Shooting of Trayvon Martin (Part II)

Shooting aftermath

Martin family response

Tracy Martin doubted the account of his son's death told to him by Sanford police investigators and believed Zimmerman did not act in self-defense. Two days after the shooting, he was referred to civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who was retained to pursue legal action and to persuade the news media to cover the case. Attorney Natalie Jackson and publicist Ryan Julison, both of Orlando, also joined the Martin team. Due to their efforts, the case started to receive national attention on March 7. On March 9, Crump announced he was suing to have 911 calls from the night of the shooting made public. They were released by the Sanford mayor on March 16. As attention to the case grew, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton gave media interviews and appeared at some of the protests being held which called for Zimmerman's arrest.

On April 5, 2013, more than a year after the shooting, it was reported that the Martin family had settled a wrongful death claim against the Retreat at Twin Lakes Homeowners Association. The details of the agreement were sealed under court order, and the amount of the settlement was not disclosed, but the Orlando Sentinel claimed that the sum was thought to be more than $1 million.

On June 28, in an interview with CNN conducted during the trial of George Zimmerman, Alicia Stanley, Trayvon Martin's step-mother (Trayvon's father's former wife), stated that she believed Zimmerman had profiled Trayvon as a criminal, although she was not convinced that the profiling was based on race. She said that she had no doubt that Zimmerman had started the fight and that Martin had reacted only in self-defense.

Zimmerman and family

While the shooting was being investigated, Zimmerman, his wife, and his parents went into hiding due to threats they were receiving as the case gained more attention. Zimmerman left his job, and his school expelled him, citing safety concerns.

On April 9, Zimmerman placed a self-created web site on the internet, which included some brief statements, but no information about the shooting, since he had been advised by legal counsel not to discuss it. He also solicited donations for living expenses and legal defense costs.

After taking over as Zimmerman's defense counsel on April 11, Mark O'Mara took down Zimmerman's self-created web site and replaced it with a professional information site. He arranged for a second web site to be set up to collect donations overseen by an independent third party. Following Zimmerman's April 20 bond hearing, he and his wife were accused by prosecutors of not disclosing the funds raised through the original web site; as a result of these allegations, Zimmerman's original bail was revoked. He was subsequently released again with a higher bail amount. Zimmerman's wife, Shellie Zimmerman, was charged with felony perjury in June 2012. She pleaded guilty to misdemeanor perjury on August 28, 2013 as part of a plea deal and was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and one year of probation, as well as writing a letter of apology to Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. The conviction will be expunged at the end of her probation period.

George Zimmerman's defense team had set up a Twitter account, a Facebook page and a website with a defense fund registered with the Florida Division of Consumer Services. After three months, the Facebook page was shut down by O'Mara, because he said it was leading to unhelpful discussions.

In July 2012, Zimmerman reactivated his original website, and his parents also created their own website. Both sites discuss how the case has changed the Zimmermans' lives and seek donations for living expenses.

On January 30, 2013, Zimmerman's attorney, Mark O'Mara, asked on Zimmerman's defense fund website for the public to donate more money. O'Mara stated that Zimmerman's legal defense could cost up to $1 million.

Public response

An undated personal photo of Trayvon Martin wearing a hoodie was displayed by protesters and sold by merchants on hoodies, T-shirts, and keychains, prompting the family to trademark slogans using his name.

After the shooting, Zimmerman was criticized by the Martin family and in the media for following Martin and for carrying a weapon. Sanford police chief Bill Lee stated that neighborhood watch volunteers are not encouraged to carry a gun but have a Constitutional right to do so. Lee further stated, "Mr. Zimmerman was not acting outside the legal boundaries of Florida Statute by carrying his weapon when this incident occurred." Sanford Police volunteer program coordinator Wendy Dorival told the Miami Herald that she met Zimmerman in September 2011 at a community neighborhood watch presentation, and recalls advising: "If it's someone you don't recognize, call us. We'll figure it out.... Observe from a safe location". The director of the National Sheriffs' Association (NSA) said Zimmerman's "alleged action ... significantly contradicts the principles of the Neighborhood Watch Program". The Neighborhood Watch program that employed Zimmerman was overseen by the local police department rather than the NSA.

Protests were staged around the U.S. prior to Zimmerman's April 11 indictment on murder charges. Over 2.2 million signatures were collected on a Change.org petition, created by Martin's mother, calling for Zimmerman's arrest. It was the website's largest petition ever.

