[18] At the time of his arrest on April 11, 2012, Zimmerman's height was reportedly 5 feet 7 inches (1.70 m) and his weight 185 lb (84 kg), according to the Seminole County Sheriff's Office Inmate Booking record.

[19] Zimmerman's height was shown as 5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) and his weight at 200 lb (91 kg) on the Sanford Police Department Offense Report for February 26, 2012, the night of the shooting.

[23] Lee responded by saying, "I continue to stand by the work performed by the Sanford Police Department in this tragic shooting, which has been plagued by misrepresentations and false statements for interests other than justice.

[6][37] Zimmerman had made nearly 50 calls to police between 2004 and 2012 to report various local disturbances, such as loud parties, open garage doors, potholes, and children playing in the street.

[3] On February 6, workers witnessed two young black men lingering in the yard of a Twin Lakes resident around the same time a new laptop and some gold jewelry was stolen from her home.

The next day, police discovered the stolen laptop in the backpack of a young black man that Zimmerman identified as the same person he had spotted peering into windows on February 2.

[97] The Volusia County medical examiner found that Martin was killed by an injury resulting from a single gunshot to the chest, fired at "intermediate range" between 1 and 18 inches (2.5 and 45.7 centimetres), according to a forensic expert.

[101][102] Larry Kobilinsky, a professor of forensic science, stated that the THC amount was so low that it may have been ingested days earlier and played no role in Martin's behavior.

[147][148][149] Prior to the release of the statements, the only publicly available information about Zimmerman's version of the incident came from interviews with some of his family members and friends and from leaks to the news media by sources inside the investigation and his recorded phone call to 9-1-1.

Zimmerman's father said that, while his son was not on duty that night as Neighborhood Watch captain, there had been many break-ins and he thought it suspicious that someone he did not recognize was walking behind the town homes instead of on the street or the sidewalk.

Two days after the shooting, he was referred to civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump,[75] who was retained to pursue legal action and to persuade the news media to cover the case.

[213] She pleaded guilty to misdemeanor perjury on August 28, 2013, as part of a plea deal and was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and one year of probation, as well as writing a letter of apology to Judge Kenneth Lester Jr.

"[220] Sanford Police volunteer program coordinator Wendy Dorival told the Miami Herald that she met Zimmerman in September 2011 at a community neighborhood watch presentation, and recalls advising: "If it's someone you don't recognize, call us.

[225][226][227][228][229][230] Additionally, some professional athletes, including Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and the entire Miami Heat roster, donned hoodies in Martin's honor.

"[240] Former education secretary William Bennett criticized what he called a "mob mentality", saying that "... the tendency in the first days by some, including Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and an angry chorus of followers, was to rush to judgment with little regard for fairness, due process, or respect for the terrible death of a young man".

[250][251][252][253] Professor Alan Dershowitz criticized the probable cause affidavit against Zimmerman as "so thin that it won't make it past the judge", calling it "irresponsible and unethical", and opined that the charges were motivated by prosecutor Corey's desire to be re-elected.

Dershowitz said the dean defended his remarks under academic freedom and further commented that "Even if Angela Corey's actions were debatable, which I believe they were not, I certainly have the right, as a professor who has taught and practiced criminal law nearly 50 years, to express a contrary view.

[270] Joe Oliver, a former television news reporter who is acquainted with Zimmerman,[271] noted "I'm a black male, and all that I know is that George has never given me any reason whatsoever to believe he has anything against people of color.

"[84] On March 21, 2012, three out of the five members of the Sanford City Commission, including the mayor, passed a motion of no confidence in regards to the Police Chief Bill Lee and his handling of the case; however, the vote was advisory only.

[286] Prior to the passage of Florida's Stand Your Ground law, the standard jury instructions from the judge would have included a statement that a person had a duty to attempt to retreat using "every reasonable means" before using deadly force.

[298] Several bills subsequently introduced in the Republican-controlled legislature's 2013 session proposing to repeal or revise the Stand Your Ground provisions of the law died without committee hearings.

"[325] Several media outlets, such as CNN and The New York Times, subsequently began describing Zimmerman as a "white Hispanic" in their reports on the case, prompting discussion, and some criticism, of the choice of that term.

[327][328] Conservative commentators, including Rush Limbaugh and Bernard Goldberg, accused the media of misrepresenting Zimmerman's race to fit a political narrative of a racially motivated killing.

"[329] Other commentators remarked on the difficulty of deciding how best to describe Zimmerman's race in media reports intended for audiences largely unfamiliar with the complexity of Hispanic identity in contemporary America.

The lawsuit said, "NBC saw the death of Trayvon Martin not as a tragedy but as an opportunity to increase ratings, and so set about to create the myth that George Zimmerman was a racist and predatory villain.

[357] On April 11, 2012, amid widespread, intense, and in some cases misleading media coverage,[358][359] Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder[360] by a special prosecutor appointed by Governor Rick Scott.

[378] During a speech to the NAACP, Attorney General Eric Holder stated that the Department of Justice was continuing to investigate Zimmerman for civil rights violations after the verdict, and also criticized existing "stand-your-ground" laws.

[citation needed] Days after the Zimmerman trial verdict had been announced, several dozen activists known as the Dream Defenders began to camp outside Governor Rick Scott's office in the Capitol, demanding that the governor call the legislature into special session to pass what the activists called The Trayvon Martin Civil Rights Act, which would repeal the Stand Your Ground law, outlaw racial profiling, and discourage the use of zero tolerance policies in schools.

[299] On July 19, six days after the verdict, President Barack Obama gave an impromptu 20-minute speech in the White House Press Room, in which he spoke about the trial and about race relations in the United States.

[399][400][401] In December 2019, George Zimmerman filed a lawsuit against Trayvon Martin's family, their attorneys, the prosecutors in the trial, Rachel Jeantel, Brittany Diamond Eugene, and others.