Does Our Justice System Work?

This is something that has been eating away at me since the not guilty verdict of the George Zimmerman trial.  It was as if half the country received their honorary law degrees in that second, because Facebook blew up with legal opinions.

Now I have no opinion one way or the other what the verdict was, but, it does sadden me to see how hateful people became on social media when the verdict isn't what they wanted.  Most of these people were not in the courtroom, most of these people didn't watch the trial on the news.  They just had their opinion.

That's the great thing about America, we aren't the judge and jury for an incident. If that were the case then half the population would be dead or in jail.   We get to assume our responsibility and sit on a jury when we are called.  We have to trust that the judge and the jury are making the most responsible and fair decision when the evidence is placed before them during trial.

The incident happened, the boy was killed, the man was arrested, the man went to trial, 6 jurors sat in that courtroom, and listened to the testimony and evidence of both sides and they made the decision they made based on the evidence they heard.

It is what we as American citizens do when we are on a jury.  We listen to what is placed before us, and we make a decision based on that evidence.

These ladies could have convicted Zimmerman of murder, but they would have had to believe that he killed out of hate or spite.  They could have convicted him of manslaughter but they would have had to believe that he killed him intentionally.  However, in the end they must have believe that Zimmerman wasn't guilty of any of these things.

It is a sad, sad, story.  Trayvon Martin was killed, a mother lost her son, a family lost a member, friends lost a friend,  and they must mourn.

George Zimmerman took someone's life and he must live with the guilt of that, each and everyday.  His life will never be the same.

There was not a win in this situation.  Everybody involved lost something on that tragic evening.

I'm sure that George Zimmerman is not done with court.  The family can choose to bring a civil lawsuit against him in the future and there could be other federal civil rights investigations.

However, we as people have the choice not to be hateful, we as people have a choice not to spew profanity across a social media platform when something didn't go the way we thought it should.

We do have the right to voice our opinion and now we can do so for the whole world to see, but can't we just be courteous when we do voice our opinion.

We have had many high profile cases throughout the years, Rodney King, OJ Simpson, Casey Anthony, and now George Zimmerman.

Do you think our justice system works?