Since Martin was killed while wearing a hoodie, hoodies were used as a sign of protest over the handling of the case. Additionally, some professional athletes, including Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and the entire Miami Heat roster, donned hoodies in Martin's honor.

Bags of Skittles candy and cans of Arizona Iced Tea were also used as protest symbols. Martin was reported to be returning from a 7-Eleven convenience store with these items when he was shot, although the beverage he purchased was actually a can of Arizona Watermelon Fruit Juice Cocktail.

Walkouts were staged by students at over a dozen Florida high schools, and thousands of people attended rallies around the country to demand Zimmerman's arrest. Members of the Occupy movement marched in solidarity during the "Million Hoodie March".

A number of high-profile citizens made public comments or released statements calling for a full investigation, including Reverend Al Sharpton, Reverend Jesse Jackson, and President Barack Obama.

Speaking on the day of Zimmerman's arrest, Al Sharpton said, "Forty-five days ago, Trayvon Martin was murdered. No arrest was made. The Chief of Police in Sanford announced after his review of the evidence there would be no arrest. An outcry from all over this country came because his parents refused to leave it there." Jesse Jackson allegedly also referred to Martin as "murdered and martyred". And U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson (Dem.), who represents Martin's hometown of Miami, used the word "murdered" when she referred to Martin's fatal shooting.

President Obama, speaking to reporters on March 23 after federal investigators were deployed to Sanford, said, "When I think about this boy, I think about my own kids, and I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this.... If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon."

Former Garland, Texas NAACP president C.L. Bryant singled out Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson for being "race hustlers" who were exploiting Martin's death "to inflame racial passions". Bryant also criticized President Barack Obama for his "nebulous" comment, "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon." Former education secretary William Bennett criticized what he called a "mob mentality", saying that "... the tendency in the first days by some, including Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and an angry chorus of followers, was to rush to judgment with little regard for fairness, due process, or respect for the terrible death of a young man". Senior Fellow Shelby Steele at Stanford University's Hoover Institution said that the tragedy of Trayvon Martin's death was being exploited by a generation of "ambulance-chasing" black leaders who have promoted "our historical victimization as the central theme of our group identity".

According to Zimmerman's father, George Zimmerman received death threats after the shooting and was forced to move out of his home. The New Black Panther Party offered a $10,000 reward for the "capture" of George Zimmerman; this was condemned by the city of Sanford.

In parts of the U.S., various acts of vandalism, assaults and crimes were connected in part to alleged revenge for the shooting of Trayvon Martin.

Film director Spike Lee retweeted to his 200,000 Twitter followers an address in Sanford, Florida, erroneously purported to be Zimmerman's, which forced a family out of their home to avoid harassment after they received hate mail and unwanted visits from reporters. Lee was criticized for his retweet and he later issued an apology for having tweeted the wrong address. Lee also "settled financially" with the Florida couple for an undisclosed amount.

Professor Alan Dershowitz criticized the probable cause affidavit against Zimmerman as "so thin that it won't make it past the judge", calling it "irresponsible and unethical", and opined that the charges were motivated by prosecutor Corey's desire to be re-elected. The deadline for qualifying to run against Corey was 9 days after she filed charges, and no one stepped forward to challenge her, so she won re-election. In June, Dershowitz said that Corey had contacted the dean of Harvard Law School about his remarks, threatening to sue Dershowitz for libel and slander, and the school too, and saying she wanted him to be disciplined by the American Bar Association. Dershowitz said the dean defended his remarks under academic freedom, and he commented that "[e]ven if Angela Corey's actions were debatable, which I believe they were not, I certainly have the right, as a professor who has taught and practiced criminal law nearly 50 years, to express a contrary view." CNN legal analyst Mark NeJame expressed concern over Corey's threats and questioned if the prosecution of Zimmerman was for political reasons.

Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn wrote "... what's often overlooked in all the heated conversations about this tragedy is the actual timeline based on police documents" and "[The timeline] indicates that the victim as well as the accused made some terrible choices that night ... and it tells us to keep our minds open and our tempers in check, at least until some of [the] gaps get filled at Zimmerman's trial."

Fox News Channel host Geraldo Rivera claimed that Martin's "gangsta style clothing" was "as much responsible for Trayvon Martin's death as George Zimmerman was". Rivera was quoted saying, "I am urging the parents of black and Latino youngsters particularly to not let their children go out wearing hoodies." Faced with outrage over his statements, Rivera apologized, saying that he had "obscured the main point that someone shot and killed an unarmed teenager". When a 7-Eleven surveillance video showing Martin making a purchase on the night of the shooting was released two months later, however, Rivera referred to the clothes he had been wearing as "thug wear". His comments were criticized by the Martin family attorney, Benjamin Crump, who compared them to people blaming rape victims for wearing short skirts.

