Criminal Law Blog & News

On Tuesday , April 11, 2012, the so-called former attorneys of George Zimmerman announced to the media, and thus the public at large, they were withdrawing from further representation of the man under investigation for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida.

Although attorneys have the ability to withdraw from cases under certain circumstances and although there really wasn’t an actual case to withdraw from as of Tuesday, questions remain regarding the decision to publicly disclose certain matters which may have the potential to negatively impact the defense.

I suppose I should not write this.  I suppose I should just go with the flow created by the apparent overwhelming ground swell of the media and popular outrage over the Sanford Police Department’s failure to arrest George Zimmerman on a murder charge.  As a criminal defense attorney that knows well that the police are not only fallible but also capable of outright dishonesty, I still feel the need to speak in opposition to the idea that we can know with certainty the facts of this investigation by reading news reports or listening to popular media accounts.  As my friends and associates lineup on Facebook acknowledging that they have signed a petition essentially demanding that Zimmerman be immediately arrested, I can’t help but smell a lynch mob mentality that causes me to step back and urge caution.