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Judge Delays Ruling on George Zimmerman's Prior Calls to Police


June 25, 2013 | WMFE - Attorneys in George Zimmerman's second-degree murder trial will have to wait to learn whether his previous calls to police will be admissible.

[Image: Pool photo of George Zimmerman during trial in a Seminole County courtroom] 

In the months before he fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, Zimmerman made a series of calls reporting black males in his neighborhood as suspicious for various reasons. 

Prosecutors argue the calls indicate Zimmerman’s state of mind on the night of the shooting. 

But defense attorney Mark O’Mara told the judge the calls are irrelevant, and are instead the acts of a Good Samaritan that prosecutors would misrepresent. 

“What they’re going to do is say, ‘Aha, remember when we told you about profiling? Well, now we want you to presume that when he acted reasonably those five or six times, he was seething under the surface. He was just building up,’” said O'Mara. 

Judge Debra Nelson said she’d review the issue and consider a ruling after court wraps up Tuesday.

Zimmerman is pleading not guilty, claiming self-defense.

 

 

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