Yet by far most disturbing were the rotating charges in this farce. Was it aggravated murder? Manslaughter? Child abuse? The answer lies not in what Zimmerman did, but whatever the state could finagle. Variable charges and ex post facto crimes were a hallmark of the Soviet.

On the final day of testimony Nelson deliberated at length whether prosecutors could add a new third-degree murder claim typically involving parental duty. It would have made Salem a model of fairness, and she ultimately decided against it. Yet she did allow manslaughter, raising the specter of a last-minute “compromise conviction.”

Nelson’s muddled and near-incomprehensible jury instructions, at least to the layperson if not to lawyers, caused further concern. She has been on the bench more than a decade. After ten years of experience this was supposedly her best attempt at clear and concise direction? The specific phrase “circumstantial evidence” and its relative merit went unmentioned.

Nelson’s imperious conduct led some observers to lower their already dwindling esteem for the court. When defense attorney Don West was asked about Nelson’s impartiality after the trial, he declined to answer other than to state, “I”€™d like to keep my law license for a few more years.”

There are many places in this world where adherence by the weak-minded and the weak-willed to certain masters can garner official approval; let us hope the United States will never be among them.

From arrest to exoneration the entire spectacle had overtones of a political show trial. This gave pause to some who already fear a new American reality wherein written law and factual evidence no longer concern government.

By way of history repeating itself, within hours of a verdict they claimed they would respect, the NAACP and politicians were already calling for the Obama “Justice” Department to instigate charges of supposed civil-rights violations.

In the Gulag Peninsula even your best day is also your worst.