Zimmerman lawyer is still speaking his opening statement

[warrior1]

How does this effect the jurors?

[WovenGems]

1. Hmm

Regardless of how fluffy the BS is it's still just BS.

[elleng]

2. Doesn't sound good to me,

but haven't studied the subject. If 'reasonable doubt' can be caused by confusion and obfuscation, might benefit zimmerman.

[pokerfan]

3. He just ended

Finishing up with a string of sustained objections from the prosecution and repeated instructions from the court as to what constitutes opening statements and what does not.

[kestrel91316]

5. That won't impress the jury the way he wants to, I suspect.

The knock-knock joke got him off to a very bad start with them - of that I have no doubt.

[Lucinda]

6. I was stunned by that.

Laying a little groundwork for incompetent counsel - just in case?
Weirdest opening i've ever heard, whatever his intent.

[kestrel91316]

8. Showed the jury how seriously he takes the death of a minor.

Don't all defense attorneys joke about their clients' victims' deaths at the very start? Could be a moneymaking move - I'm not sure how, but that surely must be the motive. I can't fathom another.

[Lucinda]

10. Either he is some amazingly talented magician of a lawyer and

will pull an innocent verdict out of a hat, or his client is in real trouble.
I can't imagine that a) insulting the jury and b) making light of the death of a young man could ever be good strategy.
And it looked even worse after the concise and powerful prosecution opening. I hadn't thought about money - it could be!
I do know that it will certainly get him talked about...

[warrior1]

4. dear god

[pokerfan]

7. Now OMora trying to get Trayvon's parents barred from the proceedings

Unbelievable.

They have a friend of Zimmerman's testifying that Trayvon's father may have called him a mother fucker under his breath either last Tuesday or maybe the Tuesday before.

[Nimajneb Nilknarf]

9. Mr. West packed a lot into his opening statement. He addressed much of the potential evidence

directly. It was very long, got off to a very slow and awkward start, and was possibly confusing to the jurors. We'll see.