My first time on DU since the Zimmerman verdict.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

I've been on vacation, so my computer time has been (thankfully) limited.

In a single word:

Sickening.

That verdict was truly sickening. More sickening to me any verdict since the cops in the Rodney King case were acquitted. (And for the record, I'm a lily white guy.)

I was okay with the Casey Anthony verdict. Hell, I was okay even with the OJ verdict (not too many people want to admit that.) While both those defendants should be viewed with suspicion regarding their culpability, reasonable doubt factored in as it should. Both of those cases dealt with defendants who were denying any role whatsoever in the victim's death and I think the state in those cases had a greater mountain to overcome.

But this should have been so simple. Even if it was only for the lesser included charge of manslaughter, it should have been so simple.

We had a defendant who there was no question or doubt that he was the individual who killed Trayvon Martin. And while the state bore the ultimate burden of proof, he still had to put forward a plausible theory of self defense.

In my opinion, he failed to do that. He didn't even come close. His story was so full of holes, so illogical, and so contradicted by the physical evidence. And yet he got away with it. He got away with murder.

Let the guilt eat at him every single day for the rest of his miserable life.

Sigh. God bless America.

[madaboutharry]

1. Sociopaths don't feel guilt.

In their mind, the blame is always with others.

[alittlelark]

2. +1,000

[Hydra]

3. If he is a true sociopath

It doesn't even get that far in his mind.

He got off. He "won." On to the next crime.

[tavalon]

5. In a way, I hope he's a sociopath, because he'll fuck up and get caught

OTOH, I want him to experience every detail of being a third class citizen, for that is what he will be henceforth. Anything a black man deals with in 2013, Zimmerman just signed up to be for the rest of his life.

[noiretextatique]

6. no remorse

that's my clue. i don't think he's learned a single thing.

[tavalon]

4. Are you still okay with OJ

knowing that his aide just admitted the OJ killed Nicole? Then again, each of those verdicts share the unlikelihood of innocence.

Oh, I don't really see any reason why your God should bless America, especially today, even this year. We are at the blessed end of our blessed empire and I would just love to dispense with the blesseds.

[ieoeja]

7. "Please don't kill me. Oh, man, please don't kill me."

There are adult males who would utter those words during a fist fight. But those adult males do not go out of their way to confront a stranger in the night.

I simply can not fathom an adult male in Zimmerman's position uttering those words in a fist fight.

Factor in the fact that Zimmerman had a gun when he supposedly begged and pleaded for his life and you have to quadruple the disbelief.

Look at the large number of men we saw beheaded by terrorists during the Bush II administration. These guys were tied up and helpless about to have their fucking heads cut off and most of them took it silently, or tried to fight despire being tied up, rather than begging. And that Italian guy telling them to fuck off was just fucking beautiful.

This fact alone would have never let me believe the claim that Zimmerman was the one begging for his life.

I did not watch the trial. But the day his defense team brought out the "that's him begging" contingent, several DUers reported his agitation, and apparent arguments with his counsel. Had I been the prosecutor, I would have used phrases like, "begging like a girl," pointing out that he was armed vs an unarmed man. I would have made damned sure that Zimmerman knew he was going to go down in history as:

[font siz=3]The man with a gun who begged and pleaded for his life from an unarmed 17 year old.[/font]

Let that be his fucking legacy.