George Zimmerman: The Aftermath

George Zimmerman was found not guilty of the second-degree murder of Trayvon Martin on July 13, 2013. Zimmerman was a neighborhood patroller at the time, and he had engaged in a fight with the teenager, who was 17 years old and had been visiting his stepmother. Zimmerman claimed that the teenager had attacked him in the heat of the argument, and in an act of self-defense, he pulled his gun and fatally shot Martin. The jury in their verdict argued that he was legally justified in defending himself and that there was not enough evidence to prove that Zimmerman’s motives were anything but self-defense.

However, seven years later, the question remains of where we are as a society in the aftermath of this case. Zimmerman—despite not being convicted—has decided to reopen the case, and in December of 2018, announced that he was suing Martin’s family for $100 million in the Florida state court. He and his lawyer, Larry Klayman, released a statement saying they would argue that the initial trial was “a breach of contract and First Amendment case.” The chief allegation in Klayman and Zimmerman’s lawsuit is that Rachel Jeantel—a witness who testified that she was on the phone with Martin before the shooting—was actually an imposter, serving as a substitute for her half-sister Brittany Diamond Eugene, who had actually called Martin but did not want to be involved with the case.

In addition to claiming the tampering of evidence, Zimmerman’s lawsuit has framed the entire trial as unnecessary in the first place. But this was not the question that the trial endeavored to answer—the question was whether or not Zimmerman’s actions were in self-defense. Zimmerman has also claimed that the trial was conducted to advance the political goal of creating “racial controversy,” but the purpose of the trial—or any trial concerning a criminal charge—was to hold him accountable.

Zimmerman claims to be seeking mere atonement for what the unnecessary pursuit of the initial case has caused him to lose, including employment and his dignified reputation. However, according to the Martins’ family attorney, Benjamin Crump, the lawsuit is backed by right-wingers whose aim is to generate political capital and attention for an upcoming right-wing documentary (called the “Trayvon Hoax”) that will portray Zimmerman as a guns-right crusader. Crump has good reason for these assertions and has pointed to Zimmerman’s lawyer himself as evidence. Klayman has a long legal history of backing right-wing campaigns—he is the founder of the Judicial Watch, which has backed charges against the Clintons and was a huge proponent of the allegations that Barack Obama “[is] a secret Muslim and not an American citizen.”

Zimmerman’s claims, despite being illegitimate, are often treated legitimately by the criminal justice system due to an all-pervasive phenomenon. The public’s perception of how black men are treated in the status quo can be attributed to the “language of fear,” mentioned by Brent Staples in a 1986 Harper’s article called “Just Walk on By.” In it, Staples talks about the ways in which black men are predominantly associated with terror, as they are commonly represented in the media as violent and dangerous individuals who should be avoided at all costs. Though Staples does acknowledge that black men have committed crimes in the past, he contends that they have become overrepresented in the eyes of the public and the criminal justice system, wherein society has grown accustomed to making snap judgments about black men because of their race. This is found implicitly in the events leading up to the shooting—Zimmerman, a neighborhood patroller who had been off duty that night, had initially called the police because Martin’s demeanor had seemed “suspicious.” The lack of a response from the police department was what then led Zimmerman to choose to take action, leading to the fatal encounter.

The case of Trayvon Martin is just one of many that have grown in number in the past two decades, in which unarmed black men and women are shot and killed by law enforcement officers. Others include those of Eric Garner, Akai Gurley, Mark Duggan, and Michael Brown. What makes this fact even more concerning is a 2018 study published by the Annals of Internal Medicine, which found that black men are 14 times more likely than white men to die by firearm homicide. It’s disheartening, then, that Zimmerman, through his lawsuit, seeks sympathy and questions the very notion that he should be held accountable for Martin’s death, despite the fact that a racial bias—especially when it comes to making judgments about people on the street—is very real.

Zimmerman’s post-trial actions all seek to disassociate himself from the consequences of his actions, such as choosing to auction off the firearm he had used to kill Martin. This prompted immediate backlash and criticism, but Zimmerman argued that the money would be donated to support the Black Lives Matter movement and to ensure the end of Angela Corey’s career (the prosecutor who tried to convict Zimmerman). However, no follow-up was ever made about whether Zimmerman had ended up donating his money or not. Furthermore, Zimmerman has chosen to turn on Martin’s parents, accusing them of trying to capitalize off of their son’s death, when, ironically, Zimmerman’s lawsuit will attempt to do the same thing.

Though the direction of Zimmerman’s motives remains unclear, the revisitation of this case indicates a refusal to accept being held accountable and how slowly society progresses in the face of racism and anti-black violence. The lawsuit is legally unsound, and its pursuit is simply a product of right-wing motivations to generate political capital. The general public should continue to be highly skeptical of Zimmerman’s intentions, because his continued pursuit of racial violence and financial compensation shows just how insignificant Martin’s death is to him. Both our snap judgments influenced by race and our preconceived notions of justice need to be changed—until they are, actions will continue to inhibit the well-being of minority communities.