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August 29, 2012 7:26 PM

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George Zimmerman deserves new judge in Martin murder case, panel rules; A.G. plans no appeal

By: Barry Leibowitz, Julia Dahl
Topics: Daily Blotter

New evidence still leaves questions about Trayvon Martin shooting

Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman

/ CBS

(CBS/AP) ORLANDO, Fla. - A three-judge panel has ruled that former Fla. neighborhood watch leader George Zimmerman should be granted a new judge in his second-degree murder case for the fatal shooting of teenager Trayvon Martin.Pictures: George Zimmerman crime scene photos

Florida's Fifth District Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday that Judge Kenneth Lester should enter a motion to disqualify himself in George Zimmerman's second-degree murder case. Zimmerman's attorney Mark O'Mara asked the court earlier this month to overturn a previous ruling by Lester not to leave the case.

One of the three judges dissented in the ruling.

O'Mara had argued that Lester should disqualify himself after he said the judge made disparaging remarks about Zimmerman's character and advocated for additional charges against him in setting his $1 million bond in July.

Zimmerman remains free on bail. He's pleaded not guilty claiming self-defense in the fatal Feb. 26 shooting of Martin, 17, in a gated community in Sanford, Fla.

"... this is admittedly a close call," wrote Judge C. Alan Lawson, but Lester's actions, taken in total, meet the legal standard requiring him to step aside, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

A second judge, Jay Cohen, agreed. The third panel member, Kerry Evander, disagreed.

Evander wrote, "Although the trial court's order clearly manifested an exceedingly strong belief by the trial judge that Zimmerman had 'flouted' and 'tried to manipulate' the system, I do not believe the order 'crossed the line' so as to require the granting of his motion.'

The Sentinel reported there will be no appeal, according to Florida's Office of Attorney General, which had argued in court paperwork that Lester should stay. He was not biased, wrote Assistant Attorney General Pamela Koller. He had merely given Zimmerman a "well-deserved tongue lashing."

Special Prosecutor Angela Corey's office, the one in charge of putting Zimmerman on trial, had no comment.

According to the newspaper, on the web page of Zimmerman attorney Mark O'Mara's law firm, O'Mara wrote that he expects a new judge to be assigned to the case soon.

The next step is for the chief judge of the circuit, Circuit Judge Alan Dickey in Sanford, to assign the case to a new judge. It's expected to be Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson, 59, another felony trial judge in Sanford who has a reputation for handing down tough sentences, the Sentinel reported.

She would be Zimmerman's third judge. In April, Circuit Judge Jessica Recksiedler stepped aside after O'Mara filed a similar motion. That time, however, according to the newspaper, it was because Recksiedler's husband is the law partner of Mark NeJame, an Orlando lawyer who's being paid to do case commentary by CNN.

Complete coverage of the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case on Crimesider

14 Photos

George Zimmerman crime scene photos

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by sideliner78 September 1, 2012 10:18 AM EDT: GZ's injuries donot reflect the vicious attach that he describes. They have to be self inflected. he is left handed. Look at the original injuries and you will see the direction in which they are inflicked. At any rate if you get into a fist fight and get shot its okay by what you say. The person was in fear for their life. So, now a days we have no real men any more just little sissies. Just what he called the suspisious person a "punk". A gun does not make you a man at all. "Do you feel lucky,PUNK"?; Reply to this comment


by sideliner78 August 31, 2012 8:29 AM EDT: Zimmerman has proved himself to be untrue.; Reply to this comment


by sideliner78 August 31, 2012 8:22 AM EDT: This in my opinion makes for an appeal problem for GZ. He cannot argue many issues of law from this point on as it relates to judges being unfair. It makes for a nightmare of an argument. All judges can't be disparaging to him. And all judges cannot be said to treat him unfairly. At this point he will more than likely have to go to trail on the merrite of the prosecutions case. SYG or self defense will fail on it's face in the Stand your Ground hearing now.; Reply to this comment


by ugacrew August 30, 2012 12:50 PM EDT: louiville223 stated: "The assumption that spending more of the taxpayer's money will make things better has survived all kinds of evidence that it has made things worse." louiville, you can buy the most beautiful furniture in the world to put in a house, but if the foundation of the home is in great disrepair, the money will in fact be wasted because it was misdirected. That said, any monies, taxpayers or your own can make things seem worse if it is spent on the wrong things.; Reply to this comment

