Black Lives Matter: The Lost Life Of Trayvon Martin

Zimmerman Was Found Not Guilty

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Photo: Pool/Getty Images

Zimmerman’s trial started in June 2013 in Sanford, Florida. The jury found him not guilty on July 13th. One criticism was that prosecutors charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder, which required attorneys to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Zimmerman was guilty. With the evidence they had, it was very difficult for them to prove their case. Activists tried to get the governor to pass The Trayvon Martin Civil Rights Act to repeal the Stand Your Ground law and outlaw racial profiling. In February 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice stated: “there was not enough evidence for a federal hate crime prosecution.”