Angela Corey, the prosecutor in the George Zimmerman case in Florida should be disbarred. Her conduct in this case has been so outrageous that no penalty short of her losing her law license is sufficient.
What has she done?
She filed Second Degree Murder charges against George Zimmerman in the shooting of Trayvon Martin. The problem with that is all of the evidence points not to a second-degree murder charge, but all of the evidence points to the fact that George Zimmerman acted in self-defense.
The most important facts of the case seem to be not in dispute. George Zimmerman was a neighborhood watch captain because his neighborhood had been hit by a lot of crime. He saw Trayvon Martin, called into 911 and reported him. There was later a confrontation and Martin ended up dead.
George Zimmerman claims that Trayvon Martin attacked him. The witnesses and the scientific evidence all support that claim. One witness says he saw Trayvon Martin on top of George Zimmerman straddling him, punching him “MMA style.”
The autopsy report indicates a close but not a contact wound. A contact wound is where a gun is placed next to the skin and fired. A close wound is within a foot, where stippling, the hot debris, such as burning gunpowder will hit either clothing or skin. The entry wound is on his left side of his chest, consistent with Zimmerman being right handed and shooting Martin.
The autopsy report also shows injuries to Martin’s knuckles.
The witness who saw Martin straddling Zimmerman also saw blood coming from Zimmerman’s nose and the back of his head and several photos have been released showing the bloodied back of George Zimmerman’s head.
This case screams self-defense. In fact, other than the hucksters who are stirring this case up for political gain, no rational person would say this is anything other than self-defense.
Angela Corey has become a disgrace to her office and to the legal profession.
Florida, like all states, has a code of legal ethics. Section 4-3.8 says that a prosecutor in a criminal case shall refrain from prosecuting a case that the prosecutor knows is not supported by probable cause.
There is simply no way this prosecutor can claim there is probable cause to believe George Zimmerman committed a second degree murder.
When Angela Corey held her press conference announcing the charges against Zimmerman, she said her office cared only about “seeking justice for Trayvon Martin’s family.”
Seeking justice for the Martin family is the job of the family attorney. Seeking justice for George Zimmerman is the job of his attorney. The prosecuting attorney’s job is to seek justice, period.
At that press conference, she announced that she did not charge cases based on public pressure. That is exactly what she did.
In 1935, the Supreme Court dealt with the issue of an overzealous prosecutor.
In the case of Berger vs. The United States, George Sutherland wrote:
The United States Attorney is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all, and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done. As such, he is in a peculiar and very definite sense the servant of the law, the two-fold aim of which is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer. He may prosecute with earnestness and vigor -- indeed, he should do so. But, while he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones. It is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one.
For prosecutors who take their jobs seriously, these words direct their actions. For Angela Corey, they are little more than a punch line at a campaign rally.
The reason the American justice system works is because we the people can believe in the fairness of it. Prosecutions are not undertaken to attack political opponents nor are they motivated by political or public pressure.
Yet that is exactly what has happened here.
The prosecuting attorney is the most powerful elected official in an area. He or she can cause a person’s life to be destroyed and even be sent to prison for a long period of time.
In the United States, our founding fathers were so afraid of an out of control government prosecuting its citizens, four of the ten amendments of the bill of rights offer protections against unfair prosecution.
Fortunately in America, unfair prosecutions are rare. This prosecution is not only unfair it is very political in nature. The prosecuting attorney, Angela Corey is up for reelection this fall.
The voters of Florida’s Fourth Judicial District should send a very clear message and vote her out of office.
When this case is finally resolved and the charges against George Zimmerman are dismissed, the Florida Supreme Court should disbar Angela Corey.
There are several levels of attorney discipline, ranging from admonition to censuring to suspension to disbarment. When an attorney is disbarred, they either can never practice law again or after a period of time, if they can show the state supreme court they are a changed person, they can be allowed to sit for the bar exam again.
For prosecuting a man based on public pressure and bringing charges that even a first year law student could tell will never be sustained, Angela Corey should be disbarred.
Tags: angela, corey, disbarred, ethics, florida, george, legal, martin, murder, prosecutor, More…
Permalink Reply by William T. Olson on Not Guilty
Permalink Reply by Russell Edmund Fowler on We need more people like George Zimmerman to keep the general public safe.
Permalink Reply by Robert H. Woodman on Goodbusiness,
I was going to bring that point up when I saw your comment.
I am deeply suspicious of all Prosecuting Attorneys and Attorneys General who take on high profile cases during an election year. Because they are elected officials, they can NEVER have motives that are beyond suspicion when they take on a case like the George Zimmerman case during an election year. It's like (as I have witnessed in Ohio) when the police mostly ignore prostitution 3 years out of 4 (really egregious prostitutes and pimps are treated differently) and then, during an election year, begin busting prostitution rings left and right. I don't think that the pimps suddenly came to town during an election year. Do you?
Likewise, I don't think that Angela Corey discovered evidence of a crime by Mr. Zimmerman that the Sanford PD was unable to discover in its own investigation. Her motives for this prosecution are suspect, and she should have a complaint filed against her by one or more competent attorneys in the State of Florida.
Permalink Reply by Juls on Question: Should a physician lose their license to practice in one state, they are able to set up shop in another. Is the same true for an attorney that loses his or her license?
Permalink Reply by Michael Goodfellow on Permalink Reply by Michael Goodfellow on Anytime. Our family doctor was arrested and lost his license because he was writing prescriptions for patients he hadn't seen. He wrote hundreds, if not thousands, of scripts for steroids and then sent them to a pharmacy he had ties with to fill and ship.
Permalink Reply by JC Patriot on I would prefer a standard that is based on equality for all professions -- why should a teacher, an engineer, a law enforcement official, or anyone else be able to escape such transparency? I know a homebuilder that should have his conduct posted on the internet.
I also know of gross misconduct by members of the state boards of the medical and legal professions, so you might take a second to consider the implications of giving such boards the power to severely alter people's lives when they may have motives of their own. We should all question giving too much authority to any beaurocracy before we get ourselves into even more deep kimchi.
Permalink Reply by Michael Goodfellow on Permalink Reply by JC Patriot on You're preaching to the choir. My palm was full many years ago. It is time for us to use our fists when dealing with beaurocracies and their mostly-false impression of protecting the public. To count on them to "fix the bad guys" is like counting on Obumbler to fix the national debt.
But back to the point we were discussing -- do you think any one profession deserves to have details of it's members' history more available than other professions? I am interested if anyone can point to the part of the Constitution that gives the government (any level) the right to violate an individual's right to privacy. This seems important when discussing singling out certain professions in these discussions -- it might just be part of the liberal strategy of divide and conquer.
Permalink Reply by Danny Kirkpatrick on I live in Florida, i waited untill the evidence came out before stating my oppinion. As i see it, the evidence shows Zimmerman acted in self defence. I voted for Angela Corey, but i will vote to remove her if she does not do the right thing in this case, she should drop the changes. She is bowing to pressure from the left, i believe she is willing to send an inocent man to prison to avoid a race riot like the one in Calafornia during the Rodney Kink case. Poeple, we can not back down from true justice, just because a group of hatefull people threatin voilence. If we do, we will never have justice in America agian.
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