Bill O'Reilly of Fox News called for restraint and urged other pundits to stop trying the case in the media. He said that the case is a "tragedy" but should not be tried in the media.

After Zimmerman's bond was revoked for misrepresenting how much money he had when his bond was set, Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump said he expected the prosecution to bring Zimmerman's credibility "front and center in this entire case". Zimmerman's attorney, Mark O'Mara stated that it was a "mistake" that had "undermined his credibility, which he will have to work to repair".

Alleged race issues

Allegations against Zimmerman

Zimmerman was accused of being motivated by racism and of having racially profiled Martin. During early media coverage of the incident, Zimmerman's call to the police dispatcher was misleadingly edited by NBC so that it appeared that Zimmerman had volunteered Martin's race. The unedited audio recording proved that the police dispatcher specifically asked about Martin's race, and only then did Zimmerman reveal that Martin was black. NBC apologized for the misleading edit and disciplined those involved. Other reproaches to Zimmerman include his extensive history of 911 calls and an alleged obsession with law and order and the minutiae of suburban life.

Defense of Zimmerman's character

In an open letter on March 15, 2012, Zimmerman's father, Robert Zimmerman, defended his son against allegations that his actions were racially motivated, stating that Zimmerman was Hispanic, was raised in a multiracial family, and "would be the last to discriminate for any reason whatsoever", saying that the portrayal of his son as a racist "could not be further from the truth". Just as George Zimmerman's trial was set to begin, Robert Zimmerman published an e-book about the case in which he said that prior to the shooting, he had generally believed racism was no longer much of a problem and that he had personally not experienced much racism, despite being married to a Hispanic woman, but that since the shooting he had found that racism is "flourishing at the insistence of some in the African American Community". In a chapter called "Who are the True Racists", Robert Zimmerman listed a host of African Americans he says are racist, including the Congressional Black Caucus, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Basketball Players Association, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, the National Black Chamber of Commerce, and the United Negro College Fund, among others.

According to George Zimmerman's family, some of Zimmerman's relatives are black. Zimmerman's former lawyer Craig Sonner stated that Zimmerman is not a racist, and that he had mentored black youths in the past. Joe Oliver, a former television news reporter who is acquainted with Zimmerman, noted "I'm a black male and all that I know is that George has never given me any reason whatsoever to believe he has anything against people of color."

In early April, an anonymous letter to the NAACP, which was signed "A Concerned Zimmerman Family Member" said Zimmerman had been one of the few to take any action to protest the 2010 beating of Sherman Ware, a black homeless man, by the son of a Sanford police officer. Zimmerman's father confirmed his son's efforts on Ware's behalf.

In May, the Miami Herald secured an audiotape of the January 8, 2011, Sanford City Hall community forum. On the audiotape, Zimmerman was heard criticizing the conduct of the Sanford Police Department in the Ware case. Zimmerman criticized former chief, Brian Tooley, and said Tooley had engaged in a "cover-up" and that he should lose his pension. He also said he'd been on ride-alongs with Sanford police where he found them to be lazy. The Herald also reported that it had contacted five out of six black churches where Zimmerman was reported to have distributed fliers on the Ware beating, however no one recalled receiving them.

On July 12, 2012, reports of some of the more than 30 interviews conducted by the FBI were publicly released. Sanford Police investigator Chris Serino told FBI agents that he believed Zimmerman's actions were not based on Martin's race. Zimmerman's neighbors had nothing derogatory to say about him, and his co-workers were complimentary. CNN headlined its article on the FBI interviews "Witnesses tell FBI that George Zimmerman is no racist".

Allegations against Martin

During the trial, defense attorney Don West implied that the language Martin had allegedly used was evidence that Martin had introduced race into the confrontation. State's Witness 8, Rachel Jeantel, testified that Martin, during his telephone conversation with her just prior to the shooting, had referred to Zimmerman as a "creepy-ass cracker". On cross-examination, West asked Jeantel, "So it was racial, but it was because Trayvon Martin put race in this?" and "You don't think that 'creepy ass cracker' is a racial comment?" Jeantel replied that she believed race was involved because Martin was being followed by a white man, not because Martin had called Zimmerman a "creepy-ass cracker." She said that people in her community call white people "cracker" and she did not find the term offensive. Jeantel also testified that Martin, during his telephone conversation, referred to Zimmerman as a "nigga." Jeantel said that Martin's use of the word "nigga" to describe Zimmerman was "slang" when asked by lead prosecutor Bernie De La Rionda.

