Everyone was on the edge of their seats waiting for the announcement--NOT GUILTY! Was justice served? Were Zimmerman and Martin the people the media painted them to be? So many questions.
Justice was served but Zimmerman still deserved punishment. By all accounts the jury conducted themselves in a responsible and professional manner. Five of the six women were mothers who could relate to the despair of Trayvon's parents, but they still found Zimmerman innocent. The prosecution handled the case poorly from the beginning (hello! that sound familiar...OJ Trial 20 years ago).
Granted, proving a case based almost solely on circumstantial evidence is tough, but the prosecution had no game plan. They looked like a group running around trying to catch a greased pig. The defense on the other hand presented the evidence to show self defense in a logical way, with enough credibility to leave doubt.
Remember the hallmark of criminal law is the burden of proof, "guilty BEYOND a reasonable doubt.
That being said Zimmerman overstepped his role as neighborhood watchman and ended up shooting a young man. Zimmermann deserves some amount of jail time for that very fact. I don't know Florida law but involuntary manslaughter or criminal negligence would be more appropriate for this case.
This was NOT a case of racial profiling. Profiling happened but it was not based on race. It was based on a young person dressing and acting in a suspicious manner. Is it right to do that? Not sure. But be honest, even if you are not racist, you profile. What father, especially of daughters, does not make judgments (Profiling) when they see their little girl with a certain group or person. Can any parent honestly say they are not suspicious if a boy shows up to take out their daughter and he wears his pants around the knees, has a hoodie on with the hood over his face while inside your house, and speaks in an inappropriate manner? Zimmerman profiled but Martin profiled in return ("cracker"). If anything Martin's profiling of Zimmerman was more racially based. So this civil rights hysteria sweeping the country now is unfounded, at east in this case.
The media fu&$ed this case up! Zimmerman was judged in the media from the very beginning. Trayvon Martin was depicted as this innocent young kid buying a tea and skittles (most media outlets continued to use a photo from when he was 12), and Zimmerman was shown to be a bigoted wannabe cop stalking a black kid. Neither characterization had any truth to it, but the public latches onto the first impression and that's what they got. And every media outlet is to blame--MSNBC, FOX News, and the main stream outlets. The media hype brought in the race based charlatans and then all hell broke loose. This should have been a local trial covered by local media and that's it.
Two mistakes led to the tragedy. Zimmerman made the mistake of approaching Martin when he should have kept his distance and just observed and reported, like a neighborhood watchman is supposed to do. Martin made the mistake of being confrontational. Based on the testimony of the lady he was on the phone with, it is clear that Martin was going to take things in his own hands, instead of doing the mature thing--explaining who he was, where he went, and that he lived there.
While history will look back on the OJ Simpson case and say, "Justice was not served," I am confident that the Zimmerman case will be looked at as an example of the system working even when under tremendous social and political pressure.
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