Another View, Albeit Intelligent View: George Zimmerman Trial Has All The Ingredients For A Miscarriage Of Justice.

Zimmerman trial has all the ingredients for a miscarriage of justice

In following the George Zimmerman trial somewhat closely online
last week, I noted a familiar pattern:

A "heater" case that draws intense media interest.

Sympathetic victim.

Unsympathetic defendant.

Evidence of innocence explained away with 
far-fetched theories or else ignored.

Evidence of guilt magnified and bolstered with 
irrelevant detail and innuendo.

These are among the key ingredients for all the wrongful convictions
I've written about in the last 20 years.

Investigators and prosecutors put on the blinders early, before all the
facts come in.They fill the gaps and inconsistencies in the case with
suppositions inspired by sympathy for the victim, rage at the defendant
and a desire for what they've decided is justice.

I don't presume to know exactly what happened between Zimmerman
and TrayvonMartin on the subdivision walkway on that rainy night
in Sanford, Fla., in early 2012. And, a week into the prosecution's case,
 I don't know how anyone else can presumeto know.


Zimmerman shot the unarmed Martin dead at
point-blank rangeafter a brief, noisy confrontation.
But who struck the first blow in that confrontation,
escalating a mere misunderstanding betweenan officious neighborhood
 resident (Zimmerman) and an innocent visitor (Martin) into a fight and
then a tragedy?

Who was getting the worse of that fight? If it was Zimmerman, was he
justified in using lethal force to defend himself?

The original gloss on the story that galvanized protests nationwide was
that a white, armed vigilante had pursued and murdered a black child
just for sport, and authorities were shrugging it off.

This summary had great appeal to many of my fellow liberals for whom
it confirmed their worst fears about firearms, the malignant endurance
of racism and the cheapness with which law enforcement regards
African-American lives.

I felt it too. But they've clung to this narrative long after the emerging
facts have shown that the actual story is, at best, far more complex and
murky than the first news stories and protest chants had suggested.

Martin wasn't the slight middle-school student seen in first photos of
him made public, but a tall, athletic 17-year-old who'd had plenty of
time to walk safely home once he knew he was being followed.
Zimmerman was of mixed ethnicity, and he'd lost sight of Martin that
night while attempting to keep an eye on him for police.

Witnesses who last week testified that they heard or saw fragments
of their fatalconfrontation have been all over the place — literally,
in the case of the young woman on the phone with Martin up until
the altercation began. Her testimony places the fight roughly 50
yards from where it actually took place.

Still, the presumed-guilty crowd has continued to alter their narrative
— Martin didn't double back to confront Zimmerman, as the timeline 
suggests, but he hid in fear after he was seen running away, and 
Zimmerman found him! Zimmerman's bloody head wounds weren't 
bloody enough to suggest he feared for his life! —rather than alter
their perspective.

But if they can just take a few steps back for perspective, my friends
will see in themselves here the very police and prosecutors whom
they've justly criticized in so many other instances. They will see a
rush to judgment, tunnel vision and an almost desperate attempt to 
sidestep accumulating reasonable doubts. They will see that skepticism
about the legal process is not something to be set aside when a
prosecution suits your politics.

Again, I don't presume to know exactly what happened between George
Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin that night. I don't presume to say I know
whether Zimmerman was actually justified in using deadly force to defend
himself, or whether the jurors who will listen to every last word of the
testimony will find him guilty.

But I do presume to recognize a familiar travesty brewing when I see one.