The Coming Acquittal

By Mumia Abu-Jamal

By the time these words reach you, perhaps it will all be over.

“It” is the Zimmerman trial in Florida.

I have no idea what the ratings are for CNN, (nor CNBC, for that matter), but I’d bet it’s pretty elevated for their usual summer viewership.

In this place, of prison population, every man with a mouth wants to discuss the case.

In the chow-hall. On the walk ways. In the gym.  On the yard.

Not even the buxom (and buttsome) beauties of “Love and Hip Hop” have garnered that much attention.

“Are you watching the trial?”

“Who do you think is gonna win?”

Questions bounce like basketballs, as all eyes are locked on this, the latest “trial of the century.”

The trial of George Zimmerman for the homicide of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin has snatched a level of public attention that hasn’t been seen since the mid-’90s—in other words, the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

I believe, frankly, that Zimmerman will be acquitted.

I may be wrong—but I don’t think so.

I’ve never seen a defense lawyer utilize, so skillfully, the ju-jitsu-style techniques of witness flipping.

In all honesty, the state’s prosecution witnesses became defense witnesses.

And where the defense was adroit, the prosecutor bumbled and fumbled.

I may be wrong—I hope I’m wrong—but I don’t think I am.

We shall see.

—PrisonRadio.org, July 8, 2013