then sucker-punching a stranger hard enough to break his nose and knock him down, and then jumping on him, pinning him to the ground, and trying to beat him to death.
Poor little blameless angel.
BDLR seems to think he’s a TV lawyer… Oh wait… I am sorry.
(One more time!) My next door neighbor’s best friend’s cousin’s barber found this in the dumpster outside the SA’s office the other day. I can attest to its authenticity as the State’s draft closing argument:
Innocently walking home after receiving the Save the Manatees / Mother Theresa Astronaut Scholarship, young Trayvon Martin was merely trying to fulfill his dying brother’s last wish: delivering a pack of Skittles and an iced tea. During his return, he was racially profiled by a white-supremacist Jew named George Zimmerman, who sported a Nazi swastika tattoo on his forehead. Zimmerman, in his night-vision outfitted NRA Hummer (license plate: IH8N1GZ), stalked the cheerful academic, using his assault bazooka to intimidate this young child who was woefully unarmed and wearing a red Hollister t-shirt. After initially escaping the perverted ogle of the registered sex molester, the little boy felt he was in the clear and relayed that information to his childhood sweetheart and study hall partner, DeeDee, to whom he was speaking with on the phone.
But, with the loving safety of his Father’s arms in sight, the much stronger and heavier predator – ignoring the command of Trayvon’s surrogate father, President Obama, to ‘Stand down!’ – ensued the sweet child, pounding him mercilessly whilst cursing him loudly and employing the most dehumanizing of racial epithets, in blatant violation of the 4th grader’s civil rights. Zimmerman then pulled out his unregistered Uzi sub-machinegun and unloaded seventeen rounds of armor-piercing hollow-point bullets through his tiny heart, killing the baby-faced toddler in cold blood. The murdering drug-addled dog-beater then called his father, the Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice, who interceded and prevented any police response or involvement whatsoever. Trayvon’s lean, lifeless body was cruelly abandoned in a little bit drippin’ water…
BDLR: Little Trayvon was on his way home to write a hand written letter (in cursive) to the United Nations to express his desire for World Peace.
TM was trying to visualize whirled peas!
Yessir…peace out!
The jury does not know about the prosecution’s attempt to change the charges to murder 3, right?
The prosecution, in their opening statement, promised they were going to prove that George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin “because he wanted to.” Changing the charges is in itself an admission that they have no case. Did not have it at the beginning. Don’t have it now.
This is a travesty of justice right in the face of the whole world.
BDLR sounds unusually shrill. If I were a juror, I would not be particularly impressed by his performance or his creative storytelling thus far.
Stop it, Bernie! You’re ruining my trial experience!
BDLR: Trayvon never got to eat his skittles. Wasted a brand new bag, never to be eaten. Zimmerman doesn’t care about the starving children.
Trayvon didn’t get to drink his purple lean. Poor Trayvon was only being hyper aggressive because he did not have access to his regular marijuana supplier after his mother threw him out of her house and bussed him off to sperm-daddy’s new girlfriend’s house. GZ should have known Trayvon was off his meds when Trayvon started beating him for no reason. It is therefore GZ’s fault.
Assumption, exaggeration, accusation of vigilantism, profiling… that is all the case prosecution have.
This is the Crump/Obama/Sharpton narrative.
I despise the way these people are trying to lynch an innocent man.
Same way the will be able to lynch any of us, if they want to.
“Uh… everything that guy just said is bullshit… Thank you.” – My Cousin Vinny (1992)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104952/quotes?item=qt0404547
Oh my Lord! That is CLASSIC!
And we have to suffer through 2+1 hours of this horse sh*t?
I know it’s cowardly, but I just cannot bring myself to listen to this crap!
BDLR just claimed that GZ murdered TM so that TM couldn’t testify!
That GZ sure is clever! Savvy!
Is there a point to this? What is he saying happened? He hasn’t addressed the facts and given any theory as to what happened. He can’t.
That is why charges are never brought in these cases. It doesn’t mean Zimmerman was in the wrong or right (although I think he acted appropriately in every instance) it just means there is no indication he did anything wrong.
It is also odd how he can assert Trayvon was not a criminal when he knows about all of the evidence that says otherwise. Your morals have to be very flexible to play these games.
BDLR: “… shooting this man, er, uhm, this boy.”
Wow, this is really bad. Bernie just said that George picked his nose during the fight. Bernie sucks, his case sucks, but this is really bad. If this keeps up George won’t be convicted of anything, but watch out for a possible hung jury I guess.
Uh, oh! He studied the law – GZ has bullet points! (no pun intended, huh, BdlR?)
that power point presentation is pretty convincing!!
BDLR’s first portion of closing is weird. The jury was selected based on some indication that they were not heavily involved in following the case and could be impartial. In his initial comments he goes into a whole rendition about “He was wearing a hoodie – That was not a crime.” “He bought some Skittles – That was not a crime.” etc.
Hoodie – Skittles – Arizona – etc —This is all media and hype. Really had nothing to do with evidence of what transpired other than GZ mentioned hoodie in description.
If I was juror I would start to wonder what the big deal was and why he was going on about inconsequential crap.
I think he knows he’s lost the jury, so now he’s just doing his closing for the camera. Keep an eye out for arguments packaged in short, 15-30 second blurbs. Those are for the news.
GZ said ‘f*cking punks’? First I’ve heard about that!