A Florida appeals court on Wednesday granted George Zimmerman's request for a new judge.
Zimmerman, the former neighborhood watch volunteer charged in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, had said the judge presiding over his case has made disparaging remarks about him.
The Fifth District Court of Appeal wrote in a decision that Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. should "enter an order of disqualification which requests the chief circuit judge to appoint a successor judge."
The opinion said: "Although many of the allegations in Zimmerman's motion, standing alone, do not meet the legal sufficiency test, and while this is admittedly a close call, upon careful review we find that the allegations, taken together, meet the threshold test of legal sufficiency."
The appeals court ruling was 2 to 1 in favor.
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The judge did seem hostile to Zimmerman's case. Whether he will get a judge who is more even handed is still to be determined. I think a reasonable court could find reasons to dismiss the charges against him. The problem is the political environment makes that difficult for any court because of the degree to which a lynching attitude has been fostered by those who have tried to make the case about race.
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