Allegations against the Sanford police

For not arresting Zimmerman, the Sanford police faced heavy criticism, protests, and allegations of racial bias. The NAACP wrote U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder expressing "no confidence that, absent federal oversight, the Sanford Police Department will devote the necessary degree of care to its investigation" and requesting that personnel be detailed to Sanford to review the case without bias. Lee repeatedly defended the investigation, stating that the Sanford police did not feel they had conducted a racially biased investigation and welcomed a review of their efforts.

Allegations were also made that the Sanford police were protecting Zimmerman. Lee told reporters that they could not arrest Zimmerman because no evidence contradicted his story, and that to do so would leave the police open to litigation. In regards to the 9-1-1 dispatcher telling Zimmerman that "We don't need you to [follow him]", Lee said "That is a call taker making a recommendation to him. He's not under a legal obligation to do that, so that is not something we can charge him with."

On March 21, 2012, three out of the five members of the Sanford City Commission, including the mayor, passed a motion of no confidence in regards to the Police Chief Bill Lee, and his handling of the case; however, the vote was advisory only. The following day, Lee announced that he had temporarily stepped down from his position as chief of police, stating "my involvement in this matter is overshadowing the process." Lee further stated, "I do this in the hopes of restoring some semblance of calm to a city which has been in turmoil for several weeks." On April 23, 2012, the city of Sanford announced that Police Chief Bill Lee would resign but city commissioners voted to reject the resignation. Some commissioners had concerns about the fairness of Lee losing his job and the mayor stated he preferred to wait for the results of an investigation. Lee was to remain on paid leave.

In an interview with CNN, following his testimony at Zimmerman's trial, Bill Lee said that he felt pressure from city officials to arrest Zimmerman to placate the public rather than as a matter of justice. Lee said, "It was relayed to me that they just wanted an arrest. They didn't care if it got dismissed later." Lee further stated in the interview that the Sanford Police conducted a "sound" investigation, and the evidence provided no probable cause to arrest Zimmerman at the scene. Lee said that the police needed to do a job, and there was some outside, and inside influence, that "forced a change in the course of the normal criminal justice process." The former police chief said the investigation was taken away from us and "we weren't able to complete it." Lee also said that his lead investigator made a recommendation that Zimmerman be charged with manslaughter, as a matter of protocol. The Sanford police presented a "capias request" to the state's attorney, asking that they determine whether it was a "justifiable homicide".

"Stand your ground" laws

The Zimmerman defense team initially planned to seek to dismiss the case against Zimmerman under the protection afforded by Florida's "stand your ground" self-defense law. The controversial law, passed in 2005, permits the use of deadly force when someone reasonably feels he or she is at risk of great bodily harm in a confrontation. Zimmerman's defense team ultimately did not seek a pretrial hearing for immunity from prosecution based on the stand your ground law. However, as required by the stand your ground provision of the law, during the trial the judge instructed the jurors that Zimmerman had had no duty to retreat and had had a right to stand his ground and use deadly force if he reasonably believed doing so was necessary to defend himself. Prior to the passage of Florida's stand your ground law, the standard jury instructions from the judge would have included a statement that a person had a duty to attempt to retreat using "every reasonable means" before using deadly force.

Self-defense laws in the United States, particularly regarding justifiable homicide, vary by state. In many states, such laws exempt people in their own homes from the common-law requirement that one first attempt to retreat, if one can safely do so, before resorting to the use of deadly force (the so-called "castle doctrine", based on the notion that "a person's home is his castle"). Florida's stand your ground law extends the no-retreat doctrine to vehicles and public places. At the time of Martin's shooting, 22 other states had adopted similar stand your ground laws.

