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George Zimmerman: Frye Hearing on Voice Experts

By Jeralyn, Section Crime in the News
Posted on Thu Jun 06, 2013 at 03:22:27 PM EST
Tags: George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin (all tags)
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There's an all day hearing going on in the George Zimmerman case. This morning was mostly taken up by the defense motion for sanctions for discovery violations pertaining to material on Trayvon Martin's cell phone. Recap here.

The Frye hearing on voice identification and speaker recognition is underway. You can watch live here. Due to scheduling issues, the defense is going first with one of its witnesses, FBI expert Dr. Hirotaka Nakasone. He was one of the examiners who examined the 911 call with screaming and the gunshot in the background. (Report here.)

He believes there are three challenges to biometric voice comparison.[More...]

  • Challenge #1 is dynamic nature of human speech production that changes constantly as a function of time, therefore it requires a long sampling period ranging from tens of seconds to a few minutes to create a statistical meaningful speaker model. Voice is more time intensive in contrast to other biometric modalities like fingerprint, iris, face, DNA, SMT, etc.
  • Challenge #2 is the fragility of human speech, which is susceptible to different recording environment and equipment used for capture.
  • Challenge #3 is the susceptibility of human speech which is affected by different state of emotions or different speaking styles. The researchers in the speaker recognition community are well aware of these challenges, and have resolved some of them.

Dr. Nagasone does not think it is possible to identify the speakers on the 911 emergency call.

My thoughts on the admission of speaker and voice expert testimony in this case is here.

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    George Zimmerman: Frye Hearing on Voice Experts | 4 comments (4 topical)

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    Will all remain to stand... (none / 0) (#1)
    by heidelja on Sun Jun 09, 2013 at 10:08:25 PM EST
    ...given the audio obtained by ABC that was reported on on June 7?

    On an emergency appeal will the judge be seen to have erred by curtailing Thursday morning's hearing prematurely seemingly without knowledge of TM's voice audio which should be seen to play a part in the relevance of the yet unfinished Frye hearing lasting 2+ days.

    Trayvon's Voice on ABC (none / 0) (#2)
    by nomatter0nevermind on Mon Jun 10, 2013 at 12:12:54 AM EST
    Why do you think Nelson doesn't have knowledge of the voice audio? How is it relevant?

    The audio is from the 'homeless men' video. The defense has it. They could have played it in court if they thought it was important for the judge to hear it. It was provided to Reich, and he discussed it in his report. I don't see what ABC has to do with it.

    Parent

    Why is it relevant seems almost incomprehensible.. (none / 0) (#3)
    by heidelja on Mon Jun 10, 2013 at 05:43:28 AM EST
    ...to understand. Or might it be seen as irreprehensible because the "'homeless men' video" resulted from the discovery of the State's transgression that goes stated in the first paragraph above...
    This morning was mostly taken up by the defense motion for sanctions for discovery violations pertaining to material on Trayvon Martin's cell phone.

    For starters further understand the ABC news report shared on June 7 herein was also encapsulated in the Huffington Post article found here. Somewhat nonchalantly the HP article states:  

    Now, ABC News has "exclusively obtained" audio that both the defense and prosecution possess, featuring Martin's voice, which could be the key to answering the longstanding question of who was, in fact, begging for help the night of the fatal confrontation

    The ABC report is quite clear that this audio was indeed "material on Trayvon Martin's cell phone" that we know, separate from this report, was hidden from the Defense, yet the surprising result of the sanction hearing over it can be found from the Recap (above) to be:

    2:30 p.m. - SANCTION HEARING POSTPONED. Judge Debra Nelson stops the hearing on the motion for sanctions, saying it will have to wait until after the trial. The judge wants to move on to other motions that need to be address. Court is in a brief recess.

    Yes, I suppose we should presume the judge does know of the audio in some form now.  But there is no clear record of what she knew at 2:30 on Thursday. AND given Matt Gutman's track record for "exclusive" reporting on this case in the past, he has reported on "leaks" previously before the Court has known of any such leak! But it is not this notion of conspiracy theory that is the point of my question.

    My point is... Had the existence of TM's audio been properly disclosed by the State months ago, would much of the 2+ days taken up by the Frye Hearing beeen seen rendered mute? And now knowing of the audio, does it in itself render such evidence as inadmissable? After all, no "expert" analysis had it to consider in  their determinations.  Certainly, per ABC (biased?) reporting, it does further support the notion that it cannot be technically determined who the screamer's voice was with certainty. How can a trial proceed knowing that it is doomed to a mistrial if "guilt" is determined by a jury for reason of evidence that should have been made inadmissable had a sanction hearing not been curtailed at the outset?   And why should the Court wait to sanction the prosecution, when the sanction could be that Tom Owen's testimony be made inadmissable because the State provided the evidence to him which could only be seen to have incriminated GZ after, mind you, Owen had been hired by the Orlando Sentinel to promulgate a misleading "newsworthy" story never knowing there was audio of TM's voice the State was sitting on?  

    Parent

    Experts Had The Audio (none / 0) (#4)
    by nomatter0nevermind on Wed Jun 12, 2013 at 10:57:27 AM EST
    After all, no "expert" analysis had it to consider in  their determinations.

    That's not correct. I just said Reich had it. See his report, (pp. 1-3).

    Hollien and Harnsberger had it too (pp. 2, 4-5).

    Owen was the only prosecution expert who seems to have done all his work without an exemplar of Martin's voice.

    George Zimmerman: Frye Hearing on Voice Experts | 4 comments (4 topical)

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