A hearing is scheduled today for the court to rule on motions filed by both the state prosecution and the defense in the George Zimmerman trial, as to whether or not all evidence should be made public.
STORY: Squaring Off! Lawyers In Zimmerman Case Fight Over Evidence
According to Zimmerman’s legal defense, the prosecution has requested that certain parts of the discovery materials be sealed.
In addition, they’ve asked for the release of specific items to be delayed as both the defense and the prosecution has made it a priority to protect the identities of the witnesses in this case, which is why the defense has requested a 30 day window to properly review the materials.
As reported by GZLegalcase:
We understand that 30 days can seem like a long time, especially to a public with an appetite for information in the era of the 24 hour news cycle, but consider a 30 day review in the context of the entire defense timeline.
We expect a second round of discovery from the prosecution soon, and we are simply requesting a short amount of time to process it.
To further outline the probable progress this case, we anticipate discovery will continue to be forwarded, from the State Attorney’s Office and from other law enforcement agencies, over the next several weeks.
We will then seek additional discovery as we believe may be appropriate and necessary. This will take an additional several weeks to draft the requests, work through any resistance we may receive and get the discovery.
Once we have all the discovery in hand, we will set depositions of witnesses, which is allowed under our discovery rules (Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.220).
Presuming there will be at least fifty witnesses (and all witnesses, such as experts, have not yet been identified) the process of depositions will take a few months.
Only after the depositions are complete will we be in a position to decide if there are motions (such as the oft mentioned ‘stand your ground’ motion) that are appropriate to file and have heard. It is anticipated, though not certain, that this case will not be ready for trial until sometime into 2013.
It stands to reason as to why on May 8th, Zimmerman waived his right to a speedy trial, allowing his defense the time required to prepare for a fair trial.
SOURCE: GZLegal Case