Three weeks after the shooting, Florida Governor Rick Scott commissioned a 19-member task force to review the Florida statute that deals with justifiable use of force, including the Stand Your Ground provision. After holding seven public hearings around the state, and reviewing more than 11,000 comments submitted by the public—nearly three times as many of which were opposed to the law as were in support of it, the task force recommended against repealing the statute, saying that Florida residents have a right to defend themselves with deadly force without a duty to retreat if they feel threatened. Critics said that the members appointed to the task force had been chosen to heavily bias the panel against any significant changes in the law, and that, as a result, the panel's conclusions were no surprise. The task force did suggest that law enforcement agencies and the courts increase training on the self-defense law to ensure the law is applied fairly, and that the legislature more clearly define the role of neighborhood watch participants to avoid vigilantism and fund a study of how the law had been applied, examining effects such as race, ethnicity, and gender. However, the task force largely rejected recommendations of Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle (one of the task force members) that would have restricted the law, including a recommendation to limit immunity from prosecution to defendants who have not provoked a confrontation. In January 2013, Martin's mother joined two Democratic lawmakers in Florida and called for the repeal of the state's "stand your ground" law. Several bills subsequently introduced in the Republican-controlled legislature's 2013 session proposing to repeal or revise the Stand Your Ground provisions of the law died without committee hearings.

Several months following Zimmerman's acquittal, in October 2013 bills to revise Florida's Stand Your Ground law provisions in accordance with several of the suggestions offered in 2012 by the governor's task force began advancing through the Florida legislature with bipartisan support. A proposal offered by State Senator David Simmons, a Republican who had served on the governor's task force and who had been a principal author of the original law, and State Senator Chris Smith, the Democratic senate minority leader, would clarify language in the law to deny aggressors in a confrontation from being able to claim immunity under the law, would allow innocent bystanders harmed by a person standing his or her ground to sue for negligence, and would require the establishment of guidelines and training protocols for neighborhood watch programs that would restrict neighborhood watch volunteers to only observing and reporting. The proposal was received favorably by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Florida Sheriffs Association, the state public defenders association, and the NAACP, although several Republican state legislators voted to block the bill's passage and gun rights advocates expressed opposition to several of the proposals. The Dream Defenders, who several weeks earlier had occupied the state capitol demanding that the legislature take up debate on the Stand Your Ground law, said the bill did not go far enough and urged the legislature to repeal the law entirely.

Media coverage

For the first 10 days after Martin's death, the story was covered only by local media outlets in Florida. In order to bring more attention to the case, Martin family attorney Natalie Jackson sought the assistance of publicist Ryan Julison on March 5.

On March 7, 2012, Reuters covered the story, and the following day, CBS News, acting on a tip it received from the network's local bureau in Atlanta, Georgia, obtained an exclusive interview with Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton that was broadcast on CBS This Morning.

Also on March 8, The Huffington Post, The Young Turks, and TheGrio.com, which is affiliated with NBC News, started to cover the case. On March 9, 2012, ABC World News featured the story on their nightly broadcast.  CNN first reported on the case on March 12, 2012, and by the end of that week, radio hosts and bloggers were also reporting on the story. National coverage started to increase the week of March 12 and intensified after March 16, when tapes of 9-1-1 calls were released to the public. Having the 9-1-1 calls, which the police had previously declined to release, gave radio and TV reporters more material on which to report.

The Project for Excellence in Journalism reported that media coverage of the Trayvon Martin case became the first story in 2012 to be featured more than the presidential race. According to the Project, the varying types of media have focused on the case in different ways. An article in the Tampa Bay Times wrote that, "on Twitter, people are outraged at Zimmerman and want justice, while on cable news and talk radio people are discussing the state's laws for self-defense and gun control and on blogs the focus has been on race."

Fox News host Geraldo Rivera, a former NBC employee, asserted that MSNBC "made an ideological decision that... they would argue strenuously for the prosecution of George Zimmerman and the ultimate conviction of George Zimmerman... [T]hey are cheerleading for the conviction of George Zimmerman."

Portrayals of Martin and Zimmerman

The contrast in the photos of Martin and of Zimmerman which were most widely used in early media reports of the shooting may have influenced initial public perceptions of the case. The most commonly published image of Martin, provided to media by his family, showed a smiling baby-faced teen. The only image of Zimmerman initially available to news media was a 7-year-old police booking photograph released by law enforcement officials after the shooting. The image showed a heavy-set Zimmerman who appeared to be unhappy or angry, with an imposing stare. The AP quoted academic Kenny Irby on the expected effect, "When you have such a lopsided visual comparison, it just stands to reason that people would rush to judgment," and another academic, Betsi Grabe, as saying that journalists will present stories as a struggle between good and evil "[i]f the ingredients are there."

