Who Needs a Court of Law When We Have the Media?

There used to be a time in America where a person when involved in a crime had the protection of being presumed innocent until guilty in a court of law. Somehow, whether it’s because of the 24 hours news cycle that has to fill time or because of social networking giving people a continuous voice, the new philosophy has become guilty until proven innocent.  We saw it with O.J. Simpson, the Duke Lacrosse team, Casey Anthony and now with George Zimmerman.

I was on vacation in New York when the Trayvon Martin case broke so I missed the initial reports of what happened. I remember being in the hotel room on Monday night flipping through the channels. The talking heads on MSNBC were talking about how evil George Zimmerman was and how he should be moved immediately to death row.  A change of the channel and the people on Fox News were talking about Zimmerman was just trying to protect his neighborhood and Trayvon shouldn’t have been wondering around the neighborhood.

I have not followed the case in detail for reasons I’ll get to in a bit. I have however seen several tweets and some postings not about the events but about what should happen to George Zimmerman. I saw a flyer the Black Panthers were passing around with a picture of Zimmerman and a $10,000 “Wanted Dead or Alive” bounty. Spike Lee tweeted the address he thought was Zimmerman’s (that turnout to be an elderly couple who had nothing to do with George Zimmerman) and Roseanne Barr tweeted the address of Zimmerman’s parents. What reason they had for doing so other than inciting individuals to cause potential violence as “payback.” 

I’m not going to say George Zimmerman is innocent. He fired a gun that took the life of another human being. The big question though, is why did he shoot? Right now there are only two people who know what happened that night. Unfortunately one of those people can’t tell his side of the story. While Zimmerman may have been in the wrong for his actions, is it right to call for his life in retaliation without knowing the facts? 

In my opinion this should not have become national news. I don’t have statistics in front of me but I’m going to say it’s safe to say several murders occur across America on a daily basis. What made this one stand out? Was it just because it was Neighborhood Watch leader who had been advised by the police to back off? Had the victim not been a black teenager who was carrying Skittles would it have made the news?  Realize I’m not trying to trivialize Trayvon’s death. What I’m trying to get around to saying is we as a society need to stop the public persecution.

George Zimmerman has not had his day in court yet if you ask most people they’d probably say he should serve life in prison. What information are they using to base their opinion? From the, albeit limited, information I have read, there is no definite identification of whether George or Trayvon can be heard screaming on the 911 call.  Whatever eyewitnesses there are didn’t see the entire confrontation so they don’t cast a clear-cut sequence of events. If I’m correct, the police haven’t even finished their initial review of the case. So if a case hasn’t been built, why is the public condemning someone?

With the hypersensitive nature and demand for swift justice I can see this case ending much the same as the O.J. and Casey Anthony trials. The prosecution will rush to bring the case to court in order to appease the public’s demand for justice. In their rush to trial a weak case will be presented that includes enough holes to drive a truck through. The jury, if they do their job and don’t have their votes in place before the trial begins, will return a Not Guilty verdict based on reasonable doubt. This will lead to a public outcry and George Zimmerman having to constantly look over his shoulder for the rest of his life. Or maybe I’m finally learning how to speak in hyperbole.

I’m interested in seeing how this case progress once it gets to the courtroom. What I’m not interested in seeing is how the case continues to play out on TV before there are hard facts.  I’m also curious as to what it will take for the general public to stop jumping to conclusions and condemning people before they have their day in court.