On February 26, 2012, Zimmerman called 911 to report a suspicious person in his neighborhood of Twin Lakes. There had a couple break ins in the last month or so, and a couple cases of vandalism and Zimmerman as the neighborhood watch captain was eager to catch the offender or offenders. He was given instructions by the 911 operator to stay in his truck and wait for police to arrive. Zimmerman ignored the instructions and left his truck to investigate the suspicious person and follow him (CNN, 2017). From surveillance footage the police were able to ascertain that Martin had left a neighborhood 7-11 store at 6:34 p.m. At 7:09 p.m., Zimmerman called 911, and at 7:13 p.m. he ended his call to the emergency line, parked his truck and started
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Between March 13 and 15th the case became a national news story and the Martin’s are represented by a lawyer, Benjamin Crump. It was ironically Zimmerman’s father who first used race as an issue. He was unhappy that the media was referring to his son as white and not Hispanic, and made a public statement about it. By March 22, 2012 rallies calling for Zimmerman’s arrest for murder were being held in Sanford, FL as well as in New York City. NAACP President Ben Jealous and Rev. Al Sharpton went to Sanford to press the city of Sanford to do something. On March 23, when asked about the case, President Obama replied sadly that he felt the case need to investigated well and added that “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon” (Dahl, 2013). Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder on April 11, 2012. The trial began on June 24, 2013, after the selection of an all-female jury. The following month, on July 13, 2013, the six-member jury acquitted Zimmerman of murder, triggering mostly peaceful protests in several American cities, and vigorous debates about the Stand Ground Your Law (Biography, …show more content…
One such case is the story of Marissa Alexander. Alexander is a Florida woman who received a 20 year sentence in August of 2010, just a week after delivering her daughter. On the day of the shooting, The mother of three who had been battered and threatened by her estranged husband Rico Gray, decided enough was enough. When Gray started berating her and threatening to harm her, she ran to her garage as soon she could. There, she retrieved her legal firearm. She returned to the home, and fired what she referred to as warning shot near Gray that hit the wall (Maxwell, 2015). Alexander was arrested, charged, and found guilty of aggravated assault. She received a 20 year prison sentence. The verdict was overturned, due to poor jury instructions, but prosecutor Angela Corey, who failed to secure the conviction of George Zimmerman, pressed for a new trial. The main point of the prosecutor’s argument was that because Alexander ran from the home to the garage to get her gun, she was no longer in any imminent danger and therefore not eligible for immunity under Florida’s Stand Your Ground Defense (Hauser, 2017). A new trial was called for and this time the trial was going to carry additional charges and Alexander faced up to 60 years in prison. So, not wanting to risk a lifetime
Between March 13 and 15th the case became a national news story and the Martin’s are represented by a lawyer, Benjamin Crump. It was ironically Zimmerman’s father who first used race as an issue. He was unhappy that the media was referring to his son as white and not Hispanic, and made a public statement about it. By March 22, 2012 rallies calling for Zimmerman’s arrest for murder were being held in Sanford, FL as well as in New York City. NAACP President Ben Jealous and Rev. Al Sharpton went to Sanford to press the city of Sanford to do something. On March 23, when asked about the case, President Obama replied sadly that he felt the case need to investigated well and added that “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon” (Dahl, 2013). Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder on April 11, 2012. The trial began on June 24, 2013, after the selection of an all-female jury. The following month, on July 13, 2013, the six-member jury acquitted Zimmerman of murder, triggering mostly peaceful protests in several American cities, and vigorous debates about the Stand Ground Your Law (Biography, …show more content…
One such case is the story of Marissa Alexander. Alexander is a Florida woman who received a 20 year sentence in August of 2010, just a week after delivering her daughter. On the day of the shooting, The mother of three who had been battered and threatened by her estranged husband Rico Gray, decided enough was enough. When Gray started berating her and threatening to harm her, she ran to her garage as soon she could. There, she retrieved her legal firearm. She returned to the home, and fired what she referred to as warning shot near Gray that hit the wall (Maxwell, 2015). Alexander was arrested, charged, and found guilty of aggravated assault. She received a 20 year prison sentence. The verdict was overturned, due to poor jury instructions, but prosecutor Angela Corey, who failed to secure the conviction of George Zimmerman, pressed for a new trial. The main point of the prosecutor’s argument was that because Alexander ran from the home to the garage to get her gun, she was no longer in any imminent danger and therefore not eligible for immunity under Florida’s Stand Your Ground Defense (Hauser, 2017). A new trial was called for and this time the trial was going to carry additional charges and Alexander faced up to 60 years in prison. So, not wanting to risk a lifetime