Several years ago I served on a jury here in Durham County. The case involved an altercation on a street corner, in broad daylight, in which one person fatally stabbed another with an ordinary paring knife. There were numerous eyewitnesses -- school buses had only recently disgorged students who crowded around the combatants -- and the defendant openly admitted to the stabbing. Yet we acquitted him.
The defendant -- whom we would later learn had a long criminal record, including a prior conviction in a similar stabbing incident -- claimed that he was acting in self-defense. The defendant's prior convictions were deemed not admissable as evidence in court. North Carolina's law regarding self-defense claims holds that in such cases the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was NOT acting in self-defense. In other words, a defendant doesn't have to prove the self-defense claim; the prosecution must prove the opposite. This, as it turns out, is very hard to do.
In the Trayvon Martin case, it is very hard to have sympathy for the shooter, George Zimmerman. It may also be difficult for many to sympathize with the local law enforcement officials who investigated the case and decided not to arrest Zimmerman. Considering the facts of the case, though, it would appear that there is little to no chance that Zimmerman can be convicted of anything. Personally, I subscribe to the point of view that Zimmerman was a trigger-happy wacko inclined to shoot first and ask questions later. I also suspect that he did engage in racial profiling. But those viewpoints would probably disqualify me from serving on a jury in the case. Even trigger-happy wackos are entitled to the essential protections of law.
Compare the Zimmerman-Martin altercation with the one I described earlier. It occurred in the evening, rather than broad daylight. If there were eyewitnesses, they were some distance away. The shooter has certainly engaged in some questionable behavior before, but appears to have no prior felony convictions. And it occurred in a state with a self-defense law broader than North Carolina's. All these factors suggest that obtaining a conviction would be even more difficult in this case than it was in the case that I deliberated.
Local law enforcement finds itself in a nightmare scenario. They are caught between an outraged public and the law. This event may lead to a reconsideration of the law, and that might be a good idea. But so long as the law makes any concessions for individuals acting in self-defense, and considers defendants innocent until proven guilty, there will be more cases like this. Each one is tragic. But there is no method of eliminating such tragedies without inviting others.
