[Late Saturday, small
demonstrations broke out in New York, Washington, Atlanta and several cities in
California. In Oakland, protesters broke windows in some businesses and started
small fires in the streets, The Associated Press reported. There were no
immediate reports of arrests or injuries.]
 |
Jason Redmond/Reuters
People protested George Zimmerman's acquittal at a rally Saturday night in Los Angeles.
|
The acquittal of George
Zimmerman in a Florida trial on charges of murdering an unarmed teenager set
off a fresh national debate on Sunday about race, crime and the American
justice system.
The morning after the
verdict was read in a courtroom in Sanford, Fla., politicians and civil rights
leaders called for calm, even as many criticized the “not guilty” verdict for
Mr. Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who fatally shot Trayvon Martin
in February 2012.
Though the judge in the
case barred discussions of race relations from the courtroom, the issue was
driving many of the early reactions to the verdict.
Benjamin Todd Jealous,
the president of the NAACP, said Sunday that the verdict was especially
upsetting for black parents.
“It feels so often that
our young people have to fear the bad guys and the good guys, the robbers and
the cops, and the self-appointed community watch volunteers,” he said on CNN’s
“State of the Union.”
Others suggested that
the verdict had set a dangerous precedent. Representative Chaka Fattah,
Democrat of Pennsylvania and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus,
expressed concern that others might be encouraged by the verdict.
“What the jury is saying
is, here’s George Zimmerman back, here’s his gun back, and what he did was perfectly
fine, and he’s coming to a neighborhood near you, or someone acting the way he
acted, and that’s dangerous,” he said on CNN. He added, “I think justice will
be done eventually, but I don’t think we’ve seen the end of this.”
Senator Harry Reid, the
majority leader, said that as a trial lawyer himself, “I don’t always agree
with what the jury does, but that’s the system, and I support the system.”
But he said he believed
Floridians should take a close look at the law at the center of the case, which
he called “so unusual.”
He also said, in an
interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” that he thought President Obama should
have a role as the public debate goes forward.
Both he and Mr. Jealous
indicated that the federal government would pursue the case. The NAACP leader
said that he and his staff had spoken to senior staff of Attorney General Eric
Holder and had been assured that the Justice Department would study it
carefully.
Asked on CNN whether the
justice system in the United States is biased against African-Americans, Gov.
Rick Perry of Texas said: “I think our justice system is colorblind.”
“Although there may be
people on either side of this who don’t agree how it came out, the fact is we
have the best judicial system in the world and we respect it,” he said. “A very
thoughtful case was made by each side, the jurors made the decision, and we
will live with that.”
Supporters of Mr.
Zimmerman expressed relief on Sunday, but also concern for his safety in the
wake of the verdict.
“Clearly, he’s a free
man in the eyes of the court, but he’s going to be looking around his shoulder
for the rest of his life,” Robert Zimmerman, George’s brother, said on CNN
after the trial ended.
“There are factions,
there are groups, there are people that would want to take the law into their
own hands as they perceive it or be vigilantes in some sense,” he said. “They
will always present a threat to George and to his family.”
Late Saturday, small
demonstrations broke out in New York, Washington, Atlanta and several cities in
California. In Oakland, protesters broke windows in some businesses and started
small fires in the streets, The Associated Press reported. There were no
immediate reports of arrests or injuries.
About 100 people
gathered outside the courtroom in Sanford on Saturday, but they dispersed not
long after the verdict was read.
There were calls for
further protests on Sunday in New York, Chicago, Oakland, Miami and elsewhere.
Prominent New York
political figures, including several candidates for mayor, reacted on Twitter
shortly after the verdict was read, many of them condemning the decision.
“Today’s acquittal in
the Trayvon Martin case is a shocking insult to his family and everyone seeking
justice for Trayvon,” wrote Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker and
mayoral hopeful.
Bill de Blasio, the
city’s public advocate and another mayoral candidate, wrote on Twitter:
“Trayvon Martin’s death was a terrible tragedy. This decision is a slap in the
face to justice,” he wrote.
Jumaane D. Williams, a
member of the city counsel from Brooklyn who is often outspoken on civil rights
issues, tweeted a photo of himself in a dark hoodie, similar to the one Mr.
Martin was wearing when he was shot.
“We are sick and tired
of being sick and tired,” he wrote in a statement. “What we are now charged
with is the responsibility to sustain our unity and have our emotions fuel a
relentless pursuit of reform.”
