State of Florida v. George Zimmerman was a criminal prosecution of George Zimmerman on the charge of second-degree murder stemming from the killing of Trayvon Martin on February 26, 2012. On April 11, 2012, Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, a black teenager. In support of the charges, the State filed an affidavit of probable cause, stating that Zimmerman profiled and confronted Martin and shot him to death while Martin was committing no crimes.
Florida State Attorney Angela Corey announced the charges against Zimmerman during a televised press conference and reported that Zimmerman was in custody after turning himself in to law enforcement. Zimmerman was injured during the encounter and said he shot Martin in self-defense. After 16 hours of deliberations over the course of two days, on July 13, 2013, a six-person jury rendered a not guilty verdict on both charges (including manslaughter).
Prosecution attorneys
On March 22, 2012, Florida Governor Rick Scott announced his appointment of Angela Corey as the Special Prosecutor in the Martin investigation. She was the State Attorney for Duval, Clay and Nassau counties. When Corey took the case, she chose Bernie de la Rionda as lead prosecutor. De la Rionda was an Assistant State Attorney in Corey's office and had been a prosecutor for 29 years. Prosecutors John Guy and Richard Mantei assisted, with Guy making the opening statement. The prosecutor initially responsible for the case was Norm Wolfinger, a State Attorney whose jurisdiction included Seminole County where the shooting occurred on February 26, 2012. On March 22, 2012, he requested to be removed from the case to help "tone down the rhetoric" for the public good.
Defense attorneys On April 11, 2012, Mark M. O'Mara announced that he was the attorney representing Zimmerman. O'Mara is president of the Seminole County Bar Association, is a legal commentator for WKMG news, and had previously tried cases that involved the stand-your-ground law. When he took the case, O'Mara said that Zimmerman had no money and that the state may help pay the costs. When reporters asked why he took the case, O'Mara said, "That's what I do." On May 31, 2012, Orlando attorney Don West left his job as a federal public defender to join the defense team led by O'Mara. West specialized in murder cases and had been a board certified criminal trial specialist for 25 years. He and O'Mara had been friends for a long time.
Pre-trial After Seminole County Circuit Judge Jessica Recksiedler removed herself, Kenneth Lester Jr. took the case upon himself as its judge. At a pretrial hearing on April 12, Judge Mark Herr ruled that the affidavit was legally sufficient to establish probable cause. Court documents, including witness statements and other information, were sealed at the request of the defense team, and Zimmerman's arraignment was scheduled for May 29. Zimmerman took the witness stand at a bail hearing on April 20 and told the parents of Martin he was "sorry for the loss of your son". Zimmerman was released on a $150,000 bond and was fitted with an electronic monitoring device for monitoring his whereabouts in real-time. Zimmerman's attorney waived Zimmerman's right to appear at the arraignment and entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
Zimmerman's bond revocation In June 2012, Judge Lester revoked Zimmerman's bond and sent him back to jail after the prosecution alleged that Zimmerman and his wife had misled the court about their finances at an earlier bond hearing. Zimmerman's wife had testified at the hearing that they had very little money, and neither she nor Zimmerman revealed to the court that he had received $135,000 in donations. The prosecution alleged that recordings of telephone conversations Zimmerman had with his wife from jail showed that they had been speaking using a code about their finances, with repeated mentions of "Peter Pan" in apparent reference to a PayPal account. The judge charged Zimmerman's wife with perjury, and at a second bond hearing for Zimmerman held the following month, re-released Zimmerman with the new bond set at $1 million.
Removal of Judge Lester and assignment of Judge Nelson Zimmerman's attorney, Mark O'Mara, filed a motion to disqualify Judge Lester, alleging that Lester had made disparaging and gratuitous remarks about his client in the July 2012 bond order. O'Mara said the judge's statement that he believed Zimmerman had misled the court at his first hearing was an indication of bias against Zimmerman and would impact Zimmerman's ability to get a fair trial. The state criticized the motion for citing "facts that are inaccurate, misleading and/or incomplete". When Judge Lester refused to recuse himself and ruled that the defense's motion was legally insufficient, the defense appealed. On August 29, 2012, the Fifth District Court of Appeal granted the petition for a new judge for the trial. Circuit Judge Debra Nelson was assigned to the case. Judge Debra S. Nelson of the 18th Circuit Court of Florida was the fourth judge to preside over the case. Nelson had been a judge for thirteen years, much of it handling criminal matters. Before becoming a judge she had worked in civil litigation.
