Maslow's Peak: Reports From the Left
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I don't remember being impanelled, do you?

3/28/2012

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Apparently the Florida State Attorney for Seminole County is leaving it up to several million of us to try this case.  Don't worry about trying to get out of jury duty on this one though, it's going to be a piece of cake.
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We'll have Lawrence O'Donnell as prosecutor, and Michelle Malkin for the defense.  Instead of forensics experts, we get to go with our gut.  Instead of interview transcripts, we get to hear speeches and arguments, which are much less tedious.  Instead of a learned judge deciding what evidence to let in, we can consider Trayvon Martin's school discipline records, and the moving, earnest protestations of one Joe Oliver, a sort-of close friend of the family of the defendant.  Think of it as a riveting episode of Law & Order.  Or CSI.  We're all experts these days anyway, right?  And while the courtroom setting is traditional, it's really bland, and there's no popcorn.

Don't get me wrong.  This is one media circus I appreciate.  This case would be nowhere without it.  O'Donnell has latched on and is doing what journalists do.  Tonight on his program The Last Word, on MSNBC, we heard from ABC News reporter Matt Gutman, who has talked to Trayvon Martin's girlfriend twice about their phone call that night. 

Police investigators have yet to speak to her.

How did ABC's Gutman get her number?  It was in police documents.  Why haven't detectives called her yet?  We don't know.  She has an appointment to meet with the DA on Monday. 

The person who was talking to Trayvon Martin at the moment he was shot to death on February 26 has an appointment to be interviewed by a prosecutor on April 2.
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_The media hashing out of this case will remain a necessary tool for justice until an arrest is made.  There should be plenty of daylight on all criminal cases with national implications, and the public dialogue on this one, even in its excesses, is mostly healthy and legitimate.  But it is unacceptable that as of right now it is happening in lieu of a thorough official investigation. 

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