The Zimmerman Verdict.....

Well, the verdict is in.  George Zimmerman has been acquitted of murder in the second degree and was not found guilty of any crime, including the lesser charge of manslaughter or the ridiculous charge the prosecutor attempted to toss in at the last minute – murder three through child abuse.  After deliberating for 16 hours the jury did not find enough to convict Zimmerman beyond a reasonable doubt. 

The deliberation time is important because it means the jurors did not simply go in and make a snap decision.  They asked for clarification of evidence during deliberation so they were looking at everything and weighing the evidence appropriately.

For many in this country the verdict is the proper outcome for the case.  While most probably believe Zimmerman to be guilty of stupidity, they don’t believe he was guilty of murder.  He shouldn’t have followed Trayvon Martin that night.  The police dispatcher told him it wasn’t necessary and most likely, if he’d have stayed in his vehicle, Trayvon Martin would still be alive.  But getting out of his car to see where Martin went was not a crime.  And obviously the jury agreed.

Within hours of the incident the mainstream media turned the entire thing into a racial issue.  They labeled George Zimmerman as a “white man” who “shot an innocent, unarmed, black teenager.”  They put pictures of a 12 year old Trayvon Martin and mug shots of Zimmerman from a few years before all over their networks.  When the audio clips of Zimmerman’s conversation with the police dispatcher were made public at least one network edited them to make it sound as if Zimmerman was profiling Martin because he was black.  And even after the network admitted to the tapes being edited (not their fault, they said) it was too late for many Americans, who had already decided this was a hate crime.  And sadly, many still believe that despite the evidence and/or the verdict.

Most mainstream media outlets tried to ignore the fact that Zimmerman was Hispanic.  And when they could no longer ignore it he became a “white Hispanic” who “shot an innocent, unarmed, black teenager.”

Today news organizations are having a field day with the verdict and some are still putting out misinformation about the case and the people involved.  The Huffington Post published an article this morning containing these paragraphs:

It turned out this wasn't Zimmerman's first run-in with the law. He had previously been accused of domestic violence by a former girlfriend, and he had also previously been arrested for assaulting a police officer. More controversially, in July 2012, an evidence dump related to the investigation of Martin's death revealed that a younger female cousin of Zimmerman's had accused him of nearly two decades of sexual molestation and assault. In addition, she had accused members of Zimmerman's family, including his Peruvian-born mother, of being proudly racist against African Americans, and recalled a number of examples of perceived bigotry.

The national focus on the case also brought into question, for some, the character and life history of Trayvon Martin. As time passed, websites like The Daily Caller found Martin's posthumously scrubbed Twitter page, which featured the teen at times tweeting profanities and showing off fake gold teeth. To some, these behaviors, along with the hoodie Martin wore the night he was killed, were an indication that he was something other than an innocent teenage boy who was shot while walking home from the store. To others, the attention paid to Martin's tattoos, gold teeth and hoodie were symptomatic of the same kind of stereotyping and profiling that led to Zimmerman's assumption that the teen was "up to no good."

George Zimmerman was not a citizen who had never been in trouble.  But his legal troubles had been resolved and he was a neighborhood watch volunteer in a neighborhood that had been recently plagued by break-ins and burglaries.  Zimmerman had a license to carry a concealed weapon and had it on him that night.  He probably shouldn’t have had it on him while working for the neighborhood watch but he was carrying it legally.  And yes, he had a round in the chamber.  I’ve heard some brilliant commentators on TV say that the reason he had a round in the chamber that night was because he wanted to shoot someone.  With a statement like that the commentators show their ignorance.  If you carry a gun without a round in the chamber there is no reason for you to carry it.  Crime and bad guys don’t wait for you to charge your weapon during an incident.  If you carry a gun that is not ready to fire it’s useless.

Trayvon Martin was anything but the innocent 12 year old he was depicted to be.  He had been in trouble at school, at home, and with the law.  His mother had sent him to his father’s house because she was having difficulties managing him.  At 17, Trayvon was nearly six feet tall and athletic.  He was taller and stronger than George Zimmerman, even though Zimmerman, as noted repeatedly by the media, was 20 pounds heavier.  Do any of those things justify Martin being dead?  No.  His death was a tragedy that shouldn’t have happened.  For the rest of his life George Zimmerman will have to live with the fact that he killed an unarmed teenager.  Will it affect him?  Only he will know. 

I feel badly for the parents of Trayvon Martin.  No one knows any better than I how it feels to lose a child and my heart goes out to them.  From the beginning they handled this entire case with dignity – even calling for a cease-fire in the racial war being waged in the media.  Certainly they wanted “justice for Trayvon” but understandably their version of justice is different than the verdict.  A guilty verdict might have given them some peace but it wouldn’t have brought Trayvon back. 

The Sanford police chief was fired because he didn’t charge Zimmerman initially.  Based on the investigation he felt it was not warranted.  The prosecutor agreed.  Then the governor and Florida Attorney General appointed a special prosecutor because of the outcry from the black community, the mainstream media, a couple of very famous black civil rights activists and even the President.  Angela Corey decided Zimmerman had committed a crime and sent the case back to the prosecutor’s office for trial, bypassing the grand jury in the process.  (It was later alleged that Corey withheld some evidence that indicated Zimmerman was innocent but that remains to be determined.)

With all of the various politics, hype, media involvement, racial overtones and even threats of violence for the wrong verdict – the jury could not find Zimmerman guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.  There are already demands for Zimmerman to be charged with civil rights violations, which will probably happen. 

So was justice served in Sanford, Florida yesterday?  The answer depends on what you personally believe, I suppose.  Those who think Zimmerman is a cold-blooded, racist, child killer are not going to change their minds.  Those who believe Zimmerman acted in self-defense aren’t going to change their minds either. 

As I said – I believe George Zimmerman is guilty of being stupid.  But that’s not what he was charged with.