I won this book from the Goodreads website.
Unfortunately, for those who followed the story, the book does not really give any new information that has not already been discussed. It does, however, a great job of pointing out some of the mistakes made by the prosecution during the case. First, they did not expose Zimmerman’s earlier calls to 911, which had overt racist innuendo and overtones, despite the fact they had won the earlier case that gave them the power to do so. Also, due to the location of Zimmerman’s holster, the story he told in the court room could have easily been proven impossible. These, along with mistakes made regarding professional and other witnesses, were discussed in Ms. Bloom’s book. Zimmerman supporters will not be swayed by her arguments and observations, and Martin supporters will have their thoughts regarding the case re-affirmed. This is a divisive case that incites strong emotions, so I will keep my personal thoughts out of this.
I took a legal class last year, and many of these issues were discussed, along with others. Some legal and psychological researchers also did some experiments related to the case. These, unfortunately, proved that oftentimes, race does play a large role in the criminal justice system (as does money, ie. affluenza). This aspect of our criminal justice system does need to be addressed further, in order to guarantee fairness and/or equality to all.
Overall, this book provides an excellent summary of the case and some of the many factors that affected the outcome.
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