Yahoo! News: “Profiled”
“Vigilante”
“Self-appointed neighborhood watch captain”
“Wannabe cop”
Murder suspect George Zimmerman’s defense team wants these
“inflammatory terms” banned from the opening statements of his trial.
Jury selection begins on Monday.
“Some of these terms are
disparaging, inappropriate, and if used in trial would serve only to
unfairly prejudice the jury by eliciting unfounded connotations and
unfair emotional responses,” defense attorney Mark O’Mara wrote in a
motion to the court.
Prosecutors say Zimmerman, a volunteer
crime watchman in his Sanford, Fla., neighborhood, profiled, pursued and
fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in February 2012. Zimmerman, a
licensed gun carrier and part-time criminal justice student, says he
fired in self-defense after being attacked and beaten.
Zimmerman also wants to ban certain phrases from opening arguments:
“He got out of the car after the police (or dispatcher) told him not to.”
“He confronted Trayvon Martin.”
Motions seeking to limit evidence in a trial is not uncommon, but they seldom target phrases or characterizations.
It doesn’t sound like they’re confident about the verdict. They
basically want to ban any mention of the incident that put George
Zimmerman in that courtroom.
