Did Zimmerman send texts before he shot Trayvon Martin? What messages did Martin exchange with his girlfriend leading up to the shooting?
These are likely to be key questions in the second-degree murder case of George Zimmerman. Although the discovery exhibit list released by prosecutors is somewhat sketchy, it is already clear that social media including text messages and Facebook pages will likely play a significant role at his trial.
So far, prosecutors have released a discovery exhibit list including not only a multitude of police witnesses expected to testify, but also evidence gathered from Zimmerman himself. Some of items listed include “Cell phone records – Defendant”, and “Cell phone records – Victim”. Although not explicitly mentioned in the discovery list, it is clear that SMS (text) messages are part of the prosecution’s case because Assistant State Attorney Bernardo de la Rionda and defense attorney Mark O’Mara have filed motions to seal them.
Even though mobile text messaging has been around for 15 years, it’s only in the last few that texting has seen a geometric rise in use. In 2010, Mashable claimed that boys 14-17 sent an average of 30 texts per day. It is estimated that by 2016, 9.4 trillion SMS messages will be sent annually up 19% per year from 2011. Undeniably this trend is going to have a transformative effect on litigation as virtually every case will contain some form of e discovery including cell phone data.
As a computer forensic analyst, I testified in my first case involving deleted text messages back in 2009. At the time I had not yet met any other digital forensic experts who had rendered trial testimony about deleted text messages, but now it’s relatively commonplace. In the 2012 Rutgers webcam trial, a computer forensic expert witness testified that the defendant, Dharun Ravi deleted 55 text messages between himself and the victim.
In the Martin shooting odds are good we are going to hear testimony from experts from both sides regarding similar issues. It has already been widely reported that Martin was on the phone with his girlfriend moments before his death. Undoubtedly the police subpoenaed the phone service providers of Zimmerman, Martin and his girlfriend and the call logs will be correlated against the text messages found on the phones themselves.
Just a few short years ago, it was uncommon for social media to be part of the e discovery of a criminal or civil case. In the Zimmerman trial, I believe it’s going to an integral element, fought over vigorously by both state and defense attorneys.
