A jury in the state of Florida acquitted George Zimmerman of charges of murder and manslaughter in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin - in case you've been living under a rock - but this may not be the end of the story.
Which give us an opportunity to tie recent subject matter - civil rights - to this case.
The NYT reports that the U.S. Justice Department is considering filing federal hate crimes charges against Zimmerman. The applicable law is the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 (see Wikipedia entry here) which builds on federal hate crime law dating back to 1968. These laws allow the federal government to prosecute people who commit crimes based on a variety factors including a person's race.
Originally the laws only applied to those attempting to limit a "victim's attempt to engage in one of six types of federally protected
activities, such as attending school, patronizing a public place/facility,
applying for employment, acting as a juror in a state court or voting." The Shepard Act expanded protected categories to sexual orientation, and removed the requirement that a federally protected activity be affected.
This suggests that the shooting of Martin may fall under the scope of this law, though that is not conclusive and the Justice Department has yet to determine whether there is enough evidence to prosecute.
Your writing assignment this week is to read through existing hate crime laws mentioned, review the facts associated with the shooting of Trayvon Martin and determine whether there is enough evidence to warrant a federal charge. What makes this a civil rights issue - or not? Consider both sides of the argument, be objective.
You know the requirements.
