Good points, but then again, there was a huge amount of public attention focused on Danielle Van Dam's murder, and David Westerfield's attorney did not waive.
Of course, that didn't work out so well for him.
OTOH, I am pretty sure I remember after the trial the prosecution saying they were processing evidence up until the last minute.
So maybe that was a wise move on Steven Feldman's part.
But then again, I don't see GZ's prosecution relying so much on trace evidence like fibers as in DW's case.
And why would GZ need so much time to prepare a defense? Isn't his defense self-defense/SYG? Seems pretty straightforward to me.
But I'm not a lawyer.
I didn't follow that case, but I'm generally familiar with it. I don't think it was exactly the same kind of attention with all of the racial/political issues swirling around this case and the extreme nationwide media and public focus. I mean I heard about the Van Dam case, but nowhere near the extent I've heard about this one.
Plus, I think that, given the nature of the crime, there wasn't a large divide on what people thought should happen to him. I know most on WS feel that GZ should go to jail for life or worse, but I don't think that's the sentiment of every single person who hears about it. I think IRL, it's more of a 70-30 split and getting closer rather than farther apart from it's peak with the "racial slur" tape, etc. Child molester/killers, otoh, are more universally hated than just plain old killers. And I know that Trayvon was a minor, but I do think that b/c he's a male, was 17 and was not sexually assualted by a pervert, it's just different as far as the general public are concerned.
And, as you say, look how no delay turned out in Van Dam.
The forensic evidence is a good point, too. But here, GZ has admitted the shooting, so there is probably not too much evidence beyond the autopsy and some related trajectory/gsr issues that need to get done and come in. So delay isn't going to help with that. Hopefully, the eyewitnesses are locked in and so forth.
And to your last point about what does the defense really need? Probably not that much, but there is ALWAYS a way to drag it out even just with discovery, experts, scheduling, etc. And here, with the preliminary hearing, which also requires discovery and evidence. I would think that if MOM (is that what we're calling him?) wants to take his time, he can make sure that he doesn't see a jury for well over a year or more, at least. Probably a lot longer if he is really trying. jmoo