SANFORD -- The jury has spoken in the George Zimmerman murder trial here at the Seminole County Criminal Justice Center in Sanford: Not guilty. The verdict comes as no surprise in a trial that was weak from the onset.
Florida now has two consecutive high-profile cases that leave more questions than answered as to whether there really is such a thing as justice with this case and that of Casey Anthony before it. In both cases, the defendants, Zimmerman and Anthony, didn't take the stand in their own defense. Both walked.
]In the reading of the verdict, Zimmerman wasn't even identified as "defendant" George Zimmerman. The state's case against Zimmerman was an obvious over-reach in the first place. Perhaps had Angela Corey, the special prosecutor appointed by Gov. Rick Scott, had utilized a grand jury to hand up charges, the lesser included manslaughter might have been less convoluted for a jury to sort through.
The losers in this trial are the parents of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin. So, too, are George Zimmerman and his wife Shellie.
While race and the right to bear arms were front and center issues in this case, so, too, was politics. And in the end, the results spoke volumes.
There was plenty of theatrics in this case, but there was no justice.
Indeed the jury spoke: Not guilty.