Florida Vice

The acquittal of George Zimmerman of the charge of second-degree murder of 17-year old Trayvon Martin is disgusting but in hindsight maybe not such a surprise in hindsight.  Not one of the six female jurors was black (for which the prosecution team must take the blame) and so maybe their prejudices tallied with that of Zimmerman who is on record as saying that punks and assholes are always getting away with their crimes, even though Trayvon Martin was minding his own business (though maybe ultimately riled that he was being stalked).  I am certain that is the ethnicities had been reversed, there would have been a conviction - I mean, the jury were given a second option of manslaughter and declined that as well.  Even Barack Obama has said that his own grandmother felt fear of black men at the bus stop, even though she was raising a black boy of her own in the future president.  In this case, he said that if he had had a son, the male offspring would have looked like Trayvon i.e. the slim dividing line of fate.
Naturally, after a few declines, some lawyers who bury their morals with their clients' victims were found - the kind who make Lionel Hutz from The Simpsons look like an exemplar of probity.  One of the defence team so overstepped the mark that a public inquiry was launched into his conduct.  Yet they got the result they wanted and that's all that matters to such people.
The law as it stands in Florida is flawed as well because a person is allowed to discharge lethal force if they 'reasonably believe' that their life or that of another is in danger or that a forcible felony is in progress and can be prevented.  It is called 'stand-your-ground'.  The fact that Zimmerman did not stand his ground but pursued Martin, despite two police requests to desist when he called them to express his concerns, is telling.  The defence team may have been morally dubious but they were no fools and argued self-defence.  Given that a murder trial requires proof beyond reasonable doubt, Zimmerman in his racist paranoia may well have believed that his life was in danger when he got into a scuffle with Martin.  Under such technical facts, the law backs him up, even though Martin would still have been alive if Zimmerman had not followed him out of suspicion of the colour of Martin's skin.  It is irrespective that a gunshot expert (old white guy) asserts that Martin was on top of Zimmerman when the shot went off - this was a fight that Zimmerman chose to pick (which makes the jury ignoring the manslaughter option even more stupid).  As Gary Younge writes, after this ruling, under what circumstances can a young black man defend himself?
A Tampa Bay Times investigation found that of 200 cases in which Florida's stand-your-ground law was invoked, almost 70% of the accused had gone free.  The accused were much more likely to face no penalty if a black person had been killed (73%) than if a white person had been killed (59%).
Of course, Zimmerman's family and friends gave glowing character references on the stand but the measure of the family is that Zimmerman's wife is on trial for perjury after pleading poverty to reduce the bail tariff.  If they can lie about their financial situation, then why not on the far graver consequences of second-degree murder?
A civil trial to squeeze the Zimmerman's dry must now be launched as the balance of probabilities is more lenient than beyond reasonable doubt.  Hopefully, the prosecution team assembled there will be more competent in who they select for the jury.