Friday, April 13, 2012

How Not To Draft A Probable Cause Affidavit

I'm in a rush, but I can't avoid commenting on the affidavit of probable cause submitted in the matter of George Zimmerman's shooting of Trayvon Martin.

It's a piece of crap.

Explaining why could be an epic post, but I don't have much time, so I will make it brief.

The affidavit is argumentative, it's conclusory, and it lacks attribution.

An affidavit shows proper attribution when it explains how the affiant knows each piece of information in the affidavit. That doesn't mean that a proper affidavit can't be based on second-hand or even third-hand or fourth-hand information — it can. But a proper affidavit must explain how each link in the chain gained the information — how everyone knew what they knew — so that the judge can make an intelligent assessment of the sufficiency of the evidence.

For example,

More @ Popehat

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