6:00: Morning News

AG Holder should drop Zimmerman case

Those dissatisfied with the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin now want the United States Justice Department to investigate Zimmerman for a hate crime.

For example, NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous has started a petition drive at MoveOn.org encouraging U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to file civil rights charges against Zimmerman.

“The most fundamental of civil rights—the right to life—was violated the night George Zimmerman stalked and then took the life of Trayvon Martin,” the petition reads.

Holder has given Jealous and others hope that he will go after Zimmerman.  Monday, the Attorney General received several rounds of applause from an audience of black women at a national meeting of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority when he said, “We will never stop working to ensure that—in every case, in every circumstance and in every community—justice must be done.”

But there is a legitimate legal question whether a Justice Department prosecution of Zimmerman would be a fulfillment of justice or an abuse of federal power.

Zimmerman was acquitted by a jury of his peers in open court where both the prosecution and the defense had an opportunity to present their cases.  Legal observers of all stripes have generally agreed that it was a fair trial, even if you disagree with the verdict.

The United States has a “dual sovereignty doctrine” which permits, in certain circumstances, an individual to be tried twice in separate sovereigns for essentially the same offense if it violates different laws.

That’s what happened in the Rodney King case. The Los Angeles police officers accused of beating King during an arrest in 1991 were acquitted in state court, but several of those same officers were tried and convicted in federal court of violating King’s Fourth and 14th Amendment protections.

But the King case was inflamed by the dramatic video showing the police pummeling King.  Americans, who believe Zimmerman got a fair trial even if they don’t agree with the verdict, may see a second trial as double-jeopardy.

The Justice Department will have trouble making a case against Zimmerman. The federal hate crimes statute says the crime must have been committed “because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion (or) national origin” of the person.  The government would have to prove that Zimmerman was motivated by animus toward Martin because he was black.

So far, there’s no evidence of that.  It did not come out during the trial and the FBI, which investigated the case last year, found no indication that race was a motivating factor.

Attorney General Holder said Monday that Martin’s killing was a “tragic, unnecessary shooting death.”  On that, most Americans can agree.  But if the Justice Department decides to pursue charges against Zimmerman, it will expand the tragedy to include a politically-motivated prosecution of an individual who has already been deemed innocent by the justice system.

 





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