George Zimmerman, the 28-year-old neighborhood watch leader who fatally shot unarmed teen Trayvon Martin this past February, was released from a Florida jail this morning, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
Zimmerman walked calmly out of the John E. Polk Correctional Facility at about midnight wearing a brown jacket and blue jeans and left with unknown persons in a white BMW.
Zimmerman posted his $15,000 bond through a bail bondsman and will wear an electronic monitoring device on his ankle allowing authorities to constantly track his whereabouts using GPS technology. He will also be subject to a curfew and has been forced to surrender his passports.
Zimmerman’s bail was set at $150,000 at an April 20 hearing, despite prosecutors’ request that it be set at $1 million. Ten percent of the bail was required for him to released.
After the hearing, Martin family lead attorney Benjamin Crump said the family was “completely devastated” by the decision to grant bail, while another of the family’s attorneys called the decision “unfair.”
Zimmerman’s attorney Mark O’Mara has requested that his client be allowed to leave the state as he awaits trial. He says he is concerned for his client’s safety and that of his family. CNN reports that Judge Kenneth Lester, who made the decision to grant Zimmerman bail, instructed O’Mara to talk to authorities about the request.
Where Zimmerman went immediately following his release is not known.
Zimmerman shot Martin on February 26 after a confrontation ensued inside a Sanford, Florida, gated community. Prior to the confrontation, Zimmerman had called 911 to report a suspicious person in the neighborhood. Martin was in the neighborhood visiting his father and was walking back to his father’s girlfriend’s home after a run to the local convenience store.
The exact details of the confrontation between Martin and Zimmerman are unclear, but Zimmerman claims self-defense in the shooting. Martin was found to be unarmed and had nothing on his person but a bag of candy and a can of iced tea.
Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder for the killing.
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[...] since the shooting occurred on February 26. He is charged with second-degree murder and is currently free on $150,000 bail and at an undisclosed location. Sourced [...]
[...] since the shooting occurred on February 26. He is charged with second-degree murder and is currently free on $150,000 bