If you’re looking for things that really went wrong in the Zimmerman case and are part of wider patterns unfavorable toward minorities, try looking at the prosecution’s misdeeds.

In particular, Florida State Attorney Angela Corey overcharged, going for second-degree murder when even manslaughter was shaky. That didn’t cow Zimmerman, who had a sizable legal defense fund, but such tactics work every day in extracting plea-bargain surrenders from ordinary-Joe defendants who fear a worse verdict.

Corey’s team also tried the case in the news media, made jury-inflaming assertions it couldn’t back up with proof, and (according to a whistle-blowing employee, soon fired by Corey) even withheld evidence from the defense side, an ethical breach should it be proven.

A public stirred up to outrage over sins like those might come to realize that they’re not a fluke of the Zimmerman case, but crop up regularly in the everyday criminal justice system, to the disfavor of minority (and nonminority) defendants.