On April 30, 2013, there was another hearing in the criminal case involving George Zimmerman. By way of background, Zimmerman is accused of murdering Trayvon Martin. As you will likely remember, Zimmerman initially relied on Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” hearing to justify and explain his shooting of Martin. Ultimately, there has been much speculation and anticipation that Zimmerman would seek immunity under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” statute.
Today’s hearing was noteworthy for several things. First, it involved the Judge directly questioning Mr. Zimmerman regarding his awareness of the statute. We anticipate this is to prevent Mr. Zimmerman from seeking a 3.850 motion later down the road if he is convicted at trial. A motion under Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure Rule 3.850 alleges one’s criminal defense attorney was ineffective in their representation of the accused. We anticipate the Judge was solely attempting to prevent Mr. Zimmerman from later alleging he was unaware of the Statute and impact of same. This is relatively unusual as Judges generally do not take such an aggressive approach to eliminating potential appellate issues.
Secondly, Zimmerman’s defense team actually called one of their own defense attorneys to the witness stand to testify regarding the State Attorney’s Office discovery violations. This is critical because it is so rare. The Tampa criminal attorneys of Hackworth Law are well aware of the issues and problems caused by discovery violations in Florida criminal cases. These issues are generally dealt with by the Court granting continuances or excluding the matter at trial.
Ultimately, it appears this case may finally be before a jury in the coming months by the end of 2013. Tampa criminal defense lawyers will continue to update our blog regarding this very interesting, unique criminal case. If you have any questions or comments, do not hesitate to contact our office regarding the case, the impact of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” Statute on your own criminal case or other criminal cases, do not hesitate to contact our office for a free case consultation.