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Ahead of next week's start to his murder trial, the strategy of George Zimmerman's defense team has been to throw Trayvon Martin's character into question by leaking "evidence" that stirs up a negative reaction in the press and on social media, even if the Florida courts find it irrelevant. With most of the damage already done, Zimmerman's attorneys now insist that Martin's controversial cellphone video, which they introduced as evidence of the victim taping his friends as they beat up a homeless man, wasn't as controversial as they made it sound.

Attorney Mark O'Mara and the rest of Zimmerman's defense team took five days to acknowledge that they made this mistake, once again smeared Martin, and "misstated the nature" of the video. The lawyers released a statement correcting themselves on Sunday, after O'Mara said in a pre-trial hearing last Tuesday that the defense had obtained video of three fights, one of which, he said, showed that two of Martin's friends "were beating up a homeless guy" while Martin filmed, NBC News reported.

That type of evidence might be damaging if it were actually the type of evidence the defense claimed it was, but instead it will be damaging for a haze of character discrediting and misinformation that may be impossible for any potential jury member to ignore. As The Orlando Sentinel's Rene Stutzman reports, the video was actually "two homeless men fighting over a bicycle," which Martin did film. How that turned into Martin's friends beating up a homeless man is a little beyond us, considering there's a huge difference between two homeless men fighting and two friends beating up a homeless man. But like the fabrications and over-the-top examples before it, the whole point of the defense strategy is to leave you grasping for answers.