Martin judge may have conflict of interest

>>> and we are learning new details in the trayvon martin murder case jens gorge zimmerman . a conflict of interest could force the judge to step down from the case. meanwhile, reaction from trayvon's brother who says he was not a violent person.

>> everything i heard was from zimmerman 's perspective, and it didn't sound like my brother at all. you know, my brother attacked him and did all this stuff. it doesn't sound like him at all. he wasn't confrontational.

>> joining me now is defense attorney rebecca woodland and the grio.com's alekis stauchill.

>> basically the judge in the case may have to step down. she held a hearing on thursday to announce the fact, i think it was friday, the fact that her husband is actually working for mark jame, an attorney before marco amera. he wanted to get this out in the open. she held the hearing himself and she may hold a hearing next week to step down.

>> in the conflict of interest, he was not chosen.

>> right, but we don't know what happened in their one-on-one discussion. now if they have a very private discussion, confidentially privileged, he can privilege to have a conversation with his law partner, who can again under privilege have a conversation with his wife who is now sitting as the judge. even if they didn't, she doesn't have to reveal what was said because that is all privileged, but there is a conflict in this case that you don't want to have. and i can understand why she's concerned and she may actually take herself out of the case before even they make a motion. if i were her, not knowing the specifics of the facts here, i might say to myself, this is not a good situation to be in.

>> even if they allow me to --

>> exactly.

>> why make the controversy.

>> it is not really appropriate. and another judge who has nothing to do with this might want to sit and better determine that.

>> early on, what stands out to you at the moment?

>> the second-degree murder charge. i was shocked when it came down. i said, i understand that they are going to move against zimmerman . i do understand that. but for the prosecutor to come out with second-degree murder, she's got to prove malice. i thought manslaughter. because malice in this case might be very difficult to prove. we don't know all the facts.

>> from what you have seen is what you are saying.

>> from what i've seen, it is going to be hard to say there was malice aforethought , not me bredation, premeditation.

>> they said zimmerman 's arrest was done under pressure. what are you seeing?

>> i'm definitely not seeing that. when i was in sanford i saw zi commissioners and spoke to the city manager and felt everyone there was calm. they were comfortable with the press and were not pressured by the press at all and were set on making the decision based on facts and the best interest of the victim and the people of san today sanford .

>> they moved quite quickly before the arrest.

>> they did, but angela curry took three weeks to make the decision. before that it was several weeks for them to make their decision. the sanford police department did take time to do their investigation. and the justice department and all the officials came in did as well, so there was a 45-day period before zimer man was arrested with the entire time reviewing evidence by several different parties.

>> can that be brought up in the case, this issue of pressure?

>> oh, sure, it will be brought up. some of the initial investigation by the police department , that defense will probably claim that as faulty or not done well enough. not investigating eyewitnesss within a close amount of time so that they continue on memory. those are all things brought up by the defense. and the prosecution can use it as well because now this is a special prosecutor , but the strength is in the defense saying, these eyewitnesss don't remember enough because they weren't interviewed soon enough in time to the murder. or if we don't want to call it a murder right now, to the death.

>> we haven't gotten into the issue of immunity, either. thank you so much. i wish we had 30 minutes to talk about this case. .