Killing of Trayvon Martin
On the evening of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida, United States, George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African-American, who was visiting his father.
Date
February 26, 2012
7:09 p.m. EST (start)
7:16 p.m. (gunshot on 911 call)
7:17 p.m. (police car arrives)
7:30 p.m. (Martin declared dead)
The Retreat at Twin Lakes
in Sanford, Florida, U.S.
(See aerial views of points of interest.)
George Zimmerman (shooter)
Fractured nose, lacerations to the back of the head. (Zimmerman)
Zimmerman, a 28-year-old multiracial man who identifies as Hispanic,[Note 1] was a neighborhood watch coordinator for the gated community where Martin was visiting relatives at the time of the shooting.[3][4][5] Zimmerman became suspicious of Martin and called police; Zimmerman attacked Martin and then shot him with a pistol he was licensed to carry.
In a widely reported trial, Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder for Martin's death, but acquitted by the jury after claiming self-defense, although Martin had no weapon. The incident was reviewed by the Department of Justice for potential civil rights violations, but no additional charges were filed.
Investigations
Zimmerman arrested and released
Sanford Police Officer Timothy Smith arrived at the scene at approximately 7:17 p.m., between 5 and 65 seconds after the fatal shot was fired. He reported finding Zimmerman standing near Martin, who was lying face down in the grass and unresponsive.[57][58] At that time, Zimmerman stated to Smith that he had shot Martin and was still armed. Smith handcuffed Zimmerman and confiscated his black Kel-Tec PF-9 9mm semi-automatic pistol. Smith observed that Zimmerman's back was wet and covered with grass, and he was bleeding from the nose and the back of his head.[57][59]
Ricardo Ayala, the second officer to arrive that night, noticed Officer Smith had Zimmerman in custody, then observed Martin lying face down in the grass and attempted to get a response from him. At this time, Sgt. Anthony Raimondo arrived and together with Ayala began CPR. Paramedics from Sanford Fire and Rescue arrived and continued CPR, finally declaring Martin dead at 7:30 p.m.[57]
Other officers who had arrived by this time secured the area and made contact with neighbors in the area and obtained statements from witnesses at the scene. The officers, who believed Zimmerman proceeded solely on foot before the attack, did not seize Zimmerman's vehicle until after his wife had moved it.[60] Zimmerman was treated and released by paramedics while still at the scene of the incident.[57][59] After placing Zimmerman in his police vehicle, Officer Smith heard Zimmerman say, "I was yelling for someone to help me, but no one would help me."[57][61] Zimmerman was then transported to the Sanford Police Department where he was questioned by investigators for approximately five hours.[57][62] The police determined that Zimmerman yelled for help at least 14 times in a 38-second span.[63] The question of who was calling for help has been disputed since then by others and remains inconclusive .
Public response
After the shooting, Zimmerman was criticized by the Martin family and in the media for following Martin and for carrying a weapon.[219][220] 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.[34] Lee further stated, "Mr. Zimmerman was not acting outside the legal boundaries of Florida Statute by carrying his weapon when this incident occurred."[219] 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".[34] The director of the National Sheriffs' Association (NSA) said Zimmerman's "alleged action ... significantly contradicts the principles of the Neighborhood Watch Program".[221] 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.[222] 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.[223]
Since Martin was killed while wearing a hoodie, hoodies were used as a sign of protest over the handling of the case.[224][225][226][227][228][229] Additionally, some professional athletes, including Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and the entire Miami Heat roster, donned hoodies in Martin's honor.[230]
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,[231][232][233] although the beverage he purchased was actually a can of Arizona Watermelon Fruit Juice Cocktail.[234]
Walkouts were staged by students at over a dozen Florida high schools,[235] and thousands of people attended rallies around the country to demand Zimmerman's arrest.[236] Members of the Occupy movement marched in solidarity during the "Million Hoodie March".[237][238]
A number of high-profile citizens made public comments or released statements calling for a full investigation, including Reverend Al Sharpton,[239][240] Reverend Jesse Jackson,[241] and President Barack Obama.[239]
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."[242][243] Jesse Jackson 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.[244]
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."[239]
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".[245]
According to Zimmerman's father, George Zimmerman received death threats after the shooting and was forced to move out of his home.[246] The New Black Panther Party offered a $10,000 reward for the "capture" of George Zimmerman;[247][248] this was condemned by the city of Sanford.[247]
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.[249][250][251][252]
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.[253][254] 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.[255] 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."[256] CNN legal analyst Mark NeJame expressed concern over Corey's threats and questioned if the prosecution of Zimmerman was for political reasons.[257]