Zimmerman's ethnicity

The initial police report on the shooting described Zimmerman as white. Early news media reports which mentioned Zimmerman's race also referred to him as white. Although Zimmerman had personally identified as Hispanic on his voting records and driver's license, this information was not revealed to the public in early media reports, when Zimmerman had gone into hiding and no one was speaking to the media on his behalf. That changed when Zimmerman's father delivered a statement to the Orlando Sentinel calling Zimmerman "a Spanish speaking minority." Several media outlets, such as CNN and The New York Times, subsequently began describing Zimmerman as a "white Hispanic" in their reports on the case, prompting discussion, and some criticism, of the choice of that term. Conservative commentators, including Rush Limbaugh and Bernard Goldberg, accused the media of misrepresenting Zimmerman's race to fit a political narrative of a racially motivated killing. Goldberg opined that "if George Zimmerman did something good . . . they wouldn't refer to him as white Hispanic, he'd just be Hispanic." Other commentators remarked on the difficulty of deciding how best to describe Zimmerman's race in media reports intended for audiences largely unfamiliar with the complexity of Hispanic identity in contemporary America. Michael Getler, the ombudsman for PBS, said that after reviewing viewers' criticism of the PBS NewsHour's having called Zimmerman "white" in an April 2012 broadcast, the NewsHour staff suggested that it might be best in future reports to simply show an image of Zimmerman and not try to describe him.

Zimmerman's call to police

Economist and commentator Thomas Sowell criticized the national media for implying that Zimmerman had continued to follow Martin after the police dispatcher said, "We don't need you to do that." He said that they mostly left out Zimmerman's answer, "O.K." because "too many people in the media see their role as filtering and slanting the news.”

After the audio of the call was released, reports by CNN and other news outlets alleged that Zimmerman had said "fucking coons" two minutes and twenty-one seconds (2:21) into the call. Two weeks later on April 4, 2012, CNN claimed that enhanced audio revealed that Zimmerman had said "fucking cold" (alluding to ongoing rain in February). The following day, April 5, 2012, CNN's Martin Savidge reported that forensic audio expert Tom Owen claimed it was "fucking punks." It is said to be "fucking punks" in the affidavit of probable cause, dated April 11, 2012. Other reviewers of the call have offered alternate interpretations of what was said, some labeling it "unintelligible." According to the Associated Press, the alleged racial slur "fed growing outrage over the police department's initial decision not to arrest Zimmerman."

Deceptive audio editing by NBC

Between March 19 and 27, 2012, the NBC Nightly News, NBC's Today show, and NBC's network-owned Miami affiliate WTVJ ran segments which misleadingly merged parts of Zimmerman's call. On one version of the recording played by NBC, Zimmerman was heard saying, "This guy looks like he's up to no good or he's on drugs or something... He's got his hand in his waistband, and he's a black male." In another, Zimmerman's voice was spliced to say "This guy looks like he's up to no good. He looks black." In the original 9-1-1 recording, Zimmerman said: "This guy looks like he's up to no good. Or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about." The 9-1-1 operator then asked: "OK, and this guy, is he black, white or Hispanic?", and Zimmerman answered, "He looks black." The phrase, "He's got his hand in his waistband, and he's a black male" came several exchanges after that point in the conversation.

Erik Wemple of The Washington Post wrote that NBC's alterations "would more readily paint Zimmerman as a racial profiler. In reality... Zimmerman simply answered a question... Nothing prejudicial at all in responding to such an inquiry... To portray that exchange in a way that wrongs Zimmerman is high editorial malpractice..."

NBC issued an apology for "an error made in the production process that we deeply regret,” but never apologized on the air. The network said that the Today show and Miami edits took place in two separate incidents involving different people. A Miami-based NBC News producer lost her job, WTVJ reporter Jeff Burnside was fired, and two other employees were disciplined. Lilia Luciano, who was the reporter on broadcasts containing both edited versions of the audio, was also fired, and some of her aired reports on the Trayvon Martin story, along with the misleading audio, were removed from the NBC News website.

On December 6, 2012, Zimmerman filed a defamation lawsuit against NBC alleging that they intentionally edited the phone call so that Zimmerman would sound racist. The lawsuit said, "NBC saw the death of Trayvon Martin not as a tragedy but as an opportunity to increase ratings, and so set about to create the myth that George Zimmerman was a racist and predatory villain." A NBC spokeswoman said the network strongly disagreed with the accusations that Zimmerman made in the complaint, stating, "There was no intent to portray Mr. Zimmerman unfairly and we intend to vigorously defend our position in court." In June 2014, a summary judgment was issued in the network's favor which ended the lawsuit filed by Zimmerman. In the ruling, the judge wrote that there was "no clear and convincing evidence that defendants knew that the information published was false at the time it was published, or recklessly disregarded the truth or falsity of those statements".