by Ulgnud August 30, 2012 11:57 AM EDT

Based on what I have seen in the press, which I know goesn't have all the facts we hace a siruation where they are desperate to find some way to nail Zimmerman so they can appease the blacks. I remember the Rodney King incident. When the story first broke the video showed him fighting the cops. After that the fighting part was edited out by the press. Naturally the jury saw the whole video and the cops were acquitted. The blacks rioted and they had to trump up some charges to placate them. You knew the cops would be found guilty before that trial ever started. Regardless of how the Zimmerman incident started, anyone knocked down and being beat on by some punk would exercise the same action. Zimmerman, guilty or not, will likely never see a fair trial. They are more interested in placating the blacks than seeing justice is done.

Reply to this comment


by TheStolenGiraffe August 30, 2012 1:50 PM EDT: You speak from a stance of pure ignorance and borderline racism. Only Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman know what happened that night. The public has not been shown evidence that proves whether Zimmerman or Martin was the aggressor. Yet, your quotes talk as if you know for a fact that Zimmerman was assaulted by Martin and thus justified in taking his life.

This case and it's verdict will do nothing "appease blacks". There is no end in sight for racial profiling, defaming stereotypes, or racism. And thanks to people like you, there will probably never be.

I don't know you, quite frankly I'm glad I don't. But I pity you the offspring upon which you spread your ignorance and bigotry.


by Millennial August 30, 2012 2:08 PM EDT: @SnoopKK

You comment as a 3rd grader who was beat-up by a 3rd grade black kid and even now appear to have never got over being beat-up.


by ckendly August 30, 2012 2:43 PM EDT: @Ulgnud sounds like your still in favor of slavery/black lencing. Blacks who kill are thugs/punks, muslims are terrorists and whites only have minor mental issues (even though they will shoot up a whole school or movie theatre) but there will always be an excuse for them. GZ was a punk for running back to his car and getting his gun. If you gonna chase a man, stand up and fight like a man!!!


by sideliner78 August 31, 2012 8:26 AM EDT: The video never did show Rodney King fighting the cops back. They were not aquitted for that reason. They were aquitted because of other reasons that because you have the view that you do i'll leave it up to you to find. If your read about the case you'll find the truth if you really want it. Set your bias aside and the truth shall set you free.


by sideliner78 September 1, 2012 10:42 AM EDT: In the OJ Simpson case they were more interested in getting the black man that was with the Quintessential white woman that was with a black man. Just punish him. There was not direct evidence to link him, but lets get him and build a circustancial case. Rodney king; the video tape said it all, but because of bias of location the officers got off. The http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepa... Had she later not recantted there would have been an innocent black man found and convicted of it and exicuted for a lie. Not to mention what happened with the city of Rosewood in Florida years ago..


by sideliner78 September 1, 2012 10:59 AM EDT: How can you say he could not receive a far trial? he has had two judges removed. He has been released from jail to help his case. Did OJ receive a fair trial. His case was all over the news also. Even more than GZ..

by ugacrew August 30, 2012 11:43 AM EDT

One wonders why one man can have the judge in his case dismissed for speaking a truth, while others can be denied the opportunity to have a new defense attorney because the one they have is found to be incompetent? One wonders why a man who is convicted of a crime he insists he did not commit, be given the death penalty, attributable to demonstrable incompetence of his public defender, but yet be denied such?

Do you think it justified when masses complain about inequities existent within our judicial system?

Reply to this comment


by ugacrew August 30, 2012 12:32 PM EDT: LindogArf,

It does not matter what one thinks. What really matter is what the jury ruled. Our judge and jury system is all that we have. When we decide that we will not abide by their rules simply because we disagree with them, we will lose our civility. At some point, we must decide to accept and abide by the rules of those organizations charged to make the decisions that govern us, like them or not, and agree with them or not.


by sideliner78 September 1, 2012 11:26 AM EDT: Obama, never said GZ was guilty at all. He was just relating to the kid. Your statement is predjudicial in nature. If he were white and you cared about your fellow man you'd be able to identify with it. Since you have no care for Blacks you will not identify with this teen. If it were your kid you'd say there was no right in GZ shooting him even if your kid he was in the middle of a crime.


by sideliner78 September 1, 2012 12:54 PM EDT: Here is something to help you. This was published this week I beleive.

