A protest over the Trayvon Martin shooting in Miami on April 1. Many people are angry that no charges have been filed yet.
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ and JOHN SCHWARTZ
Published: April 9, 2012
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Interactive Feature The Events Leading to the Shooting of Trayvon Martin
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The Lede Blog: On a New Web Site, George Zimmerman Speaks Out (April 10, 2012)
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Bruce Lipsky/Florida Times-Union, via Associated Press
Angela B. Corey, the prosecutor, has taken more cases to trial and won more convictions than her predecessor, a study found.
Ms. Corey, 57, who was appointed special prosecutor in the case by Florida's governor and attorney general, must decide herself how to proceed with the particularly difficult case, in which many facts are in dispute and no witnesses have come forward publicly. She alone must determine whether to file charges against George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch coordinator who shot and killed the unarmed Mr. Martin, or to drop the case.
The decision on Monday about how to proceed puts Ms. Corey not only at the center of a national discussion of race and violence — Mr. Zimmerman, 28, is Hispanic; Mr. Martin, 17, was black — but also of the finer points of law. The fact that no arrest has been made nor legal action taken in the Feb. 26 shooting has enraged many people across the country and has led to angry marches and protests.
The pressure to bring charges is "unbelievable," said Tor J. Friedman, a criminal defense lawyer in Tallahassee. "We always talk about a rush to judgment in other cases," he said, but in this case the question is more like, "Why wasn't this person taken to the town square and flogged in front of everybody?' "
But legal experts say the need for caution over speed is especially great in a case like this one. Mr. Zimmerman said he acted in self-defense, and law enforcement officials chose not to charge him under Florida's lenient self-defense law, known as Stand Your Ground. Under the law, anyone person who perceives a threat to his life is not required to attempt a retreat and has a right to use a weapon. It requires law enforcement officials to prove that a suspect did not act in self-defense, and sets the case on a slow track.
Unless investigators find witnesses or direct evidence of the confrontation preceding Mr. Martin's death, such as signs of a struggle, prosecutors would have to build a circumstantial case, often the hardest to make. In high-profile cases, the constitutional principle of the presumption of innocence can be especially strong — another reason to proceed with care, according to legal experts.
Florida criminal law, like most states, does not require a rush to file charges in such a case, Mr. Friedman said; the statute of limitations in manslaughter cases is measured in years, not weeks. Mr. Friedman, a former prosecutor, said that it served no one to take a defendant to trial before the evidence for a conviction could be collected; a prosecutor, he said, has "an ethical obligation" to build and believe in a case that can be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
Once the evidence is in hand, Ms. Corey will have to determine not just whether to file charges but if so, which ones. By stating that she will not be using the grand jury, she has signaled that charges of first-degree murder are not on the table. In Florida, those charges can be issued only by a grand jury, and require a finding that the act was premeditated. A more likely charge under Florida law is manslaughter, but lesser charges like aggravated battery with a firearm are also a possibility, Mr. Friedman said.
Ms. Corey's decision to forgo a grand jury is not unusual. Like other chief prosecutors in Florida, she typically steers clear of grand juries, unless required as in requests to try juveniles as adults.
Jeffrey S. Weiner, a criminal defense lawyer in Miami, said, "This is a courageous decision, no matter what she decides to do. A grand jury would have been a cop-out."
While Ms. Corey's office cautioned that bypassing the grand jury should not be interpreted as an indication of how she would decide to handle the case, she is widely considered one of Florida's most aggressive prosecutors. When she first ran for state attorney in 2008 , she joked that she was so tough on crime that she would throw her own mother in jail if she broke the law.
"I don't play," she said, "even when it's people in my own family."
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