Editorial: George Zimmerman’s Trial Starts Today

It is a case that exposed many Americans to the controversial law, known as Stand Your Ground, which gives legal permission to use deadly force if someone feels his or her safety is in imminent danger. After considering that as the focal point of his defense, Zimmerman decided to stand trial without invoking the Florida law.

The critical issue is whether lawyers for Zimmerman, a onetime neighborhood watch volunteer, can make a convincing case that he shot the young Trayvon Martin in self-defense, a position he has maintained. On the other hand, the parents of the dead teenager assert that their son was killed as an act of grotesque racial profiling.

For more than a year, the case of Trayvon Martin has resonated with a large segment of the American public. Many in the African-American community and beyond have portrayed the case as a modern-day Emmett Till scene, recalling the 14-year-old Chicago student who was brutally murdered in 1955 on a vacation trip to Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a white woman.

Of course, this is a far different case, in a different age with a host of technological advancements that were not even dreamt of in the 1950s. One such advance, the ability to analyze recordings with high technological precision, is an issue that could play a significant role in the Zimmerman trial.