In light of the not-verdict, there are a lot of opinions floating around about George Zimmerman. I haven’t got one; I don’t know what happened that night, and neither do you.
I felt more sympathy for Trevon Martin than for Mr. Zimmerman; the latter came across as a disappointed, wannabe police officer, and I’ve had a lot of clients who bore a close resemblance to Mr. Martin. But Mr. Zimmerman is not guilty because I, as a half-hearted observer of the case, found him unsympathetic. The only person who really knows what happened was Mr. Zimmerman.
Mr. Zimmerman’s guilt does not depend on my opinion of Florida’s stand your ground law. It doesn’t really depend on the competence of the Sanford police department. It doesn’t depend on whether I think he’s guilty. Whether he is legally guilty depends on whether the prosecution could convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that he was, and by that standard, he is not guilty. Whether he is morally guilty is no concern of mine. I am not one to judge others. There are a lot of sound reasons to be conservative with one’s moral judgments. How often have you known all the factual details of the important events in your own life? And if not, how could you know all the facts surrounding Mr. Martin’s tragic death?
