Did George Zimmerman get away with murder? No. Juror B29 is being framed. - Slate Magazine
Did George Zimmerman get away with murder? Thats what one of his jurors says, according to headlines in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and dozens of other newspapers. Trayvon Martins mother and the Martin familys attorney are trumpeting this new information as proof that George Zimmerman literally got away with murder.
The reports are based on an ABC News interview with Juror B29, the sole nonwhite juror. She has identified herself only by her first name, Maddy. Shes been framed as the woman who was bullied out of voting to convict Zimmerman. But thats not true. She stands by the verdict. She yielded to the evidence and the law, not to bullying. She thinks Zimmerman was morally culpable but not legally guilty. And she wants us to distinguish between this trial and larger questions of race and justice.
ABC News hasnt posted a full unedited video or transcript of the interview. The video that has been broadcaston World News Tonight, Nightline, and Good Morning Americahas been cut and spliced in different ways, often so artfully that the transitions appear continuous. So beware what youre seeing. But the video thats available already shows, on closer inspection, that Maddy has been manipulated and misrepresented. Here are the key points.
1. The phrase got away with murder was put in her mouth. Nightline shows ABC interviewer Robin Roberts asking Maddy: Some people have said, George Zimmerman got away with murder. How do you respond to those people who say that? Maddy appears to reply promptly and confidently: George Zimmerman got away with murder. But you cant get away from God. But thats not quite how the exchange happened. In the unedited video, Roberts question is longer, with words that have been trimmed from the Nightline version, and Maddy pauses twice, for several seconds, as she struggles to answer it.
George Zimmerman
ThatsGeorge Zimmerman got away with murder. But you cant get away from God.
You have to watch her, not just read her words, to pick up her meaning. As she struggles to answer, she looks as though shes trying to reconcile the sentiment thats been quoted to herthat Zimmerman got away with murderwith her own perspective. So she repeats the quote and adds words of her own, to convey what she thinks: that theres a justice higher than the law, which Zimmerman will have to face. She thinks hes morally culpable, not legally guilty.