Orlando, Florida - Prosecutors want a Florida judge to clamp a gag order on the Trayvon Martin murder case, saying lawyers for the man charged with murdering the unarmed black teenager threaten to taint the jury pool by trying the case “in the media and not in the courtroom.”
The request for a gag order was filed by Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda in Seminole County Circuit Court on Thursday.
The motion came just before George Zimmerman, the former neighborhood watch volunteer charged with second-degree murder for the shooting death of Martin on Feb. 26, was due to return to court on Friday afternoon for a pre-trial hearing.
“This case has continued to have an inordinate amount of media coverage,” de la Rionda said in his motion.
“Unless defense counsel stops talking to the media about the case, in person or by use of the defendant's website, it will be more difficult to find jurors who have not been influenced by media accounts of the case,” he said.
It is the second time de la Rionda has requested a gag order in the case, which grabbed the media spotlight and triggered public outrage because police in the central Florida town of Sanford initially declined to arrest Zimmerman.
Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty.
De la Rionda filed his first motion for a gag order in April when another judge, who was later forced off the case, declined the request to muzzle Zimmerman's lawyers.
“This case should be tried in the courtroom and not in the media,” de la Rionda said in his new motion. He noted that Zimmerman's lead attorney, Mark O'Mara, had taken to national television as well as the Internet and social media sites including Facebook and Twitter to comment on the case.
It was not immediately clear if Judge Debra Nelson would take up the issue of a gag order in the hearing due to get under way at 1:30 p.m. (1730 GMT) in Sanford, near Orlando.
But Nelson, who earlier this week set a tentative June 10 date for Zimmerman's trial, could approve a defense request for Martin's school and social media records at Friday's hearing.
Prosecutors want the judge to seal any records obtained by the defense until the court decides whether the defense is entitled to those records and whether they should be made public.
Prosecutors have said in court filings that Zimmerman's lawyers were on a “fishing expedition” for background information about Martin that could potentially be used “to influence public perception or otherwise curry favor with potential jurors.”
At the same time, O'Mara has sought to block a prosecution request for the release of more of Zimmerman's medical records, citing what he said was his client's right to privacy.
Martin's school records could provide details of any history of disciplinary action. At the time of his death, the 17-year-old was staying at his father's fiancée's townhome in a gated subdivision in Sanford.
He was serving a 10-day suspension from his Miami high school after being caught with a baggie that contained traces of marijuana.
Zimmerman has said he acted in self-defense when he shot Martin, who was walking back from a convenience store to the townhome where he was staying with his father.
O'Mara has said he would seek to have the murder charge dismissed in a hearing in April or May under Florida's Stand Your Ground law, which allows individuals in fear for their life to use deadly force in self-defense. - Reuters