Former NBA star Charles Barkley reaffirmed his view that the George Zimmerman not guilty verdict in the Trayvon Martin murder case was fair with perhaps something of a clarification.
Barkley apparently surprised a lot people yesterday when he told CNBC ‘s Maria Bartiromo that while he believed that the neighborhood watchman was engaging in racial profiling on the night of February 26, 2012, “I agreed with the verdict. I feel sorry that young kid got killed. But they didn’t have enough evidence to charge [Zimmerman].” During the CNBC interview, he also called out the news media for its lack of clean hands in covering issues with racial implications.
In appearance on CNN this evening with Erin Burnett, the NBA Hall of Famer held firm to his views on the outcome of the trial in Seminole County, Fla. that ended with an acquittal Saturday night from the six-person, all-female jury. According to Barkley, “I think Mr. Zimmerman was racially profiling Trayvon Martin. He was wrong in that. I think he was over-aggressive. But I think at some point, they switched places and Mr. Martin was aggressive.”
The TNT Network NBA television commentator who played for the Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns, and the Houston Rockets claimed that he’s a big CNN fan and closely followed the trial. With that in mind, he said that “… just on the evidence alone, I think the verdict is fair. Just on the evidence. [Zimmerman[ was wrong for profiling Trayvon Martin, he was wrong for following Trayvon Martin… but jut on the evidence alone, I thought the verdict was fair.”
Added Barkley, who also expressed the view that race played a factor in Zimmerman’s mind: “At some point, Trayvon Martin started punching on Mr. Zimmerman and sadly [Zimmerman] shot him. But just on the evidence alone, I can’t disagree with the verdict.”
