because Zimmerman did not testify. Had those instructions been given to me, I would have assumed that Zimmerman chose not to testify because he did not have a convincing story about his use of deadly force. I would have assumed Zimmerman didn't testify because of concerns that the prosecution would make a shambles of his "defense". i would have insisted he be found guilty of manslaughter.
So on what did the 6 sorry members of the jury base their verdict? I am leaning heavily towards Zimmerman's obvious whiteness and Martins lack of that characteristic.
(I am growing very tired of portrayals of Martin as the innocent young little boy, however. The kid was a young man, athletic and able to handle himself in a fight. I really believe he was beating the living bejesus out of Ziummerman -- but only because he knew Zimmerman was carrying heat which he (Martin) felt Zimmerman intended to use. The kid fought to save his own life. He -- not Zimmerman -- was attacked and, ahem, "stood his ground" because if he tried to run away he rightly feared he'd be shot in the back. That makes a whole lot more sense than Zimmerman's insistence that he (Zimmerman) didn't do anything provocative. Shoot, he ignored the police request to stand down, followed the kid in the dark, and confronted him. In all likelihood, he behaved like a cop-wannabee and demanded to know who Martin was and what he was doing in the neighborhood -- and Martin asked him who the f**k he was, maybe asking for credentials. Zimmerman talked tough -- and maybe made a gesture as if to reach for his gun. And that was, as my father was wont to say, "all she wrote" for Martin. It was, at that point in the confrontation that Martin decided to fight for his life. He lost. Had he won, Zimmerman would have been the corpse -- and Florida would have had an entirely different verdict in this case.)
(But let's be fair to Trayvon. He was not a cute little kid. He was a kid, yes, but neither cute nor little -- not that night, anyhow. He did what any man would do under the circumstances. Sadly, it may be just as well that he was killed that night, rather than becoming the killer of George Zimmerman. Had he, in fact, killed Zimmerman, no one outside of that tiny little community would ever have heard about it and the Great State of Florida (snicker) would have administered swift Southern justice (snicker) to the "negro thug" who, after all, had only tried to stand his ground.)
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