GEORGE ZIMMERMAN’S FATE IN HANDS OF SIX WOMEN

The 911 call is critical to both the prosecution and the defense

A jury of six women was accepted by both the prosecution and the defense in the trial of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin. Five of the jurors are white and four of those are mothers. The other white juror is single and has no children. The sixth juror is non-white, moved to Florida from Chicago, and has eight children.

I was flabbergasted when I learned that the defense had accepted an all-woman jury. I just do not see how that can help Zimmerman's case, especially since five of the jurors are mothers. Judge Debra Nelson has ruled that the defense cannot introduce any evidence that Martin has been a pot-smoking, gun-toting thug. I am sure the prosecution will show the jurors pictures of an angelic-looking teenager that will bring the mothers to tears.

The jury aside, I believe that the outcome of the trial will hinge on the 911 call in which someone can be heard screaming for help. One prosecution expert has testified that the voice is not that of George Zimmerman and the other prosecution expert's testimony will also hurt Zimmerman. As of this writing, Judge Nelson has not handed down her decision on whether to allow any voice recognition testimony in this trial.

While Tom Owen of Owen Forensic Services and chair emeritus for the American Board of Recorded Evidence cannot say that the person screaming for help on the 911 call is Trayvon Martin, he has testified that “The tests concluded that it's not the voice of Mr. Zimmerman.” And Alan Reich, another prosecution expert, has testified that he picked up words on the 911 call that other experts never found, including the words, “This shall be” from Zimmerman and “I'm begging you” from Martin.

I suspect that Judge Nelson, who has already denied several requests by Zimmerman's defense team, will allow the voice recognition testimony. Unless the defense can produce experts that will make a compelling refutation of the testimony by Owen and Reich, Zimmerman's claim that he was fighting for his life when he shot Martin just will not stand up. And if the contrasting expert testimonies should happen to cancel themselves out, those tearful mothers are likely to find Zimmerman guilty.

I am convinced that Zimmerman shot a thug while defending his life. But I will not feel sorry for the jerk if he is found guilty. He should have stayed in his car and waited for the cops. The neighborhood watch program is supposed to serve only as an extra set of eyes and ears for the police, not as an enforcement arm. Wannabe-cop Zimmerman should not have played a kids' game of cops-and-robbers.