“In 2013, it should not
be this difficult, by every statistical metric, to be a black man in America,”
he wrote.
[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.]
By Lizette Alvarez And Cara Buckley
After three weeks of testimony, the six-woman jury rejected
the prosecution’s contention that Mr. Zimmerman had deliberately pursued Mr.
Martin because he assumed the hoodie-clad teenager was a criminal and
instigated the fight that led to his death.
Mr. Zimmerman said he shot Mr. Martin 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 Mr. 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, 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.
Even President Obama weighed in a month after the shooting,
expressing sympathy for Mr. Martin’s family and urging a thorough investigation.
“If I had a son,” Mr. Obama said, “he’d look like Trayvon.”
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.
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, 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.
Among 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.
“We charged what we had based on the facts of the case,”
she said. “We truly believe the mind-set of George Zimmerman and the reason he
was doing what he did fit the bill for second-degree murder.”
Calling it a “very trying time,” Mr. Crump said he had
urged Mr. Martin’s parents to stay out of the courtroom for the verdict. They
were home and planning to attend church on Sunday.
Mr. Crump asked the family’s supporters keep the peace and
read a Twitter post by Dr. Bernice King, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s
daughter.
“Whatever the Zimmerman verdict is,” Mr. Crump read, “in
the words of my father, we must conduct ourselves on the higher plane of
dignity and discipline.”
Sanford’s new police chief, Cecil E. Smith, was in the
courtroom for the verdict, and said afterward that while many calls were coming
in from worried residents, the downtown was open and neighborhoods were calm.
Still, there was anger over the verdict. “We are outraged
and heartbroken over today’s verdict,” said Benjamin Todd Jealous, president of
the N.A.A.C.P. “We stand with Trayvon’s family and we are called to act. We
will pursue civil rights charges with the Department of Justice, we will
continue to fight for the removal of Stand Your Ground laws in every state, and
we will not rest until racial profiling in all its forms is outlawed.”
Mr. O’Mara disputed the notion that Mr. Zimmerman engaged
in racial profiling. “His history was not as a racist,” he said.
He added that if Mr. Zimmerman was black, he likely would
never have been charged. “This became a focus for a civil rights event, which
is a wonderful event to have,” he said, “but they decided George Zimmerman was
to blame and to use as a civil rights violation.”
And while defense lawyers were elated with the verdict,
they also expressed anger that Mr. Zimmerman spent 16 months filled with fear
and trauma when all he was doing was defending himself.
“The prosecution of George Zimmerman was a disgrace,” said
Don West, one of Mr. Zimmerman’s lawyers. “I am thrilled that this jury kept
this tragedy from become a travesty.”
The shooting brought attention to Florida’s expansive
self-defense laws. The laws allow someone with a reasonable fear of great
bodily harm or death to use lethal force, even if retreating from danger is an
option. In court, the gunman is given the benefit of the doubt.
The public outcry began after the police initially decided
not to arrest Mr. Zimmerman, who is half-Peruvian, as they investigated the
shooting. Mr. Martin, 17, had no criminal record and was on a snack run,
returning to the house where he was staying as a guest.
Six weeks later, Mr. Zimmerman was arrested, but only after
civil rights leaders championed the case and demonstrators, many wearing
hoodies, marched in Sanford, Miami and elsewhere to demand action.
“Justice for Trayvon!” they shouted.
The pressure prompted Gov. Rick Scott of Florida to remove
local prosecutors from the case and appoint Ms. Corey, from Jacksonville. She
ultimately charged Mr. Zimmerman with second-degree murder. The tumult also led
to the firing of the Sanford police chief.
Through it all, Mr. Martin’s parents said they sought one
thing: That Mr. Zimmerman have his day in court.
.
From the start of the trial, prosecutors faced a difficult
task in proving second-degree murder. That charge required Mr. Zimmerman to
have evinced a “depraved mind,” brimming with ill will, hatred, spite or evil
intent, when he shot Mr. Martin.
Manslaughter, which under Florida law is typically added as
a lesser charge if either side requests it, was a lower bar. Jurors needed to
decide only that Mr. Zimmerman put himself in a situation that culminated in
Mr. Martin’s death.
But because of Florida’s laws, prosecutors had to persuade
jurors beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Zimmerman did not act in
self-defense. A shortage of evidence in the case made that a high hurdle, legal
experts said.
