George Zimmerman’s lawyer: Sorry for my client saying sorry for Trayvon Martin’s death

[n2doc]

George Zimmerman’s lawyer offered up an apology for his client’s apology at his bond hearing on Friday.

Mark O’Mara told “CBS’ This Morning” on Monday that if he’d known it would upset Trayvon Martin’s family, he would not have allowed his client to offer up the mea culpa for the shooting death of their teenage child.

“I wanted to say I am sorry for the loss of your son,” Zimmerman said Friday.

The Martins’ attorney, Benjamin Crump, accused Zimmerman at a press conferene after the hearing of trying to pander to the court with the apology, which he described as “insincere.”

“The apology was somewhat of a surprise because we had told them this was not the appropriate time, but they just disregarded that,” he said.



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/george-zimmerman-lawyer-client-trayvon-martin-death-article-1.1065989

[freshwest]

1. Oh, we can't take the feelings of the family of the deceased into account, can we?

That would be unfair to the accused and the media who are going to play it a few thousand times between commercials.



Another outpouring of respect for the aggrieved parties, pretty much the way the family has been shown so much respect from the beginning.

[LAGC]

2. Z-man's attorney needs to just stop his client from speaking. AT ALL.

He already got caught in a bold-faced lie thanks to that non-apology:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=588597

I'm sure, now that he's free on bail, he'll offer up even more self-incriminating evidence on his little half-baked web-site:

http://www.TheRealGeorgeZimmerman.com

He's only digging his hole deeper.

[magical thyme]

3. nightmare client

he also gave a very improbable description of the altercation. Apparently Trayvon had him pinned to the ground and was smothering him (while he was screaming for help?) and then Zimmy somehow "scooted away" (on his back?) and shot Trayvon from a short distance. Doesn't quite match *any* of the eye witness testimony or the earlier stories of Trayvon supposedly repeatedly slamming his head onto the sidewalk.

They definitely need duct tape for his mouth and to keep him away from a keyboard. They are now going to have to somehow concoct a story that weaves together the forensic evidence, the eye witnesses, his earlier statements to the police, his father's lies about the vertical cuts on his head and his own testimony at the bond hearing.

[tabatha]

4. I was initially impressed with Mark O’Mara.

However, I am beginning to think he is a smooth shyster.

[Solomon]

5. O'Mara's job is to get a manslaughter plea, or if it goes to trial, a manslaughter conviction.

That's a win for him and Zimmerman. He's doing a good job of it so far, however, I was shocked that he let Zimmerman speak at the bail hearing. I was a former defense attorney and I can tell you how many times I allowed my client to testify or say anything. Getting burned once is enough to make you never ever want to have a client on the stand if you can avoid it.

[customerserviceguy]

9. He's going for way more than that

He wouldn't take this case for free if he didn't think he could play it all the way to an acquittal. That would make him fabulously rich, as wealthy defendents would line up around the block for his services.

I figure that he had at least one good solid interview with Zimmerman, and decided that there was enough reasonable doubt that he could score a total victory. Whether that happens or not remains to be seen.

[gratuitous]

6. Dear Mr. O'Mara: "Lawyer" is a verb as well as a noun

You're supposed to be the one who knows his way around a courtroom.

[Quixote1818]

7. They were probabaly also upset that Zimmerman lied about how old he thought Martin was

Last edited Mon Apr 23, 2012, 09:30 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.theroot.com/buzz/did-zimmerman-lie-his-bond-hearing

[customerserviceguy]

8. O'Mara's not an idiot

He knows his client has been convicted in the media, he realizes that he's got to exonerate his client in that same media as much as possible before the trial. Some here think it was folly for Zimmerman to speak at the bail hearing, but O'Mara knew what he was doing. It was designed to elicit one of two responses from Trayvon Martin's family.

First, there's the "we're glad he said that" response, which softens how despicably his client is viewed, and second, there's the swatting away of the apology, which I think he was actually counting on. That makes his client look better, too.

If anyone here is cooling down some champagne for the conviction, they might have to find another occasion to serve up that bottle. O'Mara seems to know how to play this fiddle.

[dpibel]

10. None of which makes a whit of difference

And he will introduce the family's response into evidence at trial...how?

It's a wonderful thing to make your client look better to the media and to people like you.

It's quite another to use that at trial. That's where the conviction will occur, if it does.

You folks really are confused about the difference between analyzing the evidence and stating opinions on an Internet discussion board and what goes on in a courtroom.

Other than that, spot on.

If you've got your champagne chilled awaiting acquittal, you might have to find another occasion.

[customerserviceguy]

11. I don't have any champagne chilling

No matter what the outcome of the trial, a young man is dead. That's never anything to celebrate.

My message is to those who think this case is a slam dunk. If GZ had a public defender, like most poor defendents do, or just an average strip-mall lawyer like a lot of working and middle class people do, he'd likely be toast. As it is, the extreme amount of publicity on this case caused a really shrewd lawyer to sniff over the carcass of the case, and he seized an opportunity. He handled every part of that bond hearing very well for his client.

He knows that he has to at least draw to a near tie in public opinion before the trial starts. No matter what rock twelve jurors have been hiding under, all of them will know something about the case from the media. If there is absolutely nothing but relentless pressure to provide a conviction, they'll do that.

Lawyers do 'mock trials' where they trot out their cases (and what they imagine to be the opposition's case) in a condensed form before focus groups. They learn where their strengths and weaknesses are, and they figure out if it's a good time to settle before trial. O'Mara's using the media to make America the mock trial forum.