David Cook-Martin, associate professor of sociology, writes "Like Zimmerman, jurors can be prone to implicit bias"
Grinnell in the News 2013-07-22
Summary:
Iowa City Press-Citizen
Iowa City, Ia., United States
July 19, 2013
What the verdict in the George Zimmerman case "proves" depends on how we frame a response. From a formal or black box view of law — where the law is a self-contained universal and logical system of rules — it is reasonable for lawyers to maintain that the case was not about race but about proving that Zimmerman was not defending himself when he shot Trayvon Martin.
This framing of a response is about tactics that contribute to an overall strategy of supporting or questioning the defendant's claim. The verdict "proves" which strategy works.
A real law perspective, in contrast, sees law as rules defined on the books and on the street.
David Cook-Martin, associate professor of sociology
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