After all my activity yesterday I thought I had better stay in and keep my foot elevated, it needs all the help it can get to heal, so I've nearly finished my needlework project - I have in fact finished it but I am at the stage of snipping out stitches I'm not happy with.
And (how ungrammatical is this, starting a new paragraph with and) I have been channel hopping between the news and the current murder trial. Which is - to refresh your memory - young unarmed teenager is walking home, it's raining heavily, he is taking shelter where he can under the eaves of houses, and a self appointed neighbourhood watchman - who I've heard described as a wannabe cop - is suspicious. He calls the police who tell him to stand off, it takes six minutes for the police to arrive, and in that time the young lad and the defendant have a confrontation, the defendant has a bloody nose and cuts and grazes, and the young lad is dead on the sidewalk.
So the defence all hinges on who hit whom first, and which one of them was heard screaming for help. The defendant is alleging that the lad attacked him and he killed him in self defence. There seem to be lots of witnesses who heard the kerfuffle, and they have all been filing into court today, all witnesses for the prosecution,
but it doesn't look good for the defence, there is going to be too much 'reasonable doubt'.
The "star" witness is the young lad's girl friend who was talking to him on the phone when he was being followed by the defendant. BUT, she is a teenager, uneducated (she can't read cursive writing), she had no idea how to conduct herself in court, she made it very clear that she did not want to be there, there was a lot of rolling of her eyes, and it was very difficult for anyone to hear and understand what she was saying, and there is a cultural issue here too because she is - like the victim - African American. I heard it said that black and white people live in a different America, and I can see how true that is if one is poor, black and uneducated.
She started giving evidence on Wednesday or Thursday, but didn't finish before the court was adjourned for the day, and she was told she would have to come back the next day, she shouted WHAT!!!! Someone obviously took her aside and told her how to behave in court, she was a great deal more polite, there was a lot more "yes, SIR" when she came back the next morning.
As far as I can understand it so far, the defendant started following him, the young lad asked what his problem was, they got into a fight, and the lad was shot.
Who needs crime novels and whodunnits when it is all unfolding before you.
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