Surveillance video mistake

ABC News obtained a surveillance video of Zimmerman walking unassisted into the Sanford police station after the shooting. An officer is seen pausing to look at the back of Zimmerman's head, but ABC originally said that no abrasions or blood can be seen in the video. ABC later reported that it had "re-digitized" the video, and said that this version showed "what appear to be a pair of gashes or welts on George Zimmerman's head," but the story's main focus was on a doctor who claimed it was unlikely that Zimmerman's nose had been broken.

Juror B29 controversy

In his July 26, 2013, column, Slate journalist William Saletan accused several major news organizations of editing interviews with "Juror B29" to make it appear that she maintained Zimmerman had gotten away with murder when, according to Saletan, she had not actually done so.

Trial and verdict

As news of the case spread, thousands of protesters across the country called for Zimmerman's arrest and a full investigation. On April 11, 2012, amid widespread, intense, and in some cases misleading media coverage, Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder by a special prosecutor appointed by Governor Rick Scott. Zimmerman's trial began on June 10, 2013, in Sanford. Opening statements took place on June 24, 2013. Jury deliberations began on July 12. On July 13, 2013, the jury found him not guilty.

On February 24, 2015, the United States Department of Justice announced that "there was not enough evidence for a federal hate crime prosecution."

Aftermath

Some legal scholars, including Charles Rose of Stetson University and Jonathan Turley of George Washington University, were not surprised by the verdict and said the prosecution had tactically erred by charging Zimmerman with second-degree murder, which, given Florida's laws on self-defense, made it almost impossible for the prosecution to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt with the evidence at their disposal. Several attorneys commenting on the case, such as Paul Butler of Georgetown University, said that the prosecution had failed to adequately prepare their witnesses for trial and had been out-maneuvered by the defense attorneys. Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz remained extremely critical of State Attorney Angela Corey's actions in the case, charging that "her conduct bordered on criminal conduct" and "in 50 years of litigating cases ... rarely have I seen [a prosecutor] as bad as this prosecutor".

George Zimmerman remained in hiding after the verdict, although it was reported that on July 17, four days after the verdict, Zimmerman helped rescue several people from an overturned vehicle in Sanford, Florida. The family rescued by Zimmerman had planned a press conference but later dropped the plan because they were worried about adverse public reaction to saying anything positive about Zimmerman. A month later, Zimmerman was seen in Cocoa, Florida, touring a factory of the company that manufactured the gun he had used in the shooting. Zimmerman was said to have asked about the legality of buying a 12-gauge shotgun.

Zimmerman's parents said that they too had received a large number of death threats and were still too afraid to return to their home after the verdict. A Winter Park, Florida, woman whose phone number was posted online by a website that mistakenly identified the number as George Zimmerman's said she also was receiving a barrage of death threats. The woman said that when she reported the calls to the Seminole County Sheriff's Department, she was told that the sheriff's office was receiving 400 death threats per minute on social media websites.

The day after the verdict was delivered, the NAACP posted a petition formally requesting the Justice Department to open a civil rights case against George Zimmerman. Within hours, 130,000 people had signed the petition.

During a speech to the NAACP, Attorney General Eric Holder stated that the Department of Justice was continuing to investigate Zimmerman for civil rights violations after the verdict, and also criticized existing "stand-your-ground" laws. Holder's speech was denounced by the NRA and Florida Governor Rick Scott.

Although there were scattered incidents of disturbances and vandalism following the not-guilty ruling, fears of widespread civil unrest (as per the Rodney King verdict in 1992) were unrealized. A Hispanic man in Baltimore was reportedly beaten by a group of youths, one of whom was armed with a handgun, while the group chanted "This is for Trayvon!" A white man in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin said he was beaten by a group of African-American youth who were yelling "this is for Trayvon Martin!" The man said he was saved from the assailants by a young African-American couple who came to his rescue. In Washington, D.C., an adult white male was kicked by three African-American men, and robbed of his phone and wallet. The man said the three assailants yelled out "This is for Trayvon!" Police investigated the incident as a hate crime.

Just days after the Zimmerman trial verdict had been announced, several dozen activists known as the Dream Defenders began to camp outside Governor Rick Scott's office in the Capitol, demanding that the governor call the legislature into special session to pass what the activists called The Trayvon Martin Civil Rights Act, which would repeal the Stand Your Ground law, outlaw racial profiling, and discourage the use of zero tolerance policies in schools. As the occupation entered its second week, Governor Scott maintained that he would not order a special session of the legislature.

