Not Guilty Is Not Innocent

One thing is clear, George Zimmerman cannot claim he is innocent. His hand on his gun took the life of another human being and that is not disputed. Everything leading up to that moment and after that moment is and probably will remain in dispute from now until the end of time. No matter which way the verdict went, there were certain to be disputes.

Now come the secondary attempts at justice. Many want the Dept. of Justice to investigate this as a possible hate crime, others feel it is better to push ahead with a civil suit and bring this down to a matter of money. In the case of OJ Simpson, the civil suit was quite successful, despite his acquittal on the murder charges, but George is far from a wealthy man and it is highly probable that he will stay in hiding, unable to work and not wanting to be seen for a very long time.

Part of me applauds the reaffirmation that I can use my gun to defend myself when I feel that my life may be at jeopardy while another par t of me cowers in fear that some self-proclaimed neighborhood hood can stalk me, report me, accuse me, and then shoot me. Perhaps this is the issue that many have; there is no clear right and wrong, just lots and lots of points of views fueled by so much passion that seeing all of this clearly is simply impossible.

And between the press, the prosecution, and the defense teams, there was no lack of theatrics, turning this entire proceeding into nothing less than a media event. I could be wrong, but I don’t remember hearing the judge issue a gag order? Or maybe I just missed it for the shouts of so many opinions and not as much discussion of facts and evidence.

Still, despite all of this, it came down to a jury of peers to review all the facts and make a decision. It will be interesting to hear comments from jury members in coming weeks and months. Hopefully they will share their thoughts and what were the deciding points for them. Hopefully we will listen to them and understand the difficulty they endured to come to a verdict. The jury system is our one and only safeguard in the legal system to protect each and everyone of us from the system.

If there is a lesson here it might be for each of us to understand just how important it is for us to answer the call to jury duty and to take that assignment seriously. We must remember that we are entrusted with evaluation of facts and rendering a decision that will change the lives of everyone involved.