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the rest of the racial-grievance industrial complex showed up to stir the pot; members of the New Black Panther Party offered a $10,000 reward for Zimmerman’s “capture”; and the newest parlor game became “Guess what slur George mumbled in his 911 tape” when no such slur was apparent.
    A lot of bloggers and TV talking heads became armchair crime scene specialists, offering forensic theories that came more from Hollywood whimsy than medical school.
    President Barack Obama elevated the case to a presidential issue when he said, “Trayvon Martin could’ve been me thirty-five years ago,” and “If I had a son he would look like Trayvon,” as he called for nationwide “soul-searching.” Instead of tamping down the rage, the president fueled it.
    Angry rallies converted bags of Skittles into flags of protest. Hoodies and cans of tea became symbols of American racism.
    â€œHe may have been suspended from school at the time, and had traces of cannabis in his blood,” wrote London’s Guardian newspaper, “but when you look behind the appearance of a menacing black teenager, those Skittles say, you find the child inside.”
    Celebrities, politicians, and throngs of ordinary people demanded justice for Trayvon, but the only suitable justice they would accept seemed to be the arrest, conviction, and swift execution of that vile racist George Zimmerman.
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    On April 11, 2012—more than six tense weeks after Trayvon Martin was shot dead and a local district attorney found no evidence to file criminal charges—a special prosecutor ordered the nearly broke George Zimmerman arrested and charged with second-degree murder. A new defense team volunteered: Mark O’Mara and Don West, both well-known legal veterans and both top-notch defenders. The old friends made a good team: O’Mara was a masterful litigator, dignified and unflappable; West was a fighter who didn’t apologize to anyone for feeling that the case against Zimmerman looked like mob justice.
    And both had long experience in self-defense and Stand Your Ground cases. In fact, the deceptively affable Pennsylvanian West quit his job as a federal public defender in death-penalty cases to take Zimmerman’s case.
    He wasn’t born yesterday. Regarded as one of the nation’s top criminal defense lawyers, he’d worked some tough cases with even tougher clients. He knew defendants sometimes lied. He knew the evidence wasn’t always perfect. He’d seen how the genuine facts in a shooting could be twisted beyond recognition by media.
    But after spending time with Zimmerman, he barely recognized the public’s monstrous caricature of him.
    And soon both O’Mara and West recognized that the fanatical public clamor and local politics threatened to capsize some serious legal questions.
    Many court watchers expected Zimmerman to claim immunity under Florida’s so-called Stand Your Ground law, which said a victim under attack wasn’t required to retreat and could legally use lethal force in self-defense.
    But for many Trayvon supporters recalling the image of that smiling child, the possibility that George Zimmerman had feared for his life seemed absurd. To them, Stand Your Ground was a “Get Out of Jail Free” card. Outside of the courtroom, this case was more about race than self-defense, and blacks vocally decried a law they believed gave white people carte blanche to kill black folks. They demanded the immediate repeal of Stand Your Ground, and many politicians stood ready to accommodate.
    Ironically, at the time of the Martin shooting, Florida’s Stand Your Ground law had benefited blacks disproportionately. Since poor blacks who live in high-crime neighborhoods were the most likely victims of crime, the law made it easier for them to protect themselves when the police couldn’t arrive fast enough. Blacks make up only about 16