Suspicion Nation

by Bloom, Lisa

  191“Where Have All the Burglars Gone?” Economist, July 20, 2013, www.economist.com/news/briefing/21582041-rich-world-seeing-less-and-less-crime-even-face-high-unemployment-and-economic.

  192Patrik Jonsson, “FBI: Violent Crime Down, but People Don’t Feel Safer,” Christian Science Monitor, September 15, 2009, www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2009/0915/p02s04-usju.html.

  193Justice Policy Institute, “Crime, Correctional Populations and Drug Arrests.”

  194Sherry L. Murphy, BS, Jiaquan Xu, MD, and Kenneth D. Kochanek, MA, “Deaths: Final Data for 2010,” National Vital Statistics Reports 61, no. 4 (2013).

  195Ben Martin, PsyD, “Taking on Anxiety and the Irrational Fears in Your Life,” Psych Central, 2006, http://psychcentral.com/lib/taking-on-anxiety-and-the-irrational-fears-in-your-life/00023.

  196Stanton BF, Behrman RE, “Death Among Children and Adolescents,” in Kliegman RM and others, eds., Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics, 19th ed. (Philadelphia, PA: Saunders Elsevier, 2011), www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001915.htm.

  197Lenore Skenazy, Free-Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts With Worry (San Francisco: Wiley, 2009), 16.

  198Ronald Weitzer, “Racialized Policing: Residents’ Perceptions in Three Neighborhoods,” Law and Society Review 34, no. 1 (2000), 129-155, www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3115118?uid=2&uid=4&sid=21102950458231.

  199Alexander R. Green and others, “Implicit bias among physicians and Its Prediction of Thrombolysis Decisions for Black and White Patients,” Journal of General Internal Medicine 22, no. 9 (2007), http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=19040317.

  200Jessica Cumberbatch, “Racial Bias Among Doctors Linked to Dissatisfaction With Care, Report Says,” Huffington Post, May 3, 2012, www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/03/racial-bias-doctors_n_1472281.html.

  201Frank Partnoy, “Beyond the Blink,” New York Times, July 6, 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/opinion/sunday/reactions-by-nurture-not-nature.html?_r=2&.

  202Lorie A. Fridell, “Racially Biased Policing: The Law Enforcement Response to the Implicit Black-Crime Association,” in Michael J. Lynch, E. Britt Patterson, and Kristina K. Childs, Racial Divide: Racial and Ethnic Bias in the Criminal Justice System (Monsey, NY: Criminal Justice Press, 2008) 33-59, http://fairandimpartialpolicing.com/docs/rbp-thelaw.pdf.

  203Evidence Prof Blog, “What’s the Harm?: Cynthia Lee’s Making Race Salient and Jury Instructions on Racial Bias and Cross-Racial Identifications,” August 21, 2013, http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/evidenceprof/2013/08/cynthia-lee-thecharleskennedy-poe-research-professor-of-law-at-thegeorge-washington-university-law-school-presented-her-fo.html.

  204https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit.

  205Yasmina Bekhouche and others, “The Global Gender Gap Report 2013,” (Cologny/Geneva, Switzerland: World Economic Forum, 2013), http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GenderGap_Report_2013.pdf.

  206Annie-Rose Strasser, “George Zimmerman Had a Small Arsenal With Him When He Was Arrested on Domestic Violence Charges,” Think Progress, November 26, 2013, http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/11/26/2998931/zimmerman-guns-arrest/.

  207Igor Volsky, “Gun Advocacy Group Sends Zimmerman $12,000 to Buy Guns,” Think Progress, July 26, 2013, http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/07/26/2359831/gun-advocacy-group-sends-zimmerman-12000-to-buy-guns/.

  208Aram Roston, “In Florida, It’s Often Shoot First, Learn the Law Later,” Daily Beast, May 17, 2012, www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/17/in-florida-it-s-often-shoot-first-learn-the-law-later.html.

  209Adam Weinstein, “How the NRA and Its Allies Helped Spread a Radical Gun Law Nationwide,” Mother Jones, June 7, 2012, www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/06/nra-alec-stand-your-ground.

  210Michael Luo and Mike McIntire, “Children and Guns: The Hidden Toll,” New York Times, September 28, 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/us/children-and-guns-the-hidden-toll.html.

  211Rick Stone, “Trayvon Martin’s Uncle Says Media Should Have Challenged Pretrial Misinformation,” WLRN, July 12, 2013, http://wlrn.org/post/trayvon-martinsuncle-says-media-should-have-challenged-pretrial-misinformation.

  212Sabrina Tavernise, “To Reduce Suicide Rates, New Focus Turns to Guns,” New York Times, February 13, 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/us/to-lower-suiciderates-new-focus-turns-to-guns.html.

  213Henry Goldman, “Shootings Costing U.S. $174 Billion Show Burden of Gun Violence,” Bloomberg Politics, December 20, 2012, www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-21/shootings-costing-u-s-l74-billion-show-burden-of-gun-violence.html.

  214Adam Winkler, Gunfight (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2011), 289.

  215McDonald v. City of Chicago, 130 S. Ct. 3020 (2010).

  216Winkler, Gunfight, 168–9.

  217California Penal Code, sec. 12022.53, http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/cacode/PEN/3/4/2/1/2/s12022.53.

  218Steven Jansen and M. Elaine Nugent-Borakove, “Expansions to the Castle Doctrine: Implications for Policy and Practice,” (Alexandria, Virginia: American Prosecutors Research Institute), www.ndaa.org/pdf/CastleDoctrine.pdf.

