Fair trial for George Zimmerman? Did Trayvon Martin get one? | Pamela Merritt | The Guardian Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
Rally in New York call for justice for Trayvon Martin
A rally in New York calling for justice for Trayvon Martin. Photograph: Yunus Emre Caylak/Demotix/Corbis
A rally in New York calling for justice for Trayvon Martin. Photograph: Yunus Emre Caylak/Demotix/Corbis

Fair trial for George Zimmerman? Did Trayvon Martin get one?

This article is more than 11 years old
People like Martin are judged in need of killing – without trial – by laws drafted to appease the mob rather than honour justice

Trayvon Martin is a household name. His image has been printed on T-shirts and speculation over the last moments of his life has been the featured content in an untold number of websites. Tragically, Martin isn't around to savour any of the attention. He was 17 years old and his death probably wouldn't have made headlines in a world conditioned to accept the violent death of young black men, had it not been related in raw detail through a valiant campaign for justice launched by his parents.

George Zimmerman is also a household name. Zimmerman is the neighbourhood watch volunteer who shot Martin dead, and who remains free. He has since gone into hiding and recently launched a website on which he said:

"On Sunday February 26th, I was involved in a life-altering event which led me to become the subject of intense media coverage. As a result of the incident and subsequent media coverage, I have been forced to leave my home, my school, my employer, my family and ultimately, my entire life."

It would be easy to point out that Martin's life was also altered when Zimmerman shot and killed him, that the subsequent media coverage offers little comfort to family and friends who mourn his loss, and that Martin was forced by a bullet cast as judge, jury, and executioner to leave his home, his school, his family and ultimately his entire life. That would be easy to point out, but that kind of reality isn't considered "productive". What we are left with instead is the hollow pursuit of postmortem justice and of whether Zimmerman, should he ever be charged with a crime, will get a fair trial.

There have been new developments in the "case", if one can call it so, without charges having been filed or arrest been made. The prosecutor announced that she would not utilise the grand jury, and Zimmerman's lawyers held a press conference to announce that they have not been in contact with their client and are no longer on the case. Meanwhile and confusingly, Zimmerman stated that he launched his website to solicit funds for his legal expenses and to explain how killing Martin has negatively affected his life. Legal pundits are of course stepping forward to ponder a hypothetical trial and offer up speculative analysis. Nothing feeds the gods of television ratings like racial tension, southern American justice, and the politics of the gun.

The question on many a mind is whether Zimmerman can get a fair trial. But the question plaguing me is why the Trayvon Martins of the world are not afforded a fair trial before execution. Before there was Martin, there was Rodney King and Amadou Diallo and many an unknown victim of prejudice.

As a matter of fact, I became aware of Martin's murder because someone sent an email to me asking whether his killing was this generation's "Emmett Till moment". When people ask this question, they are already conceding legal defeat. Till was killed when he was 14 years old in 1955 while visiting Money, Mississippi. Till was from Chicago and didn't know the ways of the south. He committed the "crime" of flirting with a white woman. He paid for that with his life when he was kidnapped from is grandfather's home by two armed white men, beaten, tortured, and murdered. His corpse was later found bloated and disfigured in the river. The picture of Till in his casket, famous for being published in Jet magazine with his mother's permission, garnered national attention. His murderers where put on trial and, as expected, acquitted. Some time later, they confessed to the murder to a journalist once assured that double jeopardy meant they could not be tried again.

I expect much of the same for Martin's case. I fear that legal pundits will say that the evidence the police bothered to collect is inconclusive, that any potential jury pool has been tainted. And then there is the issue of Florida's "stand your ground" law absolving people of crimes against those they fear. In 1950s Mississippi, Jim Crow public segregation laws demanded the acquittal of Till's murderers. In 2012, we have stand your ground and a general acceptance that young black men bring violence upon themselves to shield justice from light and provide cover for those who meet out vigilante justice.

When people ask whether Zimmerman will receive a fair trial, I respond by asking why the Trayvon Martins of the world are deemed unworthy of American justice, seen fit to be shot dead and judged to be in need of killing by laws drafted to appease the mob rather than honour justice. Zimmerman is alive to plead his case, edit his website, and choose whether or not to communicate with his lawyers. Trayvon Martin is dead.

But hey, they're both household names.

More on this story

More on this story

  • Trayvon Martin case: special prosecutor decides not to use grand jury

  • George Zimmerman to face second-degree murder charge

  • Bill Clinton says laws need 'reappraisal' in wake of Trayvon Martin case

  • Trayvon Martin's mother welcomes Zimmerman charge – video

  • George Zimmerman's trial could be as divisive as OJ Simpson's

  • Mamie Till's warning still holds true in a racist world

  • New York mayor Bloomberg accuses NRA of backing 'licence to murder'

  • The Trayvon Martin case reveals a vigilante spirit in the US justice system

  • Trayvon Martin family's lawyer fears Zimmerman will flee to escape justice

  • Echoes of Trayvon Martin in the police killing of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr

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