Judge Bars 911 Expert Testimony In Murder Trial

Testimony during the upcoming Florida murder trial of George Zimmerman will not include four experts who examined audio from a 911 call and reached different conclusions about who was talking on the tape. Judge Debra Nelson ruled today that the science behind the experts’ analysis was not “widely accepted,” and so jurors should not hear their testimony. However, Nelson ruled the prosecution or defense can still play the 911 call tape during the trial to establish other facts. In earlier court hearings, experts for the defense claimed that yelling on the 911 tape was from Zimmerman, while the prosecution experts said the sounds were made by Trayvon Martin, who died from a gunshot fired by Zimmerman. Both sides had expected to use the expert testimony to help establish who was the aggressor during a confrontation between the two men in Feb. 2012. Read more about the judge’s ruling here, and download (pdf) the judge’s ruling here.