Zimmerman Is Acquitted in The Shooting Death of the Teen, Trayvon Martin (2003 hits)
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ and CARA BUCKLEY
A six-woman jury accepted self-defense as justification for the death of Trayvon Martin, 17, by George Zimmerman in a Florida shooting that ignited a national debate on racial profiling and civil rights, was found not guilty late Saturday night of second-degree murder. He was also aquitted of manslaughter, a lesser charge, After three weeks of testimony, the six-woman jury rejected the prosecution’s contention that Mr. Zimmerman had deliberately pursued {the teen} because he assumed the hoodie-clad teenager was a criminal and instigated the fight that led to his death.
Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, who lost their son a few weeks after his 17th birthday, were not in the courtroom. In a statement released early Sunday morning, their attorney, Benjamin Crump, said the family was heartbroken, and that they thanked people around the world for their support. “Trayvon Martin will forever remain in the annals of history next to Medgar Evers and Emmett Till,” he said, “as symbols for the fight for equal justice for all.”
After the verdict, Judge Debra S. Nelson of Seminole County Court, told Mr. Zimmerman, who has been in hiding and wears a bulletproof vest outside, that his bond was released and his GPS monitor would be cut off. “You have no further business with the court,” she said. Outside the courthouse, perhaps a hundred protesters who had been gathering through the night, their numbers building as the hours passed, began pumping their fists in the air, waving placards and chanting “No justice, no peace!” Sheriff’s deputies lined up inside the courthouse, watching the crowd, who were chanting peacefully, but intently.
By 11:20, more than an hour after the verdict had been read, the crowd outside the courtroom had begun to dwindle; fists were no longer aloft, placards had come down. The last of the protesters to leave the courthouse lawn was Mattie Aikens, 33, of Sanford. She had been standing outside since noon, holding a bag of Skittles and a can of Arizona watermelon drink, which Mr. Martin was carrying the night he was shot. More than an hour after the verdict, she was still shocked. “He should have went to prison,” she said. “He should have just got guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty.” Mark O’Mara, one of Mr. Zimmerman’s lawyers, said, “George Zimmerman was never guilty of anything except firing the gun in self-defense.”
In a news conference following the verdict, Angela B. Corey, the state attorney who brought the charges, rebuffed the suggestion that her office overcharged Mr. Zimmerman. Mr. Zimmerman said he shot {the teenager} on Feb. 26, 2012, in self-defense after the teenager knocked him to the ground, punched him and slammed his head repeatedly against the sidewalk. In finding him not guilty of murder or manslaughter, the jury agreed that Mr. Zimmerman could have been justified in shooting {Trayvon} Martin because he feared great bodily harm or death. The jury, which had been sequestered since June 24, deliberated 16 hours and 20 minutes over two days. The six female jurors entered the quiet, tense courtroom, several looking exhausted, their faces drawn and grim. After the verdict was read, each assented, one by one, and quietly, their agreement with the verdict.
The case began in the small city of Sanford as a routine homicide but soon evolved into a civil rights cause examining racial profiling and its consequences — an issue barred from the courtroom — and setting off a broad discussion of race relations in America. Mr. Martin, with his gray hooded sweatshirt and his Skittles — the candy he was carrying — became its catalyst. {...} Saturday night when the verdict was read, Mr. Zimmerman, 29, smiled slightly. His wife, Shellie, and several of his friends wept, and his parents kissed and embraced. ...
TOP TWEETS: ZIMMERMAN NOT GUILTY ... @donnabrazile: "I respect the verdict, but I still believe that #Zimmerman had the upper hand and chose to profile, follow & later kill an unarmed teenager"
... @JeffreyToobin: "Trayvon got the death penalty for buying Skittles in a hoodie. I understand it, but still" ...
@EWErickson: "Bad choices were made by both George Zimmerman and by Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman is not guilty, but he still killed" ...
@daveweigel: "The outrage in 2012 was that Zimmerman wasn't being tried at all. He was tried. This is how the system works." POLITICOstorify mobile-friendly link http://bit.ly/1aEzowi
--BENJAMIN CRUMP, Trayvon Martin family attorney, to George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week," on whether a decision has been made on filing a civil lawsuit :
"[T]hey are going to certainly look at that as an option. They deeply want a sense of justice. They deeply don't want their son's death to be in vain. ... [T]hey are still in disbelief about his death, and now they're in disbelief about this verdict. It's just one of the things they have to deal with -- they're in church this morning, praying and turning to God, a higher authority, to make sense of it all.
... When prosecutor John Guy said if the roles were reversed, and Trayvon Martin would have followed and profiled and shot George [Zimmerman] in the heart, what would the verdict have been? And that's the question that everybody is asking, that's why the whole world was watching this case."
What can we do now? I think a new civil rights movement based on IT is the order of the day. There is no 40 acres, and or justice in the judicial system for Blacks. My idea is time tested and proven, and is 100% non-violent. I call it the quiet storm, AKA strategic Planning.....Tweet and Meet, we can do more as a mass communicator today than any other time in history with technology.
Sunday, July 14th 2013 at 3:42PM
Linae Jackson
President Barack Obama released a statement a day after the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial, saying the "death of Trayvon Martin was a tragedy. Not just for his family, or for any one community, but for America. I know this case has elicited strong passions. And in the wake of the verdict, I know those passions may be running even higher. But we are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken. I now ask every American to respect the call for calm reflection from two parents who lost their young son.
"And as we do, we should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to widen the circle of compassion and understanding in our own communities. We should ask ourselves if we’re doing all we can to stem the tide of gun violence that claims too many lives across this country on a daily basis. We should ask ourselves, as individuals and as a society, how we can prevent future tragedies like this. As citizens, that’s a job for all of us. That’s the way to honor Trayvon Martin."
Get complete coverage of breaking news on http://cnn.com
TOP TALKER - USA Today 1A, below fold, "Juror says Zimmerman never should have left car:
Tells CNN that jury was initially split on his guilt," by Laura Petrecca and Kevin Johnson :
"When the six jury members in the George Zimmerman trial went in for deliberation, three were for acquittal, one was for second-degree murder and two were for the manslaughter charge, one of those jury members told CNN's Anderson Cooper ...
[T]he jurors came to feel that Zimmerman truly feared for his life when he pulled the trigger, she said. The juror's identity was not revealed but was identified by her juror number, 'B-37,' on 'Anderson Cooper 360°.'
She... didn't want her face shown. ... [L]iterary agent Sharlene Martin said she had signed one of the Zimmerman jurors to write a book about her experience on the panel, and also identified that juror as B-37 ...
That juror said Zimmerman was 'a man whose heart was in the right place,' but he went too far and did not use good judgment."
..."Sadly, this tragedy will go on, but the conversations we have within our community, going forward, may make great strides in attempting to stop this ..." Here are eight talking points to have with your Black sons, moving forward:
1. {...} There are people who will look at you and see a villain or a criminal... It’s possible they may act on their prejudice and insecurity. Being black could turn an ordinary situation into a life-or-death moment even if you’re doing nothing wrong.
2. If you encounter such a situation, you need to play it cool. Keep your wits about you. Don’t worry about winning the situation. Your mission is to survive.
3. There is nothing wrong with you. You’re amazing. I love you. When I look at you, I see a complex human being with awesome potential, but some others will look at you and see a thug — even if their only evidence is your skin.
4. You will have to make allowances for other people’s {faults}. You know your value to the world and how terrific you are. The best revenge is surviving and living well.
Check out the rest of Toure’s talking points on TIME.
