Quote:
Originally Posted by SOM
While perhaps self-serving:
From Washington Post article:
Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump said Wednesday that prosecutors could use Zimmerman’s MySpace comments against him.
“It’s not just speculation and innuendo. He has a history and a habit of profiling people,” Crump said. “He thinks certain things about certain racial groups.”
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Perhaps self-serving? And, as KSig RC (who, like Kevin, is also "in the legal field") said, not from anyone actually involved in the criminal case.
Aside from general irrelevance to elements of second degree murder, as a general rule evidence of past behavior is inadmissible to show that a defendant acted in a manner consistent with that behavior in committing the crime charged. In other words, the fact that someone did something in the past is not evidence that they did it on the occasion for which they're facing charges. Exceptions to that general rule can apply if the evidence serves some other purpose, such as to establish motive or because of real similarity between the past acts and the current one. Without something else, I don't see how evidence of things he said about Mexicans 7 years ago would meet this exception.
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