Zimmerman: Defense Animation Arguments

By Jeralyn, Section Crime in the News
Posted on Tue Jul 09, 2013 at 10:29:59 PM EST
Tags: George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin (all tags)

Share This: Digg!

At 8:00 pm ET, the hearing on the admissibility of the defense animation wound down. The judge reserved ruling until tomorrow, but from her comments, the animation is in trouble.

The parties and judge agree there is one Florida case, State v. Pierce, 671 So. 2d 186 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996) on computer animations in a criminal case. The animation was admissible in that case.

The judge has problems with it going back into the jury room as opposed to being used as a demonstrative aid to assist an expert's testimony. Having listened to the full argument for a few hours, it seems the state is equating accuracy with whether the animation includes its version of the testimony. It's not intended as a recreation of the scene, but as defendant's theory of how the confrontation (not the shooting) occurred, as supported by witness testimony, including that of its experts. The exibit relied on evidence from Dr. DiMaio, John Good, Jena Lauer, and even Selma Mora. [More...]

The judge seemed fine with the defense's computer animation exhibit until the expert was asked by O'Mara how he created the timeline to overlay Jenna Lauer's 911 call with the time John Good went back into the house to call 911. The judge said her notes showed Good was dialing 911 as the gunshot went off. There probably is only a few second difference between the her method of calculation and the expert's -- hardly enough to make it inaccurate. As even the state acknowledged, it doesn't have to be exact.

But from that point on, the judge seemed to find more problems with it. Here are some screen-grabs from the animation that were presented in court.

< Zimmerman Trial: Marijuana Evidence | Zimmerman: BAE, Y U Always Fighting? >

Legal

Nothing on this site should be construed as legal advice. TalkLeft does not give legal advice.

TalkLeft is not responsible for and often disagrees with material posted in the comments section. Read at your own risk.

Zimmerman: Defense Animation Arguments | 5 comments (5 topical)

Readers Must Login or Create an Account to Comment

I think I have to side with the prosecution (5.00 / 1) (#1)
by Payaso on Wed Jul 10, 2013 at 01:03:01 AM EST

on this one.

An animation is argument, not evidence.

: Yeah, I was only listening on the radio (none / 0) (#7)
by ruffian on Wed Jul 10, 2013 at 02:22:59 PM EST

and did not see these screenshots till now. The animation seems to take a few known facts such as the dimensions of the property and the timing of the 911 call, and then overlay the defense story of events on top of that. I can see the mixture of fact and opinions being problematic.
From what I heard in the arguments, the animation just showed some arrows from the T to where the body ended up....no animation as to how it got there.

From Corner of T to JG's Lawn (none / 0) (#4)
by RickyJim on Wed Jul 10, 2013 at 09:14:12 AM EST

The screen grabs don't show how that transfer was made. Can anybody who watched the entire Schumaker testimony tell me if that is covered in the animation? One puzzling aspect of the case is why Zimmerman originally thought, when questioned on the evening of 2/26/12, he immediately fell down backwards with no grappling occurring. I am curious if the animation fills in that part.

The animation, v.3, at that point (none / 0) (#5)
by cboldt on Wed Jul 10, 2013 at 09:25:36 AM EST

The animation shows a single left hand blow by Martin, Zimmerman's head goes back but he remains standing. The picture holds in that position, an arrow is drawn on the ground from "left of the T" to an area approximately straight out from Good's patio.

The animation shifts to view the scene from Good's vantage point, and the figures of Martin mounted on Zimmerman appear as Good might have seen them.


: So Animation Begs the Question (none / 0) (#6)
by RickyJim on Wed Jul 10, 2013 at 10:09:40 AM EST

Of how they got from the T to JG's lawn? Does the Lauer call begin at the view shown in Screen Capture 3? Have the entire v3 been posted anywhere? TIA.