The obvious things are never discussed by news reader types. It's not that Zimmerman is racist as it

[Lint Head]

is that the justice system is racist. The system in Florida makes it easier to find Zimmerman innocent than guilty. The right wing gun nuts will love the jury. The NAACP and all civil rights groups, who follow the precepts of Martin Luther King and Gandhi who taught peaceful demonstration, would not be a threat. But, gun toting revenge prone right wingers would not let any jury member live down a guilty verdict. Freepers threatening them on line or via phone messaging? Unheard of? The Jury has nothing to fear from the left or any progressive thinking human being. The same cannot be said for conservative bigots or racists.

And yes I am bigoted against bigots.

[ceonupe]

1. every criminal court its

easir to find not guilty than guilty its the basis of our justice system

[X_Digger]

3. +1

The adversarial court system we have is *designed to be* weighted that way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstone%27s_formulation

"It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer",

...as expressed by the English jurist William Blackstone in his seminal work, Commentaries on the Laws of England, published in the 1760s.

[Lint Head]

4. The issue with that is that ten free guilty people will cause more suffering to the

innocent ten fold thus compounding the idea of true justice. Blackstone had relevant ideas in an age of the guillotine.

[X_Digger]

5. I'm not ready to give up the Enlightenment (and the attendant civil liberty such thinking protects)

.. over one case.

The alternative? Guilty until proven innocent? Oh hell no.

[Hoyt]

2. The laws are racist. Don't doubt a moment that jurors were worried about bigoted friend pressure.

Not one of them had guts to hold out for what is right. That is really sad.