Reversal of Fortune for Zimmerman Defense Team: Florida Judge Debra Nelson Okays Testimony About Trayvon Martin’s Marijuana Usage Prior to Shooting

A reversal of fortune for the Zimmerman defense team …

Judge Debra Nelson has ruled that the George Zimmerman defense team will be allowed to present to the jury that Trayvon Martin had small amounts of marijuana in his system prior to the altercation that occurred in February 2012 that left Martin dead from a gun shot. Judge Nelson had previously granted a prosecution motion to limit testimony about the government toxicology report, but changed her ruling after testimony by the medical examiner who performed the Martin autopsy.  The importance of this is that during Zimmerman’s call to a non-emergency police line, he told a dispatcher that a person he was observing, who turned out to be Martin, appeared to be “on drugs.” Guess what, it turned out to be Trayvon was.

Jurors in the George Zimmerman murder trial will be able to hear defense testimony that Trayvon Martin had small amounts of marijuana in his system at the time he was shot to death in February 2012.

In a ruling this afternoon, Judge Debra Nelson rejected a prosecution request to bar a portion of a toxicology report that revealed Martin had been smoking pot at some point prior to Zimmerman killing him with a single gunshot to the heart.

Nelson, who previously granted a prosecution motion to limit testimony about the government toxicology report, reversed herself in the wake of last Friday’s testimony by the medical examiner who performed the Martin autopsy. Zimmerman’s lawyers will apparently introduce findings from the toxicology report through the testimony of a defense forensics expert.

Many will say that all pot does is make one mellow and get the midnight munchies. However, that is the stereotype of pot use and what happens to most. Others say that the use marijuana actually get paranoid, irritable and aggressive. I have actually seen both happen.  In this case I hardly think that Trayvon Martin’s pot use is the “smoking” gun, but it does give credibility to Zimmerman’s account that Martin appeared to be on drugs.