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| Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin, speaks with the Associated Press in Miami, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015. The U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015, that George Zimmerman, the former neighborhood watch volunteer will not face federal charges in the shooting death of unarmed 17-year-old Martin. Zimmerman was acquitted in 2013 of second-degree murder. |
MIAMI (AP) --
The mother of Trayvon Martin says she's disappointed that federal
prosecutors decided not to charge a neighborhood watch volunteer with a
hate crime for killing her son three years ago.
Speaking
with The Associated Press on Wednesday before the third anniversary of
her 17-year-old son's death, Sybrina Fulton says she still believes
George Zimmerman got away with murder.
"He
took a life, carelessly and recklessly, and he shouldn't deserve to have
his entire life walking around on the street free. I just believe that
he should be held accountable for what he's done," Fulton said.
Zimmerman
claimed he shot the unarmed teenager in self-defense after confronting
Martin while volunteering for his neighborhood watch group. A jury
acquitted him of second-degree murder the next year.
The
case sparked a national conversation about race, bias and crime in part
because Zimmerman, who identifies himself as Hispanic, was not
immediately arrested after shooting Martin, who is black.
The
U.S. Justice Department announced Tuesday that it found insufficient
evidence to establish that Zimmerman willfully deprived Martin of his
civil rights or killed him because of his race.
"The Justice Department is the top of the line here," Fulton said. "But what they found just wasn't enough."
Zimmerman, for his part, is relieved the case is closed, according to his attorney, Don West.
"This
cloud he was under has been lifted," West told the AP, adding that he
finds it misleading to suggest that charges weren't filed only because
the legal standard for federal hate crime is so tough to meet.
"There
simply was never any compelling evidence that this was a federal hate
crime. Race played no role in it whatsoever," West said.
The
February 2012 confrontation began after Zimmerman spotted Martin
walking through the neighborhood, returning to his father's home after
buying candy and a soft drink at a convenience store.
Zimmerman
called 911 to report a suspicious person, and got out of his car to
follow Martin despite being warned by the dispatcher not to. Zimmerman
did not testify at his trial, but he told investigators he feared for
his life as Martin straddled him and punched him during the ensuing
fight.
Wearing a T-shirt bearing a
black-and-white image of her son in a hoodie, Fulton said she still
longs for Zimmerman to be held responsible.
"I
want to see people held accountable for what they're doing. It's just
upsetting to know that a person can shoot and kill someone and justify
it," Fulton said.
Fulton now channels her
grief into work with The Trayvon Martin Foundation, which reaches out to
other families who have lost children to violence, awards scholarships
and collects school supplies for poor students.
She's
also watching to see how the Justice Department handles other
high-profile killings of unarmed blacks. Decisions are pending on
whether to charge police in New York and Ferguson, Missouri with
depriving the victims of their civil rights by using excessive force in
the course of duty.
"What we want is
accountability, we want somebody to be arrested, we want somebody to go
to jail, of course," Fulton said. "But ... we have grand juries and
special grand juries; they're making a decision to not even arrest a
person."
