Travon Martin Verdict: Not Guilty, But Still Not Right

As a criminal defense attorney, the Travon Martin Case has a silver lining.  The jury system still works in this country.  From what I could follow from the media, the evidence was just not there.  There was reasonable doubt.   But this is a predictable outcome when you write a law that allows aggressors to execute their victims.

Whether you believe George Zimmerman was morally right in "standing his ground" and taking the life of an unarmed 17 year old young man or if you believe, like I do, that George Zimmerman was a cowardly, bigot of a punk ass loser who unnecessarily provoked a confrontation that did not have to happen, got his ass kicked by a kid who then used lethal force to extricate himself from the position he put himself into,  you have to respect the verdict, give appreciation to the six woman who honorably discharged their duty and question the wisdom of the Florida State Legislature.  This was a foreseeable outcome from an improvident, poorly crafted (by ALEC no doubt) rubber stamped piece of legislation.

Sadly it will take another latino or African American George Zimmerman and a white, middle or upper class version of  Travon Martin as a victim, to evoke sufficient empathy in the public, especially right wing Republicans, to howl like the cracker barrel bonobos they are and change the law.  Not because all of a sudden it became morally wrong, but because next time, and there will be a next time, it happened to one of their own.