The George Zimmerman second-degree murder trial will go down in history for many reasons, but most importantly because an innocent 17-year-old teenager is dead and his admitted killer is a free man.
On July 14, a jury of six white women acquitted the former neighborhood watch caption for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, and the non-guily verdict sparked thousands of protests and conversations about self-defense laws and the politics of race in this country.
While some critics argue that the case was all about race, other’s believe that statues such as Florida’s Stand Your Ground law are to blame. However, everyone seems to agree that Americans have reached a boiling point in dealing with this issue.
Take a look at five theories as to why Zimmerman was acquitted of Martin’s murder below.
The Whole System Failed Trayvon Martin
“In a way, the not-guilty verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman for his killing of Trayvon Martin was more powerful than a guilty verdict could ever have been. It was the perfect wrenching coda to a story that illustrates just how utterly and completely our system of justice — both moral and legal — failed Martin and his family.
The system began to fail Martin long before that night. The system failed him when Florida’s self-defense laws were written, allowing an aggressor to claim self-defense in the middle of an altercation — and to use deadly force in that defense — with no culpability for his role in the events that led to that point. The system failed him because of the disproportionate force that he and the neighborhood watchman could legally bring to the altercation — Zimmerman could legally carry a concealed firearm, while Martin, who was only 17, could not. The system failed him when the neighborhood watchman grafted on stereotypes the moment he saw him, ascribing motive and behavior and intent and criminal history to a boy who was just walking home.” –The New York Times
It Was Too Easy for George Zimmerman to Get Off for Self-Defense
“Having Stand Your Ground laws is a bad idea because the law can too easily turn into a license to kill when bad blood, not fear, motivates the killing. But the big problem for the prosecution in the Zimmerman case wasn’t really Stand Your Ground. It was about a broader problem with the law of self-defense—showcasing an aspect of the law that this case urgently shows should change.
The evidence suggested that Martin was straddling Zimmerman at the moment Zimmerman drew his gun, so Zimmerman could not retreat. That’s why the central aspect of Stand Your Ground didn’t come into play. Instead, what really mattered was who started the fight. Zimmerman only gets to stand his ground, under the jury instruction the judge gave, if he was behaving lawfully in the first place—if he did not attack Martin. And this is a general principle of self-defense. All things being equal, people who start fights don’t get to end them with deadly force unless the victim clearly escalates things to that lethal level.” – Slate
Prosecutors Failed To Humanize Trayvon
“The juror told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that Zimmerman was “a man whose heart was in the right place,” but he went too far and did not use good judgment. She also said she thought Trayvon threw the first punch and attacked Zimmerman — and that Zimmerman had the right to shoot the teen. The juror’s statements illustrate her empathy for Zimmerman and her emotional and demographic disconnect with Trayvon, the experts said.
“She (Juror B-37) was more empathic to the living than the dead,” said Susan Constantine, a jury consultant and body language expert who attended Zimmerman’s trial regularly. “The state really needed to work with her. I would have done almost a memorial about Trayvon Martin. I would have shown these are the things he’s not going to be able to do: He’ll never have a family or he’ll never see his graduation.” – USA Today
There Was An All-White Jury
“The shock at the verdict was so sharp and profound because the hope was so great for justice to be served late Saturday night. It was a desperate hunger of a people so starved for accountability in the theft of this young man’s life — my own brother’s age — who died so senselessly that night.
But once this shock subsided and resolve took its place, something so crucial to this trial that was downplayed by some or discarded altogether, revealed that many of us knew all along what would be the result. It was something that was solidified before the trial even began; that is, the selection of the jury.
When it was reported that the six-person panel would be comprised of five white women and one Hispanic woman, many of us knew what that meant, but weren’t allowed to say it. We just had to grin and bear the composite of this jury so obviously stacked against Trayvon, and hold onto nothing more than hope that they would come to a just decision.” -Huffington Post
Trayvon Martin Was Denied The Right To Be Young
“Those jurors also knew that Martin, at the time of his death, was just three weeks past his 17th birthday. But black boys in this country are not allowed to be children. They are assumed to be men, and to be full of menace.
I don’t know if the jury, which included no African Americans, consciously or unconsciously bought into this racist way of thinking — there’s really no other word. But it hardly matters, because police and prosecutors initially did.
The assumption underlying their ho-hum approach to the case was that Zimmerman had the right to self-defense but Martin — young, male, black — did not. The assumption was that Zimmerman would fear for his life in a hand-to-hand struggle but Martin — young, male, black — would not. –Washington Post
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The Best Zimmerman Trial Breakdowns & Conspiracy Theories
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