In the weeks since the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, 17, at the hands of 28-year old George Zimmerman in a Florida suburb, much has been made about whether charges would be levied against the armed Neighborhood Watch volunteer. Although the grand jury was scheduled to assemble this coming Tuesday, the case will proceed without jurors convening, according to CNN reports.
Prosecutor Angela Corey and her office released a statement earlier today confirming the news, carefully stating that the case is still ongoing. “The decision should not be considered a factor in the final determination of the case,” read the State Attorney’s Office statement. Corey said further that a grand jury would not be necessary to file formal criminal charges against Zimmerman.
Today’s news was precisely the course of direction Trayvon Martin’s family lawyer, Benjamin Crump, wanted to pursue.
“We were anticipating that there would be no grand jury, because the family has always been hopeful that there would just simply be an arrest,” said Crump to CNN. “We believed, from day one, that they had enough evidence to arrest the killer of Trayvon Martin and now, as the evidence has continued to unfold, we think there has been a plethora of evidence to simply effect probable cause to do an arrest. Not for a conviction, but for an arrest.”
Zimmerman’s attorneys, Craig Sonner and Hal Uhrig, were both recent guests on the Piers Morgan television program in where they vehemently defended their client, saying that the media was being “unfair” to him. The Trayvon Martin case has sparked a number of debates and protests, including reports of armed Neo-Nazis in the city of Sanford acting as a counter to the number of New Black Panther Party members who have been patrolling the small lakeside town.
