SODOM & GOMORRAH: Like the Troy Davis case before, the media and the prosecution have turned the case against George Zimmerman into somthing more than just how and why Trayvon Martin died. Zimmerman was taken back into custody after a discrepency arose about how much money he actually had.
Zimmerman claimed to be a man of little means, say prosecutors, and they filed a motion to revoke his bond after it was discovered that the Zimmerman family had raised close to $150,000 on a website for his legal defense. In such a publicized case, it should come as no surprise that a large number of people were willing to donate money to a man they didn’t know who’s accused of murdering a boy they didn’t know. Yet the prosecution, who along with the media, seems intent on convicting George Zimmerman for centuries of racial violence, have professed ignorance that publicity could have such effects.
They claim that the large sum of money proves that Zimmerman is a flight risk and, as such, should be held before his trial. The issue is not that George Zimmerman was a potential flight risk, it’s that he was a potentially dangerous adversary in court. Normal people don’t have a lot of money and can’t afford an adequate legal defense. Slightly upper-middle class people can afford the defense for a while, but they usually run out of funds to do battle with a government that can simply run up more debt to prosecute criminals.
People like Zimmerman are frightening because the government failed to adequately impoverish him before his trial. Now that he’s proven he can raise money on his own, even after the government tried to bleed him dry with bond, the prosecution has to resort to a new measure to deprive Zimmerman of adequate legal counsel. Since the courts in the United States are so backlogged, it will likely be quite a while before Zimmerman has a trial. In the mean time, the imprisoned Zimmerman is unable to work, unable to pay bills, and unable to contribute any further money to his defense.
The question we must ask is, does George Zimmerman deserve to be able to raise an appropriate legal defense? I would argue that he does.