Reasonable Doubt Is Central to Zimmerman Verdict

July 15 (Bloomberg) -- A number of years ago, I served on acriminal jury. The defendant, who was African-American, wascharged with assaulting a police officer, who was white. As Irecall, all of the prosecution witnesses were police officers,and all were white. All of the defense witnesses were African-American, and they corroborated the defendant’s story, which wasthat no assault had occurred.

The jury consisted mostly of African-Americans. If youasked us whether we believed the defendant had assaulted theofficer, I am fairly confident that a strong majority (andperhaps all of us) would have said yes. Although all of thewitnesses seemed quite credible, the officers were a bit moreso. Moreover, the defense witnesses included the defendant’sfriends and family, who could be expected to have a bias in hisfavor.