Thursday, July 25, 2013

Juror B29 States, Zimmerman "got away with murder"

This morning on Good Morning America, Juror B29 spoke with Robin Roberts. During the morning interview Juror B29 stated that Zimmerman "got away with murder" and expanded on that by saying, "You can't put the man in jail even though in our hearts we felt he was guilty. We had to grab our hearts and put it aside and look at the evidence." Juror B29 this is how our justice system works. We don't get to add assumptions or bring our prejudices into the case; rather we are to focus on the facts presented.

Juror B29 rationalized here confusion and ultimate not guilty determination which pundits are seizing on by framing the jury instructions the fault for not coming back with a guilty verdict. Juror B29 said, "That's where I felt confused, where if a person kills someone, then you get charged for it, but as the law was read , if you have not proof that he killed him intentionally, you can't say he's guilty."

Here is a link to the jury instructions: http://www.flcourts18.org/PDF/Press_Releases/Zimmerman_Final_Jury_Instructions.pdf

After jury selection at the start of the trial a lot was made that all six women were white. Ironically now the narrative being pushed is that the only minority, Juror B29, on the jury originally thought Zimmerman guilty. Why do we need to invoke race when the race of the juror's had no factor in discussing the facts of the case and applying jury instructions? Remember, the excuse was laid out if Zimmerman was found not guilty it had to be because there was no minorities on the jury. Now, Juror B29 is found out to be a minority!

But I digress. Sybrina Fulton issued a written statement in response to Juror B29's comments(http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/25/justice/zimmerman-juror-b29-interview/index.html): "It is devastating for my family to hear the comments from juror B29, comments which we already knew in our hearts to be true. That George Zimmerman literally got away with murder. This new information challenges our nation once again to do everything we can to make sure that his never happens to another child."

While I agree that our Nation is challenged with preventing senseless death, but I don't agree that with the narrative of Martin being this innocent child. The challenge that really faces our Nation starts with media bias and the lack of investigative journalism. As I write this, KARE11 just had a story on a vigil that took place today in Minneapolis in a neighborhood that recently experience a killing of a child by unknown assailants.

When it comes to violence and senseless death of anyone, let alone a child, it starts in our neighborhoods. We need to assert ourselves and let it be known that criminal activity will not be tolerated and the senseless death knows no boundary. Regardless if you feel Zimmerman "got away with murder" or it was justifiable on August 6th get out and meet your neighbors. August 6th is National Night Out. If there is not one planned in our neighborhood then pony up and make it happen. The actions that lead to Martin's death could have been prevented by both Martin and Zimmerman.


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