Sometimes even America has limits when it comes to profiteering. George Zimmerman was acquitted Saturday night. By Monday morning Martin Literary Management announced it had signed juror B-37 and her husband, an attorney, to a book deal. The company said it would be a study in how one person had to disregard her own feelings in order to follow the letter of the law. At about the same time it was announced B-37 would appear on the Anderson Cooper show that evening.
The reaction to the book deal must have been a tad discouraging. By late Monday Sharlene Martin released a statement saying her company no longer represented the juror and that B-37 had dropped the whole book idea. Yes, sometimes something as quaint as decency does win out.
At least until things cool off. You know, like until large numbers of people stop demonstrating from coast to coast because George Zimmerman was let off the hook. Once celebrities like Stevie Wonder stop boycotting Florida until the odious stand your ground law is repealed and yahoos like Ann Coulter and Ted Nugent stop wildly celebrating the jury's decision--once many recover from the disgusting news Brother Zimmerman can now reclaim his weapon from the police department property room. Odds are in a year or two we will be seeing one or more personal recollections and accounts of the trial in print. Someone is going to make a buck off this dreadful affair, there really is little doubt of that. It is just a matter of when and how many.
Meanwhile B-37 made her appearance on the Cooper show Monday. Not one to take any chances she made sure her face was obscured during the interview.
She said she thought defense attorney Don West's opening argument "knock knock" joke was "horrible." She also said that she felt Rachel Jeantel's testimony was, "not very credible." Jeantel was the woman on the phone with Trayvon Martin at the moment the fatal confrontation took place. Not very credible would be a bit of an understatement. In fact it appears the jury thought she had basically committed perjury, because what Ms. Jeantel told the court completely undermined the main pillar of the defense--that Trayvon Martin ambushed George Zimmerman and initiated the fist fight that led to his death. According to her, Martin said to Zimmerman, "What are you following me for?" Those words, if they had been believed, not only showed that Martin hadn't jumped out of some bushes as the defense theorized in one scenario, but that Zimmerman had lied to police when he said he'd stopped following the victim. According to Jeantel, Martin's last words before his phone went dead were, "get off, get off," which meant at the very least Zimmerman had laid his hands on the teenager.
In addition B-37 told Cooper that initially two of the six jurors thought Zimmerman was guilty of manslaughter and a third was convinced he had committed second degree murder. She also said she believed Zimmerman was "well intentioned," but overzealous because of a recent string of break ins. She went so far as to say he, "shouldn't have gotten out of that car."
Yes, well there are a lot of people who think that right now, many of them are out on the streets as I type.
Although she'd never heard Trayvon Martin's voice she told the TV host she was sure it was Zimmerman yelling for help on the now infamous 911 tape. Her logic was that all the evidence indicated he was the one being beaten, therefore he was the one who would have been screaming for assistance.
After being pressured a little bit by Cooper she said that, "because he has learned a good lesson," she, "would be comfortable with having George on her neighborhood watch." She also maintained that "I think it's every one's right to carry a gun."
Finally, echoing that delusion so many white people cling to, seriously or not, she told Anderson Cooper than none of the jury thought race was a factor in the incident.
Right. That is why the defense called a woman to the stand for no other reason, but to testify that months before the shooting, her home had been burglarized by two black teenagers while she was there. Quick, name one connection that incident has with Trayvon Martin, besides the color of his skin.
Al Sharpton and others are howling for the Feds to get involved. They want Zimmerman brought up on charges that he violated Trayvon Martin's civil rights. Reports are that the Department of Justice is looking into it. Whether it actually happens is another thing altogether.
The awful truth is ol' George got away with one. Everything was in his favor from the moment he pulled the trigger and even before.
B-37 can say race didn't have anything to do with this nightmare, but in her heart of hearts she knows it isn't true.
We all do.
sic vita est
7-16-13
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