Many advise people involved in shootings to say nothing to the police.\u00a0 I\u2019m not among them. I\u2019ve seen too many cases where declining to speak is heard as \u201cI ain\u2019t sayin\u2019 nuttin\u2019 \u2018til my mouthpiece gets here,\u201d and only the bad guy\u2019s side of the story gets told or assumed.\u00a0 I do recommend that people caught up in these things tell the responding officers the nature of the attack on them which forced them to fire, and indicate that they\u2019ll sign a complaint on the perpetrator. I also recommend pointing out evidence and witnesses, because both tend to disappear otherwise. From there on, I strongly suggest that they advise the police that they\u2019ll fully cooperate after they\u2019ve spoken with counsel.<\/p>\n
Zimmerman did otherwise, answering all questions that night and in the time that followed, and he prevailed at trial. \u00a0He convinced the investigators that he was telling the truth about being a victim, not a murderer.\u00a0 He even passed a lie detector test (voice stress analysis) administered by the police shortly after the shooting.\u00a0 When defense lawyer Mark O\u2019Mara got lead investigator Chris Serino to say that he believed Zimmerman was telling the truth, it was crushingly powerful for his client. Even though the judge ordered the jury to disregard that statement the next morning in court, it was a bell that simply could not be unrung.\u00a0 It turned out that his having done a videotaped walk-through of the scene was also critical to his acquittal: it allowed the jury to see the complicated layout of the scene, all the more important since Judge Nelson denied the defense\u2019s request to have the jury visit that scene.<\/p>\n
I also advise my students to expect to take the stand on their own behalf after a self-defense shooting.\u00a0 Since both sides are going to stipulate as to who shot who, it\u2019s going to come down to why you shot him\u2026and, in the last analysis, that\u2019s something the defendant can answer better than anyone else.\u00a0 Sometimes, only <\/i>the defendant can really answer that question.<\/p>\n
Why didn\u2019t Zimmerman take the stand? When I talked to Mark O\u2019Mara a year before the trial, I got the impression he was expecting Zimmerman to testify; that Zimmerman wanted <\/i>to testify; and that O\u2019Mara thought his client would handle it well.\u00a0 After the trial was over, O\u2019Mara confirmed that Zimmerman wanted to take the stand.<\/p>\n
I personally think he would have done well.\u00a0 He certainly did when he was talking to the cops.\u00a0 If he\u2019s as articulate as his brother Robert, he would have done fine.\u00a0 Shortly after the acquittal, Robert Zimmerman went into the lion\u2019s den in an interview by hostile Piers Morgan on CNN, and the young man absolutely handed Morgan\u2019s pompous, prejudiced ass back to him on a silver platter.<\/p>\n
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