Sensitive to Criticism

Published June 12, 2012

Trayvon Martin prosecutor Angela Corey is threatening to sue Harvard Law School because one of its professors, Alan M. Dershowitz, criticized her affidavit charging George Zimmerman with second-degree murder.

Dershowitz criticized the affidavit’s omission of any mention of facts about Zimmerman’s head injuries and broken nose, injuries tending to support his claim of self-defense.

Also, second-degree murder is reserved for crimes in which the perpetrator evidences a “depraved mind” and no regard for human life, and Zimmerman’s injuries tend to undercut the validity of this charge.

Dershowitz’s point was the judge deciding whether probable cause exists for such a charge needs to have complete information, and thus the omitted facts make the affidavit false and misleading.

After publication of Dershowitz’s opinion pieces, Corey called the law school and spoke for 40 minutes, threatening to sue it for libel and slander. She also threatened to have disciplinary charges filed against Dershowitz and to sue him for libel, Dershowitz said.

School officials tried to explain Dershowitz has a right to freedom of expression under the First Amendment, but “she did not seem to understand,” Dershowitz wrote later.

Source: Alan Dershowitz, “Dershowitz: Zimmerman Prosecutor Threatening to Sue Harvard for My Criticism,” Newsmax, June 5, 2012