George Zimmerman picks a fight with an unarmed 17-year-old black boy who is walking home from the corner store. The boy ends up dead, shot in the chest from point-blank range. There are no witnesses. Of the two people who were there, one – the one without a weapon – is dead. The other claims the 17-year-old unarmed black guy was attacking him and he acted in self-defense. He is pronounced not guilty and walks away. The boy is dead – forever – his crime: walking home from the store and being of a color Zimmerman didn’t like.
Zimmerman is white.
In contrast to this story, Marissa Alexander of Jacksonville shot a warning shot inside her own home to escape a brutal beating by her own husband, against whom she had taken out a protective order.
She is convicted and her sentence is 20 years in prison. She has an 11-year-old daughter.
Her crime: being afraid of her abusive husband.
Alexander is black.
Analysis: One picks a fight with an unarmed juvenile stranger, kills him, claims self-defense and goes free. The other is a frightened abused wife who shoots a warning shot, hurting nobody, and she goes to prison for 20 years.
Justice is served in Florida.
I have a feeling for Zimmerman, the hopefully impartial jurors weren’t presented with enough hard facts that they could conclude guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. But what do I know..
I am sure that’s what it was. But the fact is – he killed an innocent boy minding his own business, and he’s going free.
Oh yeah, for sure. Something went wrong with the jury instructions.