The verdict in the George Zimmerman trial appalled me, as it appalled so many of you. Like you, I feel that justice was not done. But it is not Trayvon Martin who was denied justice at the trial: Trayvon Martin would have been denied justice even if George Zimmerman had been found guilty of murder. Trayvon Martin was denied justice because he was killed for no decent reason.
Indeed, because this was a criminal trial, Trayvon Martin was not even a party to the trial. Those two parties were George Zimmerman and the state of Florida. In a criminal trial, there is a high burden of proof on one party: The state. The state has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused did what he or she is accused of. The defense need do nothing. The jury found (unreasonably, to my way of thinking) that the state had not met that burden.
So, the people who were denied justice by the verdict are the people of Florida, and, by a not unreasonable extension, the people of the whole USA (after all, we are United States).
Why is this important? I think it is important because it vastly broadens the group to whom injustice was done. George Zimmerman did an injustice to Trayvon Martin. The jury did an injustice to us all.
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