Zimmerman renews request to depose Trayvon Martin family attorney

Zimmerman renews request to depose Trayvon Martin family attorney

ORLANDO, Fla. - George Zimmerman’s defense team today asked Circuit Judge Debra Nelson to reconsider a request to question Benjamin Crump, an attorney for Trayvon Martin’s family, in a deposition.

Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder. Prosecutors say he profiled, pursued and killed Martin, an unarmed Miami Gardens teen. Zimmerman says he acted in self-defense.

At a hearing last month, Nelson rejected the Zimmerman attorneys’ previous request for a deposition of Crump, who last March conducted an interview with the state’s key “Witness 8,” who says she was on the phone with the 17-year-old in the moments before his fatal encounter with Zimmerman in Sanford.

The new motion is based on a recent disclosure that the witness falsely claimed she was hospitalized after the shooting. The defense now argues that her credibility is in question, so learning what Crump knows is all the more important.

“Now that Witness 8’s credibility is at issue because of this contradictory and possibly perjurious testimony, deposing Mr. Crump is even more necessary and relevant for further determination of additional misrepresentation of lies, to document further bases for impeachment of Witness 8, and other necessary matters,” the motion says.

When the deposition issue arose, Crump filed an affidavit that he said explained everything he knew about the interview with Witness 8. But the defense’s new motion calls his affidavit “not only incomplete, but... also inaccurate.”

Zimmerman attorney Mark O’Mara also argues that Crump chose not to involve law enforcement in the interview and rather “took on this task to properly accomplish an accurate recording of this event himself. He failed miserably.”

Crump conducted the interview with Witness 8, who is often referred to as Martin’s girlfriend, after police initially declined to arrest Zimmerman, citing his self-defense claim. The lack of an arrest in the teen’s death led to international outcry.