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Florida jury acquits Zimmerman in shooting of black teenager
By Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington
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George Zimmerman, the neighbourhood watch volunteer who became a household name after killing an unarmed black teenager has been found not guilty of murder.
The jury also found Mr Zimmerman innocent of manslaughter, concluding that he acted in self defence when he shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida last year.
The case captivated people across the US because of the state of race relations and gun violence in the nation, and because it tested a justice system that many still see as skewed against African Americans.
It even caught the attention of Barack Obama, the first black US president, who said when asked last year about the case said: “If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon.”
Reporters on the scene said some people outside the courthouse were stunned into silence, while others expressed anger at what they viewed as a grave injustice.
Lawyers for Martin’s family said the deceased teenager would live in history alongside Medgar Evers and Emmett Till, slain figures in the civil rights movement.
“We know that a 17-year-old unarmed boy was killed and all of America has to dig into its heart to learn from this tragedy and make sure this is not repeated,” said a representative for the family.
The case sometimes sparked inflammatory discussions about young black men. One media commentator suggested, for example, that Martin’s choice of attire on the night he died – a hoodie sweatshirt – was partly to blame for his death.
Shortly after the verdict was read on Saturday evening, the issue of race remained live. A member of Mr Zimmerman’s defence team suggested that the Hispanic man would not have been charged had he been black. Al Sharpton, a black civil rights leader who has a television show on MSNBC, called the decision “an atrocity”.
“We had to march to even get a trial, and then at trial when he’s exposed over and over again as a liar, he is acquitted,” said Mr Sharpton. “This is a sad day in the country. A slap in the face to those that believe in justice in this country.”
The six-woman jury – comprising five whites and one Hispanic – reached its verdict after about 16 hours of deliberations.
Mr Zimmerman smiled after the verdict was announced. Martin’s parents, who had been a constant presence in the court, were not present when it was read.
The case rested on Mr Zimmerman’s account of the events and those of a handful of witnesses who described fragments of the altercation that led to Martin’s death.
What was missing was a clear and independent assessment of who acted as the aggressor in the tussle that ended with Mr Zimmerman shooting Martin in the chest.
On the night of his death, Martin was returning from a convenience store after buying Skittles and an iced tea. He caught the attention of Mr Zimmerman who was armed and on the lookout for troublemakers after a slew of break-ins in the area.
Mr Zimmerman thought the young black teenager looked suspicious. When he called the police to alert them to a potentially suspicious person, he referred to Martin as a “****ing punk”, adding, “those assholes, they always get away”.
The dispatcher urged Mr Zimmerman not to pursue Martin but the plea was ignored. Martin, who was speaking to a friend on his mobile phone, became aware that he was being followed. According to his friend, he referred to Mr Zimmerman as a “creepy-ass cracker”.
Witnesses later described hearing an altercation between the two. They described a scene in which Martin was straddling Mr Zimmerman who lay on the ground. But those accounts were disputed by the prosecution, who said evidence showed Martin was simply defending himself from Mr Zimmerman.
In finding Mr Zimmerman not guilty of murder, the jury made clear it did not believe he had killed Martin out of “ill will, hatred, spite or an evil intent” – the required standard for the charge of second degree murder brought by the prosecutors.
Angela Corey, the Florida state attorney, said the prosecutors had “brought out the truth on behalf of Trayvon Martin”. She added that the US justice system could “only be done in a court of law”, making clear she would not argue with the verdict.
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