On the Trial of George Zimmerman

The latest trial of the century ended last night, with a Florida jury finding George Zimmerman not guilty of any of the crimes he was charged with, including the one he was charged with the day before the case went to the jury.

Here's how I wrote about the precipitating event a year and a half ago.  I regret much of what I wrote here, especially with respect to Mr. Zimmerman's character and conduct.  An empaneled jury, in whom I continue to trust, found that the views I shared with you then were and are, incorrect.  Like many others, I appear to have been swayed by my own preconceptions and the initial narrative that was developing.

Our vaunted press corps should share in my regret, though I doubt they will.  Their conduct throughout this trial has been execrable, from the deification of the victim to the slander of the suspect, their biases sang through loud and clear. 

Six brave women sat and heard evidence--presumably all of it--for three weeks, and sixteen hours later delivered a unanimous "not guilty".  I know no one who sat and listened as they did--certainly not the bevy of sanctimonious Hollywood do-gooders who took to Twitter last night to vent their uninformed outrage over the verdict.  The rest of us got snippets from the aforementioned media, or through our own internet research, but really we had only small pieces of a much larger puzzle.

A young man is dead.  Another man's life is in a shambles.  Nothing good happened here.  Except the proper functioning of a legal system.