ETA- I'm loving my new copying and pasting ability, but ditzed and posted earlier before I finished this. 
I cut and pasted tweets yesterday as Nurmi did his closing -trashing. A day later, looking at that document, calmer, as the jury likely was as they listened, a couple major points leap out.
1. Nurmi essentially conceded the jury won't find either Geffner and MF credible. (Paraphrasing- "yes, you can dismiss expert testimony...because the "key" lies elsewhere).
2. He knows the jury WILL find DeMarte credible. The best he could do to diminish DeMarte is to say her failure to say good morning to him equals bias. That's doesn't even meet the bar for pathetic.
3. The "key" he wants the jury to find is at the end of a chain of twisted misinterpretations and "diagnostic impressions": Travis was in denial about the abuse he experienced as a child, his inability to deal with the truth meant he lived a double life, the bad Travis was an abusive pedophile, but the good Travis was such a good salesman all his friends are willing to lie for him.
4. Nurmi's "key" is residual doubt...that some unsaid thing Travis did caused JA to snap between sex and shower. That's why he lied about Travis inviting JA on June 4. Nurmi wasn't allowed to be any more specific because he's not allowed to argue residual doubt- that the first jury got it wrong, and that she did not premeditate the murder. Mitigator 6 is essentially the snapped, heat of passion lie.
That's Nurmi's convoluted "key" to a LWOP verdict.
For the jury to believe Nurmi’s key, they have to not remember, any of them, that: the murder was planned out weeks in advance, that JA had left Mesa 2 months before the murder, that she drove 1,000 miles back to Mesa to kill him, and that she brought a gun with her. All of that information was presented to them in week 1.
JM didn’t and couldn’t review premeditation and the murder itself in closing. What he did do was to remind them that she used both a gun and a knife (very un-snappy) and that Travis did not invite her June 4. Most important, he told them to go back and look for themselves what the record said about whether or not she was invited. He said that, IMO, as a way of ensuring they reviewed their notes and the evidence about premeditation from week one.
If the jury fully understands and accepts the original finding of 1st degree premeditated murder, what is left of Nurmi’s key?
Perhaps a juror or two doesn’t like Travis (less likely this time), or believes that Travis may have abused her in some way. Perhaps more even believe she was abused as a child. Who knows. But even if that’s the case, what annihilates Nurmi’s storyline is that pesky premeditation thing.
The only way any juror is going to rationalize away premeditation is if the pedo lie flies. I just don’t see it.
I cut and pasted tweets yesterday as Nurmi did his closing -trashing. A day later, looking at that document, calmer, as the jury likely was as they listened, a couple major points leap out.
1. Nurmi essentially conceded the jury won't find either Geffner and MF credible. (Paraphrasing- "yes, you can dismiss expert testimony...because the "key" lies elsewhere).
2. He knows the jury WILL find DeMarte credible. The best he could do to diminish DeMarte is to say her failure to say good morning to him equals bias. That's doesn't even meet the bar for pathetic.
3. The "key" he wants the jury to find is at the end of a chain of twisted misinterpretations and "diagnostic impressions": Travis was in denial about the abuse he experienced as a child, his inability to deal with the truth meant he lived a double life, the bad Travis was an abusive pedophile, but the good Travis was such a good salesman all his friends are willing to lie for him.
4. Nurmi's "key" is residual doubt...that some unsaid thing Travis did caused JA to snap between sex and shower. That's why he lied about Travis inviting JA on June 4. Nurmi wasn't allowed to be any more specific because he's not allowed to argue residual doubt- that the first jury got it wrong, and that she did not premeditate the murder. Mitigator 6 is essentially the snapped, heat of passion lie.
That's Nurmi's convoluted "key" to a LWOP verdict.
For the jury to believe Nurmi’s key, they have to not remember, any of them, that: the murder was planned out weeks in advance, that JA had left Mesa 2 months before the murder, that she drove 1,000 miles back to Mesa to kill him, and that she brought a gun with her. All of that information was presented to them in week 1.
JM didn’t and couldn’t review premeditation and the murder itself in closing. What he did do was to remind them that she used both a gun and a knife (very un-snappy) and that Travis did not invite her June 4. Most important, he told them to go back and look for themselves what the record said about whether or not she was invited. He said that, IMO, as a way of ensuring they reviewed their notes and the evidence about premeditation from week one.
If the jury fully understands and accepts the original finding of 1st degree premeditated murder, what is left of Nurmi’s key?
Perhaps a juror or two doesn’t like Travis (less likely this time), or believes that Travis may have abused her in some way. Perhaps more even believe she was abused as a child. Who knows. But even if that’s the case, what annihilates Nurmi’s storyline is that pesky premeditation thing.
The only way any juror is going to rationalize away premeditation is if the pedo lie flies. I just don’t see it.
