In recent months, there has been controversy and consistent media coverage surrounding the death of 17 year old African American male, Trayvon Martin, who died on February 26, 2012. Trayvon Martin was a black teenager who was shot and killed by 28-year-old George Zimmerman, a man of mixed Latino and white American ethnicity. Martin, who was unarmed, was walking to the home of his father’s girlfriend from a local 7-Eleven convenience store in Sanford, Florida when Zimmerman, a community watch captain, followed him after calling the Sanford Police Department, saying he witnessed what he described as “suspicious behavior.” Shortly after, he fatally shot Martin. What was found in Martin’s possession was a bag of Skittles and an Arizona Iced Tea.
Zimmerman justified the shooting as self-defense to the police who arrived on the scene. He was bleeding from the nose and allegedly had a wound on the back of his head. He was taken to the Sanford Police department where he was questioned numerously for hours, taped a video statement on the incident, and was released from authority without being arrested. Police justified the decision based on reasoning that they had not found evidence to contradict his assertion of self-defense. In opposition to this, media reports had mentioned that the lead homicide investigator suggested that Zimmerman be arrested, but this was not possible being that the state attorney’s office was responsible for the decision not to arrest and charge Zimmerman the night of the shooting.
The situation surrounding Martin’s death, the initial decision not to charge Zimmerman, and suspicions about Florida’s Stand Your Ground law (which allows people the right to use deadly force when they believe they are being threatened) received national and international attention. Speculations of racist motivation for the shooter and possible racial profiling by the police department influenced public demands for Zimmerman’s arrest. After many weeks of public outcry,...