Among men, blacks (28.5%) are about six times more likely than whites (4.4%)
to be admitted to prison during their life. Among women, 3.6% of blacks and
0.5% of whites will enter prison at least once. (U.S. Department of Justice)
Based on current rates of incarceration, an estimated 7.9% of black males
compared to 0.7% of white males will enter State of Federal prison by the
time they are age 20 and 21.4% of black males versus 1.4% of white males will
be incarcerated by age 30. (U.S. Department of Justice)
Some have noted that more black men are in prison in America than are in
college. (The Black and White of Justice, Freedom Magazine, Volume 128)


by sideliner78 September 1, 2012 12:54 PM EDT: Here is something to help you. This was published this week I beleive.

Among men, blacks (28.5%) are about six times more likely than whites (4.4%)
to be admitted to prison during their life. Among women, 3.6% of blacks and
0.5% of whites will enter prison at least once. (U.S. Department of Justice)
Based on current rates of incarceration, an estimated 7.9% of black males
compared to 0.7% of white males will enter State of Federal prison by the
time they are age 20 and 21.4% of black males versus 1.4% of white males will
be incarcerated by age 30. (U.S. Department of Justice)
Some have noted that more black men are in prison in America than are in
college. (The Black and White of Justice, Freedom Magazine, Volume 128)

by creeper00 August 30, 2012 11:15 AM EDT

14 FREEK: "It is the judges right ot see to it that Zimmerman is found guilty..."

Where do I start? Never mind. Anyone who could type that is beyond reasoning with.

Reply to this comment


by booker59 August 30, 2012 8:44 PM EDT: No kidding, creeper! Why is it that the same people who wave the flag and yell "USA! USA!" at the drop of a hat always seem to long to live under a Soviet-style legal system?


by ugacrew August 30, 2012 10:51 AM EDT: In response to louiville223:

Your response to my post is of little significance because you quoted Booker T. Washington completely out of context as related to my comments. Further, you completely disregarded the validity and truth of my comments, none of which you can dispute!

We currently have a Republican running for the Office of the Presidency of the United States who has in fact, admitted to having paid a minimum 13% tax rate on his reported earnings of millions of dollars over many years, compared to the average working class American who pays on average 28% on far less earnings.

Further, you stated "Every day in schools white kids are told because of the color of their skin they were victimizers and black people are told they are victims." Such would not be the case if their true history had not been white washed from their text books, so as to hide from them the truth about the hateful deeds committed by their bigoted ethnocentric ancestors.

Allow me to provide a more appropriate and still relevant quote from "A Testament of Hope," the Essential Writings and speeches of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther king, Jr., pages 476-477:

"Economic insecurity strangles the physical and cultural growth of its victims. Not only are millions deprived of formal education and proper health facilities, but our most fundamental social unit - the family - is tortured, corrupted, and weakened by economic insufficiency. When a man is inadequately paid, his wife must work to provide the simple necessities for the children. When a mother has to work she does violence to motherhood by depriving her children of her loving guidance and protection; often they are poorly cared for by others or by none - left to roam the streets unsupervised. It is not the Negro alone who is wronged by a disrupted society; many white families are in similar straits. The Negro mother leaves home to care for - and be a substitute other for - white children, while the white mother works. In this strange irony lies the promise of future correction.

Both Negro and white workers are equally oppressed. For both, the living standards need to be raised to levels consistent with our national resources. Not logic but a hollow social distinction has separated the races. The economically depressed white accepts his poverty by telling himself that, if in no other respect, at least socially he is above the Negro. For this empty pride in a racial myth he has paid the crushing price of insecurity, hunger, ignorance, and hopelessness for himself and his children."

Your response to my post completely disregards its truth as well as the reality of cause and affects in this world.

Oppressors live in constant fear of retribution and thus feel the absolute need to carry a weapon at all times. They are blinded to their oppression and seek to lable those who may seek retribution
as terrorist, criminals, or anything other than oppressed.; Reply to this comment

by ugacrew August 30, 2012 9:34 AM EDT

In answer to the question as to whether one is a "Democrap, Republican, or Southerner?" The truth always seems to get put on the back burner as did my response. I am reposting it:

by ugacrew August 30, 2012 9:19 AM EDT
I am wondering what kind of oppression the Southerner and Republican imposed on that "Terrorist" to cause him to feel such extreme hatred. A few questions comes to mind, did they refuse him and his family similar entitlements to decent housing and basic health care while erecting gates around their own communities and disproportionately staffing them with police protection?

