On the one-year anniversary of her son’s arrest, George Zimmerman’s mother released a letter to the public bemoaning the justice system and criticizing the media for perpetuating a “false narrative.”
Zimmerman was taken into custody April 11 last year and charged with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford. His family went into hiding after the story broke.
Gladys Zimmerman’s two-page letter was released through the Twitter account of her son Robert Zimmerman Jr., who has been the family’s spokesman.
She dubbed Zimmerman’s arrest as the day “the justice system failed us as Americans” saying her son was put in handcuffs to placate a public manipulated by the lawyer for Martin’s family, Benjamin Crump.
Little evidence, she said, substantiates murder charges against her son. Instead, George Zimmerman’s self-defense claim has withstood the barrage of media reports attacking it, she said.
“From the beginning, this case has been heavily publicized and a false narrative was developed surrounding a very real tragedy when there was little evidence available to the public,” Zimmerman wrote.
His mother said the days after George Zimmerman’s arrest were “particularly disheartening” as news outlets picked apart the case and reported on every development.
Political figures and activists judged her son without cause and reinforced popular perceptions in the public arena, she wrote.
“There was absolutely no justifiable reason my son should have been charged for a crime he didn’t commit and there was no just reason he should find himself incarcerated either,” she wrote.
Zimmerman ended her letter thanking supporters and promised the “upcoming trial will not disappoint” those who believe in his innocence. The trial is scheduled for June 10.
“The truth will finally be revealed to many, but to some who have always seen through the narrative — the truth George always told will be ‘revealed,’ but rather ‘confirmed,’ ” she wrote.
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