Zimmerman Acquittal Stuns Many Around the Nation

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Video: CBS News

Scott Neuman & Greg Allen, NPR
Months of intense media coverage, weeks of courtroom testimony and hours of jury deliberations boiled down to a , delivered by a jury of six women late Saturday.

The decision came 17 months after Zimmerman, a self-styled volunteer watchman, fatally shot unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin during a confrontation in a Sanford, Fla., community.

Zimmerman showed no emotion as the verdict was read at about 10 p.m. ET. Judge Debra Nelson ordered his GPS restraint removed and the former defendant walked away a free man.

Zimmerman didn’t talk to the media after his exoneration, but his lawyers did. “We’re ecstatic with the results,” lead defense attorney Mark O’Mara told reporters after the verdict.

“Was it fair? It was a little bit David and Goliath. But we won,” he said.

Asked if he had a message for Trayvon Martin’s parents, O’Mara repeated something he’s said before, that their son’s loss is a tragedy — that it’s always a tragedy when a young person dies.

Outside the courthouse, . They chanted, “System has failed.” Others yelled, “No! No!”

Martin’s father, Tracy Martin, took to Twitter to say that he was “broken hearted” over the verdict, but he thanked everyone who will “make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
(Read and listen to more of the story at NPR)

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