Within recent days the nation has been divided on hearing the verdict of the George Zimmerman trial. Much of the reaction however, does not concern the trial. Many used the trial as a metaphor, or as a mirror of other national issues. Some of these would include gun control legislation, racism, civil rights or even Florida’s “stand your ground law”.
The 27 pages of jury instructions reminded the six jurors of what the case was all about. It was not about who killed Trayvon Martin. Rather, it was about the reason for killing Martin. The jury was told if they had any reasonable doubt on whether Zimmerman was justified in using deadly force, they should find him not guilty.
According to the judge's instructions, "The danger facing George Zimmerman need not have been actual; however, to justify the use of deadly force, the appearance must have been so real that a reasonably cautious and prudent person ... would have believed the danger could be avoided only through the use of that force."
The jury was never asked to declare Zimmerman to be innocent. Innocence presupposes blamelessness or freedom from moral wrong. In addition, innocence implies the absence of evil intent. To declare someone to be innocent requires knowledge no court of law possesses.
In order to come to a reasonable conclusion the court required truth. One reason that could not be determined was because one of the two witnesses was dead. In his absence, attempts at determining truth required various branches of forensic science. From this scientific evidence, the court concluded that there was reasonable doubt as to what actually happened, and as such, Zimmerman could not be held liable on the charge of second-degree murder or manslaughter.
In order to determine if justice was served, one must ask the hard questions. The judicial system was not designed to take revenge. Rather, it was intended to ensure a just outcome, based on available facts.
The prosecution had the responsibility to present those facts. The prosecution also had the responsibility to share those facts with the defense. The prosecution should never attempt to withhold information that could influence the outcome of a case. In the Zimmerman trial, the prosecution sent the case to the judge, and attempted to willfully withhold exculpatory evidence. Interestingly, the Director of Information Technology who disclosed what was happening has since been fired by the Florida State Attorney’s Office.
According to Harvard Professor of Law, Alan M. Dershowitz, “The prosecutors denied the judge the right to see pictures that showed Zimmerman with his nose broken and his head bashed in. The prosecution should be investigated for civil rights violations, and civil liberty violations. Prosecutors violated a whole range of ethical, professional, and legal obligations. Moreover, they withheld other evidence in the course of the pretrial and trial proceedings, as has been documented by the defense team.”
The American legal system is one of the best in the world - however, it is not perfect. Like in the case with the prosecution in the Zimmerman trial, those who use the system try to manipulate the system for political and financial gains.
Every civil system operates on an assumption of truth. To undermine truth is to undermine reality. Hence, to swear and then fail to tell the truth is perjury – a felonious act, which can result in a miscarriage of justice. Other than its mention in the Ten Commandments, the Bible speaks strongly against perjury (The false witness will not go unpunished; no one who utters lies will go free Proverbs 19:5). For this, I believe both the prosecution and the defense will be held accountable.
Since the not-guilty verdict, there has been much hostility and requests for a civil trial. Within the American legal system that route can be pursued. I believe the outcome of such a trial might bring about some healing in the nation. It is best when civil outrage can be addressed in a court of law, rather than on the streets, as persists in many countries.
However, I long to see similar outrage about the other killings. In the 513 days between the death of Trayvon Martin, and the George Zimmerman verdict, more than 11,000 African Americans were murdered by other African-Americans. As a matter of fact, almost 22 African-Americans are killed every day in America. And that is separate from the 1,875 black babies that are aborted daily.
In these killing fields of America there ought to be outrage and a refocusing on the message of wholesome living offered by Jesus. It was He who said, “I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life that they ever dreamed of” (John 10:10 – The Message).
5 comments:
Wow! This is "
brutal"!!
Wow! If the verdict was guilty I would have been extremely surprised. As usual, you are making generalizations, without the benefit of some essential facts. The trial was a mockery of justice. As a law professor, the legal authority you quoted, Prof. Dershowitz, is ignoring the most glaring miscarriage of justice: the failure of the police department to properly collect the evidence. The so-called forensic evidence the prosecution had to work with was not collected until two to six weeks after the fact. A life was taken, yet the police did not start collecting and documenting the evidence until there was public cry for justice. Why?
I would strongly recommend that you examine this website. Here you would find a detailed account of all the developments from the day of the killing to the last day of the trial. I trust you would find this timeline to be helpful:
http://www.cfnews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/news/features/trayvon-martin/trayvon-martin-timeline.html
http://www.cfnews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/news/features/trayvon-martin/trayvon-martin-timeline.html
The above site will provide a useful timeline, from the killing to the final day of the trial.
I have to respectfully say that this blog completely misses the point and the underlying thesis of the arguments presented is fallacious at best.
In pondering this case we must never lose sight of the following primary facts which are these:
1. An unarmed black teenager was on his way home from the store walking along a route where he had every right to be.
2. An overzealous adult on his way to the grocery store caught sight of that teen and using a set of erroneous assumptions, engaged in a series of ill fated actions which culminated in a confrontation that lead to the untimely death of that teen.
The blog seems to suggest that we should take as a given that the 27 page jury instructions provided an adequate framework for deliberations. It also suggests that we should accept without a healthy dose of skepticism, what some may argue were the self serving statements of the defendant.
To say that the judicial system "was designed to ensure a just outcome, based on available facts" is to erroneously assert that the jury was indeed allowed to consider ALL the facts in this case. On the contrary, the defense team proposed changes to the jury instructions (sanctioned by the judge) that successfully limited the scope of available facts the jury could consider in its deliberations. This meant that the pursuit by the defendant of the victim and the provocation caused by this action prior to the killing could not be considered by the jury. In addition, that the victim was racially profiled, remained an important fact the jury was NOT allowed to consider. Therefore, I would argue that what the judicial system rendered was a "predictable" outcome based on severely limited facts (with which they were ALLOWED to deliberate) and NOT a "just" outcome based on ALL available facts.
Finally, while the pathology of black on black murders and aborted babies are manifestations of a community of people in need of divine deliverance like any other, it seems disingenuous to conflate this vexing crisis with the outrage many feel over the outcome of a trial where a jury was not allowed to consider ALL the available facts.
Nonetheless, I am in total agreement that we all need to focus on the message of wholesome living offered by our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen!
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