The acquittal of George Zimmerman by 6 jurors after 20 hours of deliberation is a horrifying indictment of a process that too often doesn't end in truth. How often does somebody get let off or convicted solely because they had the smarter attorneys?
We say that Justice is blind and in this case it was. There wasn't enough hard evidence for the jurors to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Zimmerman had motive for killing Trayvon Martin, not even for a manslaughter charge. Partly that was because the police believed Zimmerman's story when he told them he shot Trayvon in self defense and they didn't arrest him. Nor did they check Trayvon's clothes for DNA.
But there was evidence that Zimmerman was hugely prejudiced and very self deluded and perfectly at ease with lying to the police, the world and himself. I guess the prosecution just didn't present it clearly enough. Or perhaps they didn't have a chance, with the odds so stacked against them.
But in many ways, the real criminal here is the law in Florida that enables a person to kill somebody else who is not even armed if they believe they're a threat. Or they say they believe it. In a comment on a New York Times article a Betsy Herring of Edmond OK had this to say:
"Our country is in real trouble, folks. First we let the guy go who has gunned down a kid, next we harass women and make them feel like second class citizens in Texas, then we ignore the fact that 26 little kids are dead from gunfire, also we worship at the feet of the NRA, we have a supreme court which hands down bad decisions one after another, we hate our black President and denigrate him more than any other President (even the worst last one). We are beginning to remind me of America 1968 - one of the worst years ever. We are not on the winning side of history here. We are lost, lost, lost."