  219New York Times, “Acquittal in Doorstep Killing of Japanese Student,” May 24, 1993, www.nytimes.com/1993/05/24/us/acquittal-in-doorstep-killing-of-japanese-student.html?src=pm.

  220Ibid.

  221Akiko Fujita, “Parents of Slain Japanese Student Push for Gun Control From Afar,” ABC News, December 18, 2012, http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/12/parents-of-slain-japanese-student-push-for-gun-control-from-afar/.

  222Stanley M. Quaggin v. State of Florida, 752 So.2d 19 (2000).

  223Cora Currier, “The 24 States That Have Sweeping SelfDefense Laws Just Like Florida’s,” ProPublica, March 22, 2012, www.propublica.org/article/the-23-states-that-have-sweeping-selfdefense-laws-just-like-floridas. Utah has had a Stand Your Ground law on its books since 1994, though it’s rarely been invoked. Robert Gehrke, “Utah’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ Law Dates to 1994,” Salt Lake Tribune, March 27, 2012, www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/53796323-78/case-florida-force-ground.html.csp.

  224Robert Stewart, “Death of Exchange Student Painful 20 Years Later,” Advocate, October 17, 2012.

  225Jansen and Nugent-Borakove, “Expansions to the Castle Doctrine.”

  226http://www.flgov.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Task-Force-Report-Draft.pdf.

  227Weinstein, “How the NRA and Its Allies Helped Spread a Radical Gun Law.”

  228Ibid.

  229Ibid.

  230Kris Hundley, Susan Taylor Martin, and Connie Humburg, “Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ Law Yields Some Shocking Outcomes Depending on How Law is Applied,” Tampa Bay Times, June 1, 2012, www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/florida-stand-your-ground-law-yields-some-shocking-outcomes-depending-on/1233133.

  231Hundley, Martin, and Humburg, “Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ Law.”

  232Rebecca Leber, “At Stand Your Ground Hearing, Ted Cruz Argues Florida Law Helps African-Americans,” Think Progress, October 29, 2013, http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/10/29/2852451/cruz-blacks-benefit-stand-ground/.

  233Scott Hiaasen, “Zimmerman Defense: No Need for Stand Your Ground Hearing,” Miami Herald, March 5, 2013, www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/05/3268716/zimmerman-defense-no-need-for.html.

  234Mark Caputo, “Juror: We Talked Stand Your Ground Before Not-Guilty Zimmerman Verdict,” Miami Herald, July 18, 2013, www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/16/3502481/juror-we-talked-stand-your-ground.html.

  235Martin Luther King, Jr., “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” (speech, Mason Temple, Memphis, TN, April 3, 1968).

  236Ronald Durham (National Action Network leader), in discussion with the author, Daytona Beach, FL, September 24, 2013.

  237George Wallace (inaugural address, Alabama State Capitol, Montgomery, AL, January 14, 1963).

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  A WRITER OF CURRENT events nonfiction must, over and over again, brazenly request favors from complete strangers. Would you sit for an interview? Would you trust me with your story? May I ask you
just a few more questions? I asked, and remarkably, sometimes the answer was yes.

  In Florida, David Chico, Dr. Shiping Bao, Maddy, Pastor Durham, Rachel Jeantel, and Rod Vereen selflessly agreed to speak with me and share their perspective on the Zimmerman trial, a case that had caused each of them pain. Their insights were valuable, and I am honored that they chose to entrust their stories to me. We are strangers no more. And to the others, whom I promised not to name, who gave me valuable background and insights: you know who you are, and I thank you.

  I imposed upon friends to give me their most precious, limited asset: time. Would you read my manuscript and give me your thoughts? I was honored by the brilliant legal eagles Jami Floyd, Lauren Lake, and Alan Jackson who read and diligently marked up my manuscript. Dr. Lawrence Kobilinsky quickly and clearly answered my science questions. The very busy Jeffrey Toobin so kindly wrote the foreword.

  Then there are the publishing professionals, who inspire me with their brains and hard work. Laura Dail, my literary agent, continues to shepherd me through the world of publishing and push me to aim higher, think deeper. All the while she has my back. Dan Smetanka always strives for excellence, is a model of calm amidst the storm, and is the wise editor and publisher every writer wants. Barrett Briske swiftly and ably provided copy editing and kind encouragement. Megan Fishmann helped announce the book to the world.

  While I covered the Zimmerman trial for NBC and MSNBC, I could not have worked with more dedicated, ethical, insightful folks. Phil Griffin and Elena Nachmanoff entrusted this challenging assignment to me. So many producers, anchors, and reporters dug deep to cover the trial accurately and thoughtfully, and I was especially lucky to work with Stefanie Cargill, Craig Melvin, and Ugonna Okpalaoka. Joy-Ann Reid, the smartest human on the planet, spurred me on and extended herself to lend a hand behind the scenes, taking the leap to believe in this project. Rich Greenberg took the time to vet the manuscript.

  What a pleasure it was from start to finish to have the outstanding research assistance of Sam Wong, who doubles in his off hours as my son. Keep dancing! And reading and thinking! And dancing some more!

  Big love to my friends and family, including my daughter Sarah and my mama Gloria, who cheerfully tolerate my habit of disappearing to the dark side of the moon while I write books, emerging months later, blinking into the light of day and picking back up where we left off.

  And as always, my fiancé Braden Pollock, an author’s dream partner, roots for my books and understands my need to write them, or pretends to, taking care of our lives while I hole up and tap away on my keyboard. No one was more surprised than I that when this trial was over, I could not move on, sweetheart. I hope this book explains why.