Did they protest over laws simply put in place for the purpose of providing him and his loved ones with basic affordable health care because they believe it more important that they have their "preference" of doctors?

Did they routinely deny his children the opportunity for a better life by putting in place restrictions that deny them a quality education or mere admission into our nations finer educational institutions, knowing that such "restrictions" do not apply to children of rich donors, family members of rich donors, or athletes and others that they can garner more riches from?

Did they work him like a dog, grossly under pay him, while providing meger if any benefits? Did they use a court of law to rob him out of his lifelong retirement pension under the buise of "bankruptcy?"

Did they put the brunt of the tax burden on him and his family while they stored their earnings in overseas banking institutions forcing him to pay a 28% tax rate on his meager earnings while paying a minimum of 13% on their hoarded millions?

Did they profile him and or members of his family, charge them with crimes they may not have committed, and ruin their employment opportunities by plastering false convictions on their records for life, or did they actually jail one or more of them, falsely convict them, and actually put one of them to death?

Did tey put in place punitive sanctions on their native land because their government refuse to give them unrestricted access to their nation's valuable resources, i.e. oil, diamonds, and the like?

I have never walked into any nursery and witnessed a "terrorist" infant. Babies are not born terrorist, they are made to be terrorist. Perhaps that Southerner and that Republican have a real need to carry a weapon, however, they fired their first "bangs" long before they ever encountered that "terrorist" in a one-on-one encounter.

Reply to this comment


by ugacrew August 30, 2012 10:03 AM EDT: SnoopKK,

I would rather you dispute the validity of my comments. Can you say they are unfounded?


by andie52 August 30, 2012 11:14 AM EDT: .

23 minutes ago (10:40 AM)
The reality is Lester called out on Zimm's lollipop code to insult people's intelligence with the amount of money they had. A failed attempt at Zimm and his wife trying to be clever. Did he really believe that people were stupid enough not to catch on to that?

Did he really think that because he had a website up that we're suppose to assume he is rich or something? Maybe Lester should be removed, but lets be honest. Its not because of the remarks he made. Its because Zimm got exposed as a liar.

by Mick_from_Amsterdam August 30, 2012 9:02 AM EDT

Unfortunately, it will be difficult for Zimmerman to receive the justice he "deserves" as the death penalty has been taken off the table.

At the very least, this unstable cop-wannabee is guilty of manslaughter as the person who instigated the confrontation and escalated it to a killing when things didn't go his way.

Whatever George's sentence, his enabling fixer-father should be in the cell next to him for instilling such a grotesque sense of entitlement in his ne'er-do-well bully of a son.

But even if a jury of Florida KKK and NRA types acquits him...George Zimmerman will never "walk"...especially not in view of what a gutless POS he is.

Rightly or not, he will always have to fear retaliation at tje hands of TM supporters, or from any who simply dislike seeing an obviously guilty person "walk"

It probably won't ever actually happen...but Zimmie will have to conduct his life as if such an attack is imminent...and most likely without benefit of security guards paid for by his panhandling websites (as if O'Mara would let him keep any of that hustled cash)

One way or another...George Zimmerman WILL eventually receive the "justice" he so richly "deserves"...even if it's no more than a lifetime of fear and paranoia

Reply to this comment


by ugacrew August 30, 2012 9:21 AM EDT: The "death penalty," has not been taken off the streets for Zimmerman himself. If he walks the streets as a free man, he still faces a self-imposed death penalty because of the same vigilantism that persuaded him to pull that trigger, however, the shoe may very well be on someone else's foot this time around.


by otimus August 30, 2012 10:25 AM EDT: so if a person follows you in a car, then gets out of a car to continue to following you on foot is not instigating anything? I get your logic


by booker59 August 30, 2012 8:47 PM EDT: Mick, you want to put his father in jail for....what, again? Could you cite the Florida criminal code section that you feel applies to the father, and specific evidence demonstrating that he has violated said code section?