I Told You So!

[Mark Yacavone]

Just an opinion piece (which I agree with) :




The prosecutor in the George Zimmerman case should be disbarred.

Posted by Judson Phillips on May 20, 2012 at 7:57am in Tea Party Nation Forum
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Angela Corey, the prosecutor in the George Zimmerman case in Florida should be disbarred. Her conduct in this case has been so outrageous that no penalty short of her losing her law license is sufficient.



What has she done?



She filed Second Degree Murder charges against George Zimmerman in the shooting of Trayvon Martin. The problem with that is all of the evidence points not to a second-degree murder charge, but all of the evidence points to the fact that George Zimmerman acted in self-defense.



The most important facts of the case seem to be not in dispute. George Zimmerman was a neighborhood watch captain because his neighborhood had been hit by a lot of crime. He saw Trayvon Martin, called into 911 and reported him. There was later a confrontation and Martin ended up dead.



George Zimmerman claims that Trayvon Martin attacked him. The witnesses and the scientific evidence all support that claim. One witness says he saw Trayvon Martin on top of George Zimmerman straddling him, punching him “MMA style.”



The autopsy report indicates a close but not a contact wound. A contact wound is where a gun is placed next to the skin and fired. A close wound is within a foot, where stippling, the hot debris, such as burning gunpowder will hit either clothing or skin. The entry wound is on his left side of his chest, consistent with Zimmerman being right handed and shooting Martin.



The autopsy report also shows injuries to Martin’s knuckles.



The witness who saw Martin straddling Zimmerman also saw blood coming from Zimmerman’s nose and the back of his head and several photos have been released showing the bloodied back of George Zimmerman’s head.



This case screams self-defense. In fact, other than the hucksters who are stirring this case up for political gain, no rational person would say this is anything other than self-defense.



Angela Corey has become a disgrace to her office and to the legal profession.



Florida, like all states, has a code of legal ethics. Section 4-3.8 says that a prosecutor in a criminal case shall refrain from prosecuting a case that the prosecutor knows is not supported by probable cause.



There is simply no way this prosecutor can claim there is probable cause to believe George Zimmerman committed a second degree murder.



When Angela Corey held her press conference announcing the charges against Zimmerman, she said her office cared only about “seeking justice for Trayvon Martin’s family.”



Seeking justice for the Martin family is the job of the family attorney. Seeking justice for George Zimmerman is the job of his attorney. The prosecuting attorney’s job is to seek justice, period.



At that press conference, she announced that she did not charge cases based on public pressure. That is exactly what she did.



In 1935, the Supreme Court dealt with the issue of an overzealous prosecutor.



In the case of Berger vs. The United States, George Sutherland wrote:



The United States Attorney is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all, and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done. As such, he is in a peculiar and very definite sense the servant of the law, the two-fold aim of which is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer. He may prosecute with earnestness and vigor -- indeed, he should do so. But, while he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones. It is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one.



For prosecutors who take their jobs seriously, these words direct their actions. For Angela Corey, they are little more than a punch line at a campaign rally.



The reason the American justice system works is because we the people can believe in the fairness of it. Prosecutions are not undertaken to attack political opponents nor are they motivated by political or public pressure.



Yet that is exactly what has happened here.



The prosecuting attorney is the most powerful elected official in an area. He or she can cause a person’s life to be destroyed and even be sent to prison for a long period of time.



In the United States, our founding fathers were so afraid of an out of control government prosecuting its citizens, four of the ten amendments of the bill of rights offer protections against unfair prosecution.



Fortunately in America, unfair prosecutions are rare. This prosecution is not only unfair it is very political in nature. The prosecuting attorney, Angela Corey is up for reelection this fall.



The voters of Florida’s Fourth Judicial District should send a very clear message and vote her out of office.



When this case is finally resolved and the charges against George Zimmerman are dismissed, the Florida Supreme Court should disbar Angela Corey.



There are several levels of attorney discipline, ranging from admonition to censuring to suspension to disbarment. When an attorney is disbarred, they either can never practice law again or after a period of time, if they can show the state supreme court they are a changed person, they can be allowed to sit for the bar exam again.



For prosecuting a man based on public pressure and bringing charges that even a first year law student could tell will never be sustained, Angela Corey should be disbarred.