Like OJ and Anthony, Zimmerman was found not guilty of murder in a court of law.
A Florida jury acquitted the former neighborhood watch volunteer this weekend in the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman fatally shot Martin after a confrontation Feb. 26, 2012.
Martin was walking from a convenience store and carrying Skittles and an iced tea. Zimmerman was armed and patrolling his neighborhood.
The controversial verdict has sparked emotion and protest rallies around the nation and locally at Central State University.
On signs people cry out for justice. Some say there can be no peace without it.
The jury’s decision was a hard pill to swallow for those of us who think Zimmerman is in the wrong, but the pill is what it is.
I am only guessing the verdict would have been different if I were on the jury, but I can’t say that for certain.
I was not asked to weigh a man’s fate against the evidence.
The bottom line is that you can not send someone to jail on a thought.
As far as I can tell, it was a fair trial.
As good as the justice system is most of the time, people “thought”guilty sometimes slip through the cracks (people who aren’t guilty sometimes get stuck in those crack, but that’s a completely different subject).
People aren’t or, at least shouldn’t be, convicted if the evidence doesn’t support that conviction.
Anyone who watched the Zimmerman trial for more than a second could see that prosecutors were beaten.
Unlike Zimmerman in his confrontation with Martin, they didn’t have any deadly weapons.
The story is a tragedy. A young man is dead and the verdict has led to more mistrust in a legal system that historically hasn’t always been so trustworthy when it comes to minorities.
Zimmerman may not go to jail over his role in Martin's death, but he will pay a price and I am not only speaking to the federal review of the case or any wrongful death lawsuit that may be filed by Martin's family.
He will always be guilty in the court of public opinion. Right or wrong, that conviction comes with a life sentence.
But as for the actual jury’s verdict, justice was served in the great American tradition.
A trial was held and a verdict delivered.
Contact this blogger at arobinson@DaytonDailyNews.com or Twitter.com/DDNSmartMouth
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