If I Had a Son' by Jack Cashill

Author:Jack Cashill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: WND Books
Published: 2013-07-19T16:00:00+00:00

29

REMEMBERING LEO FRANK

ON APRIL 30, 2013, Zimmerman and his attorneys faced off against prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda in a preliminary hearing that addressed, among other issues, whether there would be a pretrial Stand Your Ground immunity hearing. One of the revelations that came out of this hearing was that the Treehouse, a blogging outpost thoroughly ignored by the major media and not even ranked among the top two hundred conservative blogs, had cast its shadow on the prosecution’s case.

Pleased by the grudging recognition, the Treepers and their friends commented in real time as they watched the hearings. Chip Bennett was first to notice: “BDLR [Bernie de la Rionda] mentions The Conservative Treehouse—Drink!” HughStone followed: “Bernie is about to cry. THE TREEHOUSE mentioned again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” “He is behaving like a child that isn’t getting his way,” commented Rebelious [sic] Angel after de la Rionda’s third reference to the Treehouse. “Obviously the Conservative Treehouse has done a better job at shining the light on the truth and it’s got BDLR upset.”1

The prosecutors’ many references to the Treehouse did not make the news. What did was Zimmerman’s unexpected decision to waive his right to a Stand Your Ground hearing. The experts consulted by the New York Times listed a series of “strategic and practical” reasons as to why Zimmerman would have made this unanticipated move. In such a hearing, said the experts, the burden to prove innocence is on the defendant. Then, too, the hearing would provide prosecutors a preview of his defense, and state attorney Angela Corey had shown her willingness to challenge vigorously the Stand Your Ground defense. The Times only hinted at another motive in suggesting that a ruling of immunity by a judge, not a jury, “would most likely provoke a strong public reaction in the highly charged case.”2

Strong public reaction? Yes, and Zimmerman knew that better than anyone. He showed up at the late April hearing as much as one hundred pounds heavier than he was a year earlier. The media had rendered the mid-Florida ether so poisonous that Zimmerman felt compelled to spend that year in hiding, in legitimate fear for his life. He could not just pop down to the gym or go for a run around the neighborhood. On one rare excursion he made to a store, it was to buy a bulletproof vest.3 As he fully understood, only a very public exoneration by a jury of his peers could begin to give him his life back. There would be no shortcuts, even if the law provided one.

There was no guarantee either that Zimmerman would get justice from a jury. Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes anticipated the anxiety that a Florida jury might face in his sad commentary on the Leo Frank case. A century earlier, Frank, a Jewish entrepreneur from New York, was tried in an Atlanta court for killing a young woman in his employ. The case outraged the citizens of Georgia, and that outrage no doubt intimidated the members of the jury.

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