Even after three weeks of testimony, the fight between Mr.
Martin and Mr. Zimmerman on that rainy night was a muddle, fodder for
reasonable doubt. It remained unclear who had started it, who screamed for
help, who threw the first punch and at what point Mr. Zimmerman drew his gun.
There were no witnesses to the shooting.
The state presented a case that was strong on guesswork and
emotion but weak on evidence and proof, Mr. O’Mara said.
“Don’t connect those dots unless they are connected for
you, beyond a reasonable doubt, by the state,” he urged the jury.
In the end, prosecutors were left with Mr. Zimmerman’s
version of events.
The defense also had one piece of irrefutable evidence,
photographs of Mr. Zimmerman’s injuries — a bloody nose along with lumps and
two cuts on his head. It indicated that there had been a fight and that Mr.
Zimmerman had been harmed, and the defense showed them to the jury at every
opportunity.
Prosecutors built their case around Mr. Zimmerman’s persona
— a “wannabe cop” — his wrong assumptions and his words.
Mr. Zimmerman, they said, was so concerned about burglaries
in his townhouse complex that when he spotted Mr. Martin, an unfamiliar face in
the rain, he immediately “profiled” him as a criminal. He picked up his phone
and reported him to the police.
Then he made the first in a string of bad choices, they
said. He got out of the car with a gun on his waist; he disregarded a police
dispatcher’s advice not to follow Mr. Martin and he chased the teenager,
engaged in a fight and shot him in the heart.
To stave off an arrest, he lied to the police, prosecutors
said, embellishing his story to try to flesh out his self-defense claim.
“Punks,” Mr. Zimmerman said to the police dispatcher after
he spotted Mr. Martin, adding a profanity. “They always get away,” he said at
another point in the conversation, a reference to would-be burglars.
On these words, prosecutors hung their case of ill will,
hatred and spite toward Mr. Martin.
“This defendant was sick and tired of it,” Bernie de la
Rionda, the chief prosecutor, said in his closing statement. “He was going to
be what he wanted to be — a police officer.”
But no one saw the shooting; witnesses saw and heard only
parts of the struggle, and provided conflicting accounts.
And there was not a “shred of evidence” that Mr. Zimmerman
was not returning to his car when Mr. Martin “pounced,” defense lawyers said.
The prosecution’s witnesses did not always help their case.
Rachel Jeantel, the 19-year-old who was talking with Mr. Martin on his
cellphone shortly before he was shot, proved problematic. Her testimony was
critical for the prosecution because she said that Mr. Martin was being
followed by Mr. Zimmerman — a “creepy-ass cracker,” he called him — and that he
was scared.
But Ms. Jeantel might have damaged her credibility by
acknowledging she had lied about her age and why she did not attend Mr.
Martin’s wake. She also testified that she softened her initial account of her
chat with Mr. Martin for fear of upsetting Ms. Fulton, who sat next to her,
weeping, during Ms. Jeantel’s first interview with prosecutors.
Prosecutors also were not helped by the police and crime
scene technicians, who made some mistakes in the case. Mr. Martin’s sweatshirt,
for example, was improperly bagged, which might have degraded DNA evidence.
Typically, police testimony boosts the state’s case. Here,
the chief police investigator, Chris Serino, told jurors that he believed Mr.
Zimmerman, despite contradictions in his statements.
Still, prosecutors had emotion on their side — the
heart-wrenching narrative of a teenager “minding his own business” who was
gunned down as he walked home with a pocketful of Skittles and a fruit drink.
“That child had every right to do what he was doing,
walking home,” said John Guy, a prosecutor in the case. “That child had every
right to be afraid of a strange man following him, first in his car and then on
foot. And did that child not have the right to defend himself from that strange
man?”
Through it all, though, the defense chipped away at the
prosecution’s case. The resident with the best vantage point of the fight
described a “ground and pound” fight, with a person in red or a light color on
the bottom. Mr. Zimmerman wore a reddish jacket.
And a prominent forensic pathologist who is an expert in
gunshot wounds testified that the trajectory of the bullet was consistent with
Mr. Martin leaning over Mr. Zimmerman when the gun was fired.
“Let him go back,” Mr. O’Mara said to the jury, referring
to Mr. Zimmerman, “and get back to his life.”
On Saturday, the jury did just that.
