On
Saturday, July 13, 2013, the jury in the State of Florida v. George Zimmerman
returned a verdict of not guilty for second-degree murder and manslaughter for
the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin. After the jury returned the
verdict, an expected flurry of news and social media erupted, some in
support of the verdict and many others criticizing
it. Given the contentious issues surrounding the case, a vast amount
of media attention has honed into the jury and what occurred during the jury's deliberation.
One can hope that the jury deliberation of the Zimmerman trial was similar
to the one that took place in the famous stage play and movie, Twelve
Angry Men, where the jurors carefully examined all the evidence in their quest
for the truth and banished personal prejudices from their
deliberation. On the other hand, many fear that racial biases
may have affected the deliberation of the Zimmerman jury that was made up of
five Caucasian women and one Hispanic woman. Whether the deliberation
was similar to that of Twelve Angry Men or corrupted by racial bias,
many questions remain.
In
his article, "The Zimmerman Trial and the Meaning of Verdicts,"
Professor Andrew Ferguson of the University of the District of
Columbia, discusses the Zimmerman jury, the (at the time
undelivered) verdict, as well as juries and their verdicts in general.
