No one forced him to hire the expensive attorney that he did
Didn't we? We made this case a media and political frenzy where lines were drawn. On the one side you had the full weight of a very motivated DA, on the other side you had a guy with a highschool education. And let's be fair, for a case this big that lasted over 1 year 1.4 million (I think that was the lawyer cost), is not that much.
As for his erratic behavior, I can understand it. He killed someone. That's got to fuck you up. On top of that he now has life crippling debt to deal with. And then finally he has a world that still generally hates him, and allies that abandoned him when the winds of political expediency demanded.
ed: The thing people need to appreciate, even if you don't support Zimmerman, is the point that Justice is not blind, its not impartial, and its not final. The court of public opinion will decide a case one way or another, and this is pretty dangerous. Its easy to turn a blind eye to this when you agree with the extra-judicial punishment. But you have to remember that the same thing could happen to anyone, even someone you think was completely innocent and was unfairly targeted by the government for political reasons.