(ThyBlackMan.com) It’s not often our criminal justice system is made a mockery of. But when it is, it is taken for a complete fool. Take first for example George Zimmerman turning himself in Sunday. Initially released on $150,000 bond, George Zimmerman had been free to move about the country as anonymously as he could. But now he’s back in the big house because he failed to surrender a second more current passport and because he and his wife cried broke when they had access to more than $100,000.
The second example of our criminal justice system completely failing is Brian Banks. While his story may end with somewhat of a happy ending, Brian Banks getting the chance to work out with four NFL teams with the chance of becoming a 26-year-old rookie, it doesn’t change the fact the man had to endure 10 years of hell for naught.
Whether or not George Zimmerman deserves to be in prison is not up for debate. Neither is the less than fairy tale ending for Brian Banks’ fucked up 
situation. But in both these instances it is evident the system meant to protect victims and keep the innoncent as such is failing miserably. Part of the blame can be placed on attorney’s, judges, and the jury. As people they will commonly rely on their misconceptions and prejudices when deciding the fate of any man, woman or child before them. But beyond the failures of people are broken rungs on our ladder of justice. There are no fail safes for when the rule of law fails.
What happened to innocent until proven guilty in the face of the media? What happened to a fair trial by a jury of your peers for the young Black kid who just happens to look dangerous but actually has a heart of gold? What happened to unbiased and beyond a reasonable doubt? These key words are triggers to people around the world that in America the guilty are guilty and the innocent are free to do as they please. Yet in this country there is the coded knowledge these beliefs about our system are only true to a certain degree and under certain circumstances.
High profile cases are tried first in the court of public opinion instead of before a judge and jury; O.J. Simpson, Michael Jackson, Casey Anthony and now George Zimmerman. If Zimmerman’s case goes to trial I highly doubt he’ll be convicted of second degree murder. He already admits he killed Trayvon Martin. THAT fact is not in question. The question before the potential court is whether or not he had a right, a license to kill.
According to extensive analysis of George Zimmerman’s affirmative defense — Stand Your Ground — his right to defend himself with deadly force is a coin toss.
Similarly, Brian Banks could have gone to trial and won. He could have gone to trial and lost. However, by not going to trial at all (on the advice of his lawyer) he lost out on time he will never get back. Life experiences he will never recreate.
Our justice system is heralded for being fair. But what happens when fairness goes awry and all that’s left is the biased decisions of 1 to 13 people? If defendants, plaintiffs and witnesses are supposed to be credible, shouldn’t those judging them be equally as credible?
George Zimmerman’s acquittal will be in the hands of a southern, White male who believes in the second amendment as much as he believes in God. Likewise, his conviction will be in the hands of minorities and liberal leaning Whites who recognize racism is real, racial profiling is a problem and this whole case could have been avoided if George Zimmerman hadn’t got spooked by a tall Black guy in a hoodie.
For Brian Banks his looks never gave him the choice between conviction and acquittal. Accused of rape with no evidence, he copped to a plea because his looks made him appear as if he were guilty. That conviction now overturned illustrates beyond a reasonable doubt looks are more than just deceiving, they downright lie.
Our justice system isn’t supposed to be used and abused at the whim of something so fickle as looks. Our justice system isn’t supposed to fall to the terrestrial temptations that do in many mortal men. Our justice system, while not something crafted by God, is a system that is supposed to be color-blind and post racial. Yet what we find is a system and its agents with more flaws than a suicidal Judas begging for redemption in its last seven seconds of conscious thought.
As Brian Banks tries to get his life back on the path it was headed 10 years ago, and George Zimmerman faces months behind bars until his case is settled or goes to trial I’m sure we will see more stories of how the justice system works. But our justice system is a glass house with a lot of cracks. One more wrongfully convicted stone throne its way could bring the entire system under scrutiny for more than just the prison industrial complex; but for a complex that seeks to retain slave principles, racial strife, and ambiguity in the truth in order to make money.
Our criminal justice system is playing the Russian Roulette version of Ring Around the Roses, and we’re at the part where we all fall down.
Staff Writer; Nikesha Leeper
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