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| Zimmerman defense rests; closing arguments to begin Thursday at 1 pm - MiamiHerald.com Posted: 11 Jul 2013 08:46 AM PDT SANFORD -- George Zimmerman's fate could be in jurors' hands by Friday, after the defense rested its case Wednesday with Zimmerman declining to take the stand. When Circuit Judge Debra Nelson asked Zimmerman, 29, what he had decided about testifying in his second-degree murder trial, the former neighborhood-watch leader stood, straightened his dark suit, and spoke softly. "After consulting with counsel, not to testify, your honor," he said. With both sides having rested, closing arguments will begin Thursday afternoon. Nelson said she wants jurors to begin deliberations Friday afternoon. A six-person, all-female Seminole County jury will decide whether Zimmerman is guilty of murder in the Feb. 26, 2012, shooting death of Trayvon Martin, 17, of Miami Gardens. Prosecutors allege Zimmerman profiled, pursued and murdered the unarmed teen, who was visiting his father in Sanford while on suspension from his Miami-Dade County high school. Zimmerman has maintained that he acted in self-defense, shooting when he felt his life was in danger after Trayvon ambushed him in the dark. The closely watched case sparked protests and marches in the 44-day gap between Trayvon's killing and Zimmerman's arrest. After court Wednesday, defense attorney Mark O'Mara said he was confident in the evidence his side presented and hopeful for an acquittal. "With evidence the way it is, I think we have a very, very good chance with the jury," he said. Trayvon's family, meanwhile, is hoping for a different outcome, but family attorney Ben Crump said the family does not want to see any violence in the event of an acquittal. "The Martins hope that people peacefully protest," Crump said. O'Mara noted that Zimmerman carefully weighed whether to testify, but believed that jurors already heard his side of the story through his statements to police and the testimony of other witnesses. "A big part of him wanted to get in front of the jury and say, 'This is my story, this is what I've done, and this is why I did it,' " O'Mara said. "It was a very difficult decision for George to make." Before closings begin Thursday, attorneys will argue about what instructions Nelson will give jurors as they go into their deliberations. In addition to second-degree murder, the state wants the jury to consider possible lesser charges, including manslaughter and aggravated assault; the defense does not. "Self-defense is self-defense to everything," including murder, manslaughter, assault and battery, O'Mara said. "What happened out there was not a crime." A manslaughter or aggravated assault conviction could result in a lengthy sentence because a gun was used. If convicted of second-degree murder as charged or of aggravated assault, Zimmerman would face up to life in prison; manslaughter would carry a sentence of up to 30 years. The judge dealt some blows to the defense on Wednesday when she ruled against two pieces of evidence Zimmerman's team had hoped to present to jurors: text and Facebook messages from Trayvon's phone, and a computer-animated re-creation of the confrontation between Trayvon and Zimmerman. The text and Facebook messages included references to Trayvon getting into fights. The defense-commissioned animation, which prosecutors successfully argued only showed Zimmerman's version of events, looks like a computer game showing a Trayvon avatar walking up and punching Zimmerman's character. |
| Authorities to exhume body of confessed Boston Strangler Albert DeSalvo ... - Boston.com Posted: 11 Jul 2013 08:32 AM PDT Albert H. DeSalvo's body will be exhumed to allow for new forensic testing that may, finally, answer whether he was in fact the Boston Strangler who terrorized Greater Boston during 19 months in the early 1960s. Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced the new development today as he also reported that a DNA match has been made between DeSalvo, the self-confessed Boston Strangler, and the murder of 19-year-old Mary Sullivan, who was raped and murdered in her Charles Street home in Boston on Jan. 4, 1964. Conley said the DNA testing showed a "familial match" between forensic evidence in Sullivan's killing, leading prosecutors to ask for a Suffolk Superior Court judge to order the exhumation of DeSalvo's remains in hopes it may help prove a forensic link to the murder of 10 other women attributed to DeSalvo and the Boston Strangler. A total of 11 women, including Sullivan, are considered to be the victims of DeSalvo, Conley said today. Conley said investigators obtained a DNA sample from a bottle discarded by one of DeSalvo's nephews and used it to build the "familial match'' between DeSalvo and Sullivan's murder. , DeSalvo's surviving relatives and Casey Sherman, the nephew of Mary Sullivan, joined forces about a decade ago to conduct DNA testing on Sullivan's remains. The result did not link DeSalvo to Sullivan's death. Sherman is attending the press conference today. Officials are planning to meet with relatives of the women murdered by the Strangler sometime today. They will brief them on the latest investigative avenues used in the case at the meeting this morning, sources said. DeSalvo confessed to being the "Boston Strangler,'' but was never prosecuted for the crimes under a deal negotiated with then-Attorney General Edward Brooke and DeSalvo's attorney, F. Lee Bailey. But many people, including Brooke, have questioned whether DeSalvo did kill all of the women whose deaths have been attributed to the Strangler. "Even to this day, I can't say with certainty that the person who ultimately was designated as the Boston Strangler was the Boston Strangler," Brooke told the Globe in 2012. DeSalvo, who was then imprisoned on other charges, was linked to the killings when he confessed to the crimes to his cellmate, George Nassar. Nassar told Bailey, who negotiated a deal where DeSalvo admitted he was the Strangler, but was never prosecuted for them. DeSalvo was stabbed to death in Walpole state prison in Nov. 25, 1973. He was 42 years old. (Mike Bello of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.) Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com. Eric Moskowitz can be reached at emoskowitz@globe.com. John R. Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @JREbosglobe. |
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