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".[258][259] Rivera was quoted saying, "I am urging the parents of black and Latino youngsters particularly to not let their children go out wearing hoodies."[258] Faced with outrage over his statements, Rivera apologized, saying that he had "obscured the main point that someone shot and killed an unarmed teenager".[260]
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.[259]
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.[261]
After Zimmerman's bond was revoked for misrepresenting how much money he had when his bond was set,[262] Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump said he expected the prosecution to bring Zimmerman's credibility "front and center in this entire case".[263] 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".[264]
"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.[16] The controversial law, passed in 2005, permits the use of deadly force when someone reasonably feels they are at risk of great bodily harm in a confrontation.[285] Zimmerman's defense team ultimately did not seek a pretrial hearing for immunity from prosecution based on the stand your ground law.[286][287] 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.[285] 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.[285]
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").[288] Florida's stand your ground law extends the no-retreat doctrine to vehicles and public places.[289] At the time of Martin's shooting, 22 other states had adopted similar stand your ground laws.[289]
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.[290] 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,[Note 10] 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.[292][Note 11]
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.[294][295] 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.[292] 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.[292][296] 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.[297] 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.[298][299][300]
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.[301] 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 their 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.[302] The proposal was received favorably by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Florida Sheriffs Association, the state public defenders association, and the NAACP,[302] although several Republican state legislators voted to block the bill's passage and gun rights advocates expressed opposition to several of the proposals.[301][302] 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.[302]
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.[363][364][365] 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.[366][367] 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".[368]
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.[369] 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.[370] 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.[371] Zimmerman was said to have asked about the legality of buying a 12-gauge shotgun.[371][372]
Zimmerman's parents claimed that they too had received a large number of death threats and that they were still afraid to return to their home after the verdict.[373] 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 received death threats.[374] 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.[375]
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.[376] Within hours, 130,000 people had signed the petition.[377]
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 National Rifle Association of America (NRA) and Florida Governor Rick Scott.[378]
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.[379][Note 13] A Hispanic man in Baltimore was reportedly beaten by a group of youths–one of whom armed with a handgun–who allegedly chanted "This is for Trayvon!"[384] 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.[385][386] 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.[387] On the night of the trial, a protest in the Crenshaw neighborhood of Los Angeles turned violent as the protesters began attacking bystanders, setting objects ablaze, and began looting and vandalizing stores including a Wal-Mart and the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza before Los Angeles Police were able disperse the crowd by blocking traffic on Crenshaw Boulevard.
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.[388] As the occupation entered its second week, Governor Scott maintained that he would not order a special session of the legislature.[389]
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.[298] Senator Smith said that the verdict in the Zimmerman trial showed the adverse effect of the Stand Your Ground law.[298]
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.[390] 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, including himself, commonly suffered racial profiling.[391]
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.[392][393]
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.[394] 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.[395] 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.[396] A Pew Research Center poll found similar divisions along racial lines in the Zimmerman case.[397] 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).[397]
During and following the trial, Facebook users started posting the phrase "black lives matter," which would inspire the Black Lives Matter movement.[398][399][400]
In December 2019, George Zimmerman filed a lawsuit against Trayvon Martin's family, their attorneys, the prosecutors in the trial, Rachel Jeantel, Brittany Diamond Eugene, and others. The suit alleged a civil conspiracy by the Martin family and their lawyers, malicious prosecution by the prosecutors, and defamation by several parties. The suit asked for more than $100 million in damages.[401] The lawsuit was unsuccessful and was dismissed in February 2022.[402]