George Zimmerman not-guilty verdict sparks protests in US
Angry protesters marched in US cities after George Zimmerman, a neighbourhood watch volunteer, was found not guilty by a Florida jury in the shooting death last year of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager.
Angry protesters marched in US cities after George Zimmerman, a neighbourhood watch volunteer, was found not guilty by a Florida jury in the shooting death last year of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager.
Spontaneous marches erupted in cities including San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, Atlanta and Philadelphia, with reports of sporadic acts of violence.
In a case that drew national attention for its implications on race and guns, yesterday's decision was made by six female jurors, all but one of them white. They spent two days weighing whether the shooting of Martin was a crime or self-defence.
After the verdict was announced, Seminole County Circuit Judge Debra Nelson dismissed the jury and told Zimmerman - whose father is white and whose mother is Peruvian - that he was free to go.
Zimmerman, 29, had been accused of pursuing Martin, 17, through a gated community in Sanford, Florida, and shooting him during an altercation on a rainy night in February last year.
The killing led to mass marches in several US cities after police initially declined to press charges against Zimmerman.
