Opening statements in the George Zimmerman murder trial are scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m. EST in Sanford, Fla. Attorneys for both sides will attempt to convince the jury to believe their version of what happened on the night of February 28, 2012 when Zimmerman shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, reports the Orlando Sentinel.
The shooting received national attention in part because it took the police 44 days to finally charge Zimmerman with second-degree murder for the shooting. The racial undertones of the case also garnered a great deal of media attention; many believe that Zimmerman racially profiled Martin because he was a black youth and that's why he followed him and what led to the altercation between the two, according to the Associated Press.
David LaBahn, president and CEO of the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, told CBS News he believes the prosecution will be trying to make the case that Zimmerman saw Martin as an intruder and potential criminal so he followed him and confronted him.
"I think they've got a very solid case here - someone went and confronted and killed an unarmed person, and did it in a mental state of they were taking the law into their own hands," LaBahn said.
Brian Tannebaum, president of the Florida Association of Bar Defense Lawyrers, spoke with CBS News and said that he feels that the state should keep things simple and simply stress that Martin was an unarmed teenager who did nothing wrong.
"If I'm the state in this case, I want to make this case very simple - it's not about Trayvon Martin or about George Zimmerman. Those two names have a brand and they have an identity - this is a case about an unarmed kid in the vicinity of George Zimmerman and he did absolutely nothing to cause him to be in fear," Tannebaum said. "If I start adding to it, then I start opening the door to other issues and I start creating other emotions and other thoughts about racism."
The key to Zimmerman's defense, according to Michael Cardoza, a criminal defense attorney from California, is to show that Zimmerman felt his life was in danger and that he was acting in self-defense.
"You'll have his attorneys making the argument that Tryavon presented a threat to him, and he didn't have to back down from the threat under Florida law," Cardoza told CBS News.
Over the weekend Judge Debra Nelson gave the defense a major victory ruling that the two audio experts the state had used to attempt to identify the voices on the 911 call will not be allowed to testify during the trial.
The state is will call their first witness once opening statements have concluded although it is still unclear who that witness may be, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
To watch a live stream of the opening of the trial click here
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