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| FILE - This Jan. 10, 2015 booking file photo provided by the Seminole County Public Affairs shows George Zimmerman. The U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015, that the former neighborhood watch volunteer will not face federal charges in the shooting death of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman was acquitted in 2013 of second-degree murder. |
MIAMI (AP) --
George Zimmerman, the former neighborhood watch volunteer who fatally
shot Trayvon Martin in a 2012 confrontation with the teenager, will not
face federal charges, the Justice Department said Tuesday.
The
decision, announced in the waning days of Attorney General Eric
Holder's tenure, resolves a case that focused public attention on
self-defense laws and became a flashpoint in the national conversation
about race two years before the Ferguson, Missouri, police shooting.
Zimmerman
has maintained that he acted in self-defense when he shot the
17-year-old Martin during a confrontation inside a gated community in
Sanford, Florida, just outside Orlando. Martin, who was black, was
unarmed when he was killed. Zimmerman identifies himself as Hispanic.
Once
Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder by a state jury in July
2013, Martin's family turned to the federal investigation in final
hopes that he would be held accountable for the shooting.
That
probe focused on whether Zimmerman could be charged with a federal hate
crime in the killing and whether he willfully deprived Martin of his
civil rights, a difficult legal standard to meet. Federal investigators,
who independently conducted dozens of interviews, ultimately determined
there was insufficient evidence to prove Zimmerman killed the teenager
on account of his race.
"Our decision not to
pursue federal charges does not condone the shooting that resulted in
the death of Trayvon Martin and is based solely on the high legal
standard applicable to these cases," Vanita Gupta, the Justice
Department's top civil rights lawyer, said in a statement announcing the
decision.
Zimmerman's attorney, Don West, was
on a flight and couldn't immediately comment on the decision. A call to
Zimmerman's cellphone went directly to voicemail.
Martin's
parents were too distraught after their meeting in Miami with Justice
Department officials to speak with reporters, said their attorney Ben
Crump, who called the decision a "bitter pill to swallow" even though it
was expected.
"What they told his family and I
was that because Trayvon wasn't able to tell us his version of events,
there was a lack of evidence to bring the charges. That's the tragedy,"
Crump said.
The February 2012 confrontation
began after Zimmerman observed Martin while driving in his neighborhood.
Zimmerman called police and got out of his car and approached Martin,
who was returning from a store while visiting his father and his
father's fiancee at the same townhome complex where Zimmerman lived.
Prosecutors
contended that Zimmerman was profiling Martin and perceived him as
someone suspicious in the neighborhood; Zimmerman did not testify at his
trial, but he earlier told investigators that he feared for his life as
Martin straddled him and punched him during the fight.
Federal
investigators said they examined the case under multiple civil-rights
provisions, including ones that make it illegal to use force against
someone based on their race and another that criminalizes race-based
interference with a person's federally protected housing rights. They
said they conducted roughly 75 witness interviews, examined police
reports and reviewed all of the evidence gathered during the state
prosecution.
Tamara Rice Lave, a professor of
the University of Miami's School of Law, said the Justice Department
conclusion was not surprising because there was no direct or
circumstantial evidence that Zimmerman's actions were motivated by race.
In a 911 call, as he followed Martin through their Sanford neighborhood, Zimmerman said the teenager "looks black."
"But he doesn't say the things that would make you think it was motivated by race," Lave said. "He doesn't call him the N-word."
Black leaders in Sanford, where Martin was shot, also said they weren't surprised by the decision.
"I was expecting this to happen," said Turner Clayton, a former local leader of the NAACP.
