MB Civic

Ever watch a movie where you’re ahead of the characters, asking yourself why they aren’t doing this or that? It can ruin the show for an audience, and be costly for the film’s boxoffice potential. It’s a serious no-no in the script-writing business.
The Zimmerman trial contained one of those, confirming to my satisfaction a feeling that had grown during the course of watching it.
There is little doubt in my mind that the trial was reluctantly staged, approached as nothing more than a show to placate public protest. A fake drama with a predetermined outcome, produced under pressure from – likely – the State Capital. Why do I think this? There are several fairly obvious reasons which, if it had been approached by professional show-people, would not have been present.
For starters, the purposeful ineptitude of the prosecutors, both physically, and in their argument. In the biz, we think of this as on-the-nose casting and writing. Because, in writing a script about a trial – of any kind – we must make it seem as if the decision might go either way. That is how one creates a suspenseful, entertaining drama.
What we watched on TV contained none of that. Rather, it was never even attempted in this by-the-numbers, let’s-get-it-over-with-so- the-bleeding-hearts-will-shut-up farce, the outcome of which was never in doubt.
But further, beyond the above-mentioned amateurishness, is one glaring omission from the script – one so ridiculously obvious that it is almost laughable. And totally proves my point. The question which, had it been asked – no matter the answer – would have hung in the air, making the jury’s decision iffy. An example of massively inept-writing. A question that would definitely have raised what the prosecution most certainly wanted to avoid: genuine doubt about what happened that night in Sanford, Florida.
In my view this ultimate Case Rester was that the prosecution did not put a medical person on the stand – perhaps the medic who treated George Zimmerman’s injuries – and ask him or her if it was possible that they might have been self-inflicted.
That is the single most telling proof that it was a show, never for a single moment intended as a true trial of George Zimmerman for murdering Trayvon Martin.
And hey – maybe Zimmerman wasn’t guilty…