Social media is a powerful way of making our voices heard. Some feel that it was instrumental in getting charges brought against George Zimmerman in the first place. Now, Sharlene Martin, the literary agent working with Juror B37 on a book about the Trayvon Martin trial, dropped the deal due to social media.
Less than 48 hours after the not guilty verdict was read in George Zimmerman’s trial, Juror B37 announced she signed a book deal. Appearing on Anderson Cooper, she expressed her sympathy for George Zimmerman while admitting in so many words that he’s guilty of manslaughter, said she’d want him in her neighborhood watch group and referred to Trayvon Martin as “that boy” and one of “those people.”
A determined Twitter user, @MoreandMoreAgain, found the publishing company that signed Juror B37, tweeted the literary agent’s information including her name (Sharlene Martin), email and Twitter handle and created a petition urging Sharlene to drop the book deal. The petition garnered thousands of signatures within an hour.
See the tweets below…
Sharlene then dropped the book deal, stating:
After her book deal was dropped, Juror B37 suddenly came to her senses, releasing her own statement that she’s no longer writing a book about the trial and exploiting the killing of an unarmed teenage boy:
“I realize it was necessary for our jury to be sequestered in order to protest our verdict from unfair outside influence, but that isolation shielded me from the depth of pain that exists among the general public over every aspect of this case. The potential book was always intended to be a respectful observation of the trial from my and my husband’s perspectives solely and it was to be an observation that our ‘system’ of justice can get so complicated that it creates a conflict with our ‘spirit’ of justice.
Now that I am returned to my family and to society in general, I have realized that the best direction for me to go is away from writing any sort of book and return instead to my life as it was before I was called to sit on this jury.”
The fact that she ever considered publishing a book in the first place is truly sickening and maddening.