Defense plans for pretrial immunity hearing Under Florida law, the use of deadly force against an attacker is permissible in certain situations. The adoption of the Stand Your Ground law in 2005 modified the self-defense law so that a person who reasonably believes they must use deadly force to prevent serious injury to themself may lawfully do so without first attempting to retreat from an attacker; prosecution for using deadly force in such situations is prohibited. A defendant in a homicide case who claims to have acted in self-defense may petition the court to grant the defendant immunity from prosecution under these provisions of the law. Legal experts say that in a pretrial immunity hearing, the burden of proof is on the defendant to show from "a preponderance of the evidence" that they acted lawfully, whereas in a trial by jury the burden of proof is on the prosecution, who must show "beyond a reasonable doubt" (a much higher standard than required for establishing "a preponderance of the evidence") that the defendant acted unlawfully.
On August 9, 2012, Zimmerman's attorney, Mark O'Mara, announced that the defense team was planning to present their case to the judge at an immunity hearing before going to trial in order to request that the case be dismissed under the protection from prosecution provided for by the state's Stand Your Ground law. At a press conference held the following week, O'Mara said that "the facts don't seem to support a 'stand your ground' defense". He said that rather than seeking to have the charges dropped based on Stand Your Ground-law immunity, the defense team would ask at the pretrial hearing that the case be dismissed on the basis of immunity from prosecution provided for in traditional self-defense cases. In April 2013, on the advice of his attorneys, Zimmerman waived his right to a pretrial immunity hearing, and the court began preparations for the case to be tried by a jury. O'Mara would later say, after the trial had concluded, that he had not relied during the trial on the Stand Your Ground provision of the law because Zimmerman had not had an option of retreating. O'Mara would also say that he ultimately had not sought a pretrial immunity hearing because his case for defense would have been revealed during the hearing to the prosecution, which would have put the defense team at a disadvantage had the immunity request been denied and the case proceeded to trial.
Discovery evidence In May 2012, the defense received the first round of discovery evidence: 67 compact discs, a list of witnesses that included 50 possible law enforcement officers, 28 officers from the Sanford Police Department, 28 civilian witnesses, members of Martin's family, two of Zimmerman's friends and his father, Robert Zimmerman. Also listed as potential prosecution witnesses were technicians in biological and DNA evidence, trace evidence, gunshot residue, fingerprints and firearms, two FBI agents, and two audio technicians who analyzed the emergency calls made during the confrontation to determine who was heard screaming in the background. Additional evidence released were audio and video recordings, photos, witness statements, forensic findings, Martin's autopsy report, evidence taken from Zimmerman after the shooting – his weapon, bullets, clothes, a DNA sample, medical records and his cell phone data.
In June 2012, the prosecution released recordings of two 911 calls placed by Martin's father the morning after the shooting. In the calls, Mr. Martin expressed worry that his son had not returned home, and inquired about filing a missing person report. Additional discovery released was a report containing the results of Zimmerman's voice stress test, and Zimmerman's account of the events and written statements. The defense also released audio and video recordings of Zimmerman's police interviews and re-enactment following the shooting. In July 2012, evidence released included: FBI interviews with people involved in the case, including Sanford police officers, family, friends and associates of Zimmerman. Also released were photos of Martin's bloodied sweatshirt and hoodie with a single bullet hole and several phone calls made by Zimmerman to Sanford police to report suspicious activity in the six months leading up to his encounter with Martin.
In August 2012, the State's 6th Supplemental Discovery included 76 pages containing the audio statement from witness 31, three photos taken by witness 13 at the scene showing the back of Zimmerman's head, a flashlight on the ground, the FDLE report with analyst's notes, emails from the Sanford Police Department, copies of Tracy Martin's 911 call reporting his son missing and Zimmerman's Seminole County Sheriff's Office Academy application. In September 2012, the DNA report on the gun used in the shooting was released with only Zimmerman's DNA being found on the gun, no trace of Martin's.
On October 19, Judge Nelson granted the defense's request for access to Martin's school records, cell phone records, and social media (such as Facebook and Twitter) posts. In her ruling, Nelson said that Zimmerman's attorneys needed to know whether Martin's school records and social media postings revealed any evidence that he had had violent tendencies. Martin's parents said the defense's request for school records and social media was a "fishing expedition" aimed at attacking their son and an attempt to assassinate his character. She also ruled that Zimmerman's medical records be provided to prosecutors. Nelson said she would review the medical records and decide whether anything should be withheld.
The defense additionally requested from ABC News and reporter Matt Gutman all recordings, notes and correspondence related to Witness Number 8, Martin's friend who said she was speaking with Martin by phone just before he was shot. O'Mara's motion stated the call lasted more than 26 minutes and the recording they received from the authorities was only 12 minutes and 44 seconds long. On December 3, 2012, defense attorney Mark O'Mara stated that he was "frustrated" that in the original discovery, a grainy black-and-white photo of Zimmerman had been substituted for the original color photo of Zimmerman's bloody nose. Criminal attorney David Wohl said the submission of the copy "borders on prosecutorial misconduct".
Jury selection