Seeking justice at
the circus
By Wesley Pruden
PrudenPolitics.com
Everybody in trouble with the law is entitled to a
fair trial. Nobody is guilty until a court looks at
the evidence and decides. A man is innocent until
proved guilty. But sometimes we hold the trial at
the circus, not the court house.
The state of Florida says George Zimmerman is guilty
of second-degree murder for the killing of Trayvon
Martin. Mr. Zimmerman says he shot the boy in fear
of his life. Now the court, and a jury if it gets
that far, must shut their ears to the shriek and
clatter of the circus, listen to cold facts, and
decide.
This won’t be easy. The suspect made his first
appearance in court Friday, arraigned on the
second-degree murder charge, and his lawyer in his
best judgment declined to ask for bail, citing
“fervor” outside the courthouse.
“Fervor” has been the name of the exercise since the
usual suspects discovered the incident several weeks
after the fact, and concluded that it would be such
a shame to let opportunity go to waste. The eminent
divines Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton arrived as if
on cue, elbowing each other out of the way to be the
first in front of the cameras. Skilled in the arts
of angering and inflaming, they wanted to “help”.
They got unexpected help from President Obama, who
stirred the anger from the White House with an
appeal to emotions rubbed raw in Florida. “If I had
a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”
But what looked at first like an atrocity, a redneck
execution of a cherubic black boy staring at us from
a grammar school photograph, no longer looks like an
atrocity, but a tragedy.
Trayvon’s mother now says it was “an accident.” She
wants an apology, an acknowledgment of her son’s
worth and of her loss, a recognition of what might
have been if he had not been cheated of his life. “I
believe it just got out of control and he couldn’t
turn the clock back,” Sybrina Fulton said of George
Zimmerman on NBC’s “Today Show.” She would ask Mr.
Zimmerman, she said, “did he know [Trayvon] was a
minor, that he was a teenager and that he did not
have a weapon.” She suggested she would be satisfied
even if Mr. Zimmerman is acquitted by a proper
court. “We just want him to be held accountable for
what he has done. We are happy that he was arrested
so he could give his side of the story.”
That’s not much for a mother to ask, particularly
from a broken heart. But the Big Top is up, the tent
stakes have been driven deep into the ground, ready
for a long run. The circus is no place to calm a
crowd. She “clarified” her remarks later, suggesting
that maybe she didn’t mean exactly what she said.
The Florida authorities, finally taking control of
the story, understand that mere justice is not
enough, there must be the reassurance of the
perception of justice. Gov. Rick Scott appointed a
female special prosecutor, Angela Corey of
Jacksonville, and the case was assigned to Jessica
Recksiedler, a female judge of the state circuit
court. These won’t be good ol’ boys at work, eager
to cover up mischief and misdeeds of white men.
The special prosecutor could have taken the case to
a grand jury, which might have declined to return an
indictment, despite a prosecutor’s celebrated talent
for indicting a ham sandwich. The governor no doubt
wants a jury, or at least a judge, to make the
determination of guilt or innocence. The state must
prove that George Zimmerman was motivated by “hatred
or ill will,” and his lawyers must prove only that
“a preponderance of the evidence” – a lower standard
– shows him to have acted in self-defense. One
prominent Florida defense lawyer thinks it’s likely,
given the weight of the evidence already public,
that the judge would dismiss the case when the jury
retires to hear the evidence.
Then the circus could resume. The Justice Department
is investigating whether the shooting of Trayvon
Martin violated federal civil-rights laws, and
Attorney Gen. Eric Holder promises that “at every
step the facts and the law will guide us forward.”
But it’s clear where his hopes and sympathies lie.
Only this week he embraced Al Sharpton at a
civil-rights convention in Washington, thanking him
“for your partnership, your friendship, and your
tireless efforts to speak out for the voiceless, to
stand up for the powerless.” Only two cheers for the
Big Top.
Wesley Pruden is editor emeritus of The
Washington Times.