July 14, 2013.

Jury Acquits Zimmerman of All Charges

For a moment he was seized by a kind of hysteria. He began writing in a hurried scrawl:

they'll shoot me i don't care theyll shoot me in the back of the neck i dont care down with big brother they always shoot you in the back of the neck i dont care down with big brother----

SANFORD, Fla. ----A jury acquitted George Zimmerman on Saturday night of all charges in the death of Trayvon Martin, bringing to an end a case that set off nationwide protests and searing debates over racial justice and self-defense laws.

He sat back in his chair, slightly ashamed of himself, and laid down his pen. The next moment he started violently. There was a knocking at his door.

Mr. Zimmerman, a 29-year-old former neighborhood-watch volunteer who is Hispanic, fatally shot the 17-year-old, who was unarmed and black, in a gated community here last year. The defendant faced a second-degree murder charge, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, and the lesser charge of manslaughter, which carries a maximum 30-year sentence.

Already! He sat as still as a mouse, in the futile hope that whoever it was might go away after a single attempt. But no, the knocking was repeated. The worst thing of all would be to delay. His heart was thumping like a drum, but his face, from long habit, was probably expressionless. He got up and moved heavily toward the door.

As the verdict was read, Mr. Zimmerman appeared stoic, while family members were visibly tense. When the not-guilty verdict was pronounced, his family members embraced. Courtroom police removed Mr. Zimmerman's ankle bracelet, and he flashed a smile.