Hiram College professor Jason Johnson was interviewed by Newsmax about the not guilty verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Read the full article Professor: Verdict ‘Not Going to Change Anything’
“Five white women in the South said it was okay to kill a 17-year-old black boy. Nobody who has any questions or apprehensions or distrust of the legal system is surprised by that result,” said Johnson, who also teaches communications at Hiram College in Northeast Ohio, in an exclusive interview.
“It’s not like there’s a real victory to be had by either side,” he said. “I just don’t think it ends up making a lot of difference.”
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“When the jury asked about manslaughter, I thought that was a pretty bad sign, until when the lawyers wrote back and asked, ‘Can you be more specific?’ and the jury never asked another question,” he said. “I thought, ‘Okay, they’re probably really not looking at manslaughter.’ It might have been just a last-second question.”
Johnson added that prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda did not present his case very well.
“Given how the trial went, I don’t find it to be a shocking ruling,” he said. “It’s not overly surprising.”