Democratic leaders in the Florida legislature, Senate Minority Leader Chris Smith and House Minority Leader Perry Thurston also called on the governor to convene a special session of the legislature, in order to overhaul or possibly repeal the Stand Your Ground provisions of Florida's self-defense laws. Senator Smith said that the verdict in the Zimmerman trial showed the adverse effect of the Stand Your Ground law.

On July 19, six days after the verdict, President Barack Obama gave an impromptu 20-minute speech in the White House Press Room, in which he spoke about the trial and about race relations in the United States. Obama said that he identified with Trayvon, that "Trayvon Martin could have been me, 35 years ago." He also said that black men in the United States (himself included, before he became a senator) commonly suffered racial profiling.

A week after the verdict, peaceful rallies and vigils were held in more than 100 cities nationwide to protest racial profiling, demand the repeal of Stand Your Ground laws, and call for a federal trial of Zimmerman for violations of civil rights laws.

A nationwide poll conducted for The Washington Post and ABC News found sharp divisions along racial and political lines over the shooting and over the jury's verdict. Nearly 90% of African Americans called the shooting unjustified, compared to 33% of whites; and some 62% of Democrats disapproved of the verdict, compared to 20% of Republicans. Gallup reported that the reaction was "almost exactly the opposite" of that following the O. J. Simpson murder case, when 89% of African Americans agreed with the jury decision, compared to 36% of whites. A Pew Research Center poll found similar divisions along racial lines in the Zimmerman case. The Pew poll also found large differences in reactions to the trial verdict according to age. The majority of Americans younger than 30 expressed dissatisfaction with the verdict (53% to 29%), while the reaction was reversed for those age 65 and older (50% satisfied versus 33% dissatisfied).

The 2013 acquittal of Zimmerman on the charge of murdering Martin, inspired a Facebook posting that included the phrase "black lives matter", which later became the name of the Black Lives Matter movement.

In December 2019, George Zimmerman filed a lawsuit against Trayvon Martin's family, their attorneys, the prosecutors in the trial, and others. The suit alleges a civil conspiracy by the Martin family and their lawyers, malicious prosecution by the prosecutors, and defamation by several parties. The suit asks for more than $100 million in damages.

Notes

Zimmerman's father is white and his mother is Afro-Peruvian. One of her grandfathers was Afro-Peruvian.

Police Event Reports for calls made by Zimmerman (911 and non-emergency)

The surveillance videos of Trayvon Martin from various cameras in the convenience store can be found at "Surveillance: Trayvon Martin at store night of shooting". WFTV. Retrieved March 29, 2015.

Some reports in the media incorrectly gave the time as 7:11.

See The New York Times article The Events Leading to the Shooting of Trayvon Martin for seven aerial views which include depictions of The Retreat at Twin Lakes; the home where Trayvon was staying; the site of the shooting; Zimmerman's home; the site of the 7–11; and other sites of interest.

The autopsy report can be found at Hart, Benjamin (May 17, 2012). "Trayvon Martin Autopsy Report: Killed By Bullet Fired At Intermediate Range". The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 18, 2012.

An Orlando Sentinel source reported in May 2012 that Zimmerman told investigators that Martin "was circling" his vehicle at one point, but news stories after Zimmerman's statements to police were released reported that he said Martin "circled" his vehicle.

Some referenced information is from the embedded video of Robert Zimmerman's interview.

While talking about Martin, Zimmerman stated "these assholes, they always get away" and also said "these fucking punks.”

Some sources said the Martin image shows him at 13 or 14 years old, but a Martin family attorney, Benjamin Crump, reportedly said that the photograph had been taken six months prior to the shooting, when Martin was 16 years old. Contributing to the controversy was an image of a different person also named Trayvon Martin in a "gangsta" pose.

The day after the verdict, there was unrest in Oakland, California; protesters burned U.S. and California flags, broke windows, started small fires in the streets, and vandalized a police squad car. On July 15, at least 12 people were arrested for disorderly behavior at protests in New York City, and thirteen people were arrested in Los Angeles after multiple incidents of public assaults and vandalism. On July 17, seventeen people were arrested after unruly behavior at protests in Victorville, California, and on July 18, eleven people were arrested in San Bernardino, California, where several bystanders and a police horse were injured after disorderly behavior.