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Trayvon Martin case: George Zimmerman charged with murder
Zimmerman’s new attorney, Mark O’Mara, said Zimmerman will plead not guilty. The lawyer asked that people not jump to conclusions about his client’s guilt and said he is “hoping that the community will calm down” now that charges have been filed. “I’m expecting a lot of work and hopefully justice in the end,” he said.
On Tuesday, Zimmerman’s former lawyers portrayed him as erratic and in precarious mental condition. But O’Mara said Zimmerman was OK: “I’m not concerned about his mental well-being.”
Zimmerman, whose father is white and whose mother is Hispanic, has asserted since the February 26 killing in Sanford that he shot in self-defense after the teenager attacked him. Martin’s family argued Zimmerman was the aggressor.
The shooting brought demands from black leaders for his arrest, touched off protests in which people wore hooded sweatshirts like the one the teenager had on, and set off a furious debate over race and self-defense that reached all the way to the White House, where President Barack Obama observed: “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”
Separately, the U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights division is conducting its own investigation.
Corey said the decision to bring charges was based on the facts and the law, declaring: “We do not prosecute by public pressure or by petition.”
One of the biggest hurdles to Zimmerman’s arrest over the past month was Florida’s “stand your ground” law, which gives people wide leeway to use deadly force without having to retreat in the face of danger.
