WE, AS SPECTATORS, HAVE LONG BEEN FASCINATED BY TRIALS AND THE LAW. FROM SOCRATES TO JESUS TO O.J. SIMPSON, AND THE U.S. SUPREME COURT ARGUMENTS OVER THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT, WE ARE OFTEN CAPTIVATED BY THE EVENTS THAT TAKE PLACE INSIDE THE WALLS OF A COURTROOM.
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ost recently, the country’s atten- tion has been riveted on the Trayvon Martin case, the sad tale of a unarmed 17-year-old shot to death while visiting his future stepmother’s home in a Florida community by a former volunteer neighborhood watch captain. Predictably, given the ubiquity of social media and the hot-button nature of the case—a young black man killed in a quiet gated community under questionable circumstances—public emo- tion rose to a fever pitch and a media frenzy ensued. Sensational headlines, accusations of racism, a masterfully inept police investiga-
tion, and public protest marches have given rise to rampant speculation and Olympic-level jumping to conclusions, even though all of the facts of the case remain unknown. It has fallen to legal analysts and journalists to bring some clarity to a case that has generated plenty of heat but very little light. Te mainstream media once had
a solid lock on reporting important legal news, whether it was a ground- breaking U.S. Supreme Court ruling or a jury verdict in a Florida murder trial. But cable television and the Internet have driven massive changes in how all news is reported, includ- ing legal affairs, especially given that the number of sources reporting
H I THINK IS A GOOD THING. STILL, WE DON’T KNOW ALL OF THE EVIDENCE YET AND AS DIVERSITY & THE BAR® JULY/AUGUST 2012
MCCA.COM
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