Here’s The Story Of The Twitter Hero Who Single-Handedly Killed Zimmerman Juror B37 Book Deal [View all]

[Playinghardball]

A lot has been made about the controversial Zimmerman Trial Juror B37. First she appeared on Anderson Cooper and made comments expressing sympathy and support for Zimmerman. But she really sparked an outrage by announcing — fewer than 48 hours after George Zimmerman was declared Not Guilty — that she’d signed a book deal.

Well, one passionate person on Twitter who goes by @MoreandAgain took things into her own hands.

First, she sought out the publishing company that signed the juror…



Then she spread the publisher’s information across Twitter so people could call and email, telling them to stop the book deal from coming to fruition…



She quickly whipped up a Change.org petition calling for literary agent Sharlene Martin to drop Juror B37. Within minutes, the petition had more than a thousand supporters. Martin eventually caved and released this statement:

“After careful consideration regarding the proposed book project with Zimmerman Juror B37, I have decided to rescind my offer of representation in the exploration of a book based upon this case#”#/div#

Naturally, it was only a matter of time before the juror came to her senses #or realized she was getting dropped by Martin and the book deal was a dead end# and released her own statement:

“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.”

Thus ends one of the dumbest attempts at exploitation imaginable. Juror B37′s decision to originally pursue the book deal was insensitive at best and revealing of serious issues with the jury at worst.

If anything, this is a pretty fascinating look at the power of Twitter and what a little bit of passion and movement can accomplish. It’s not like @MoreAndAgain has a million followers or anything either so it was pretty much word of mouth.

Take it away, Questlove.



http://www.uproxx.com/webculture/2013/07/persistent-tweeter-ends-juror-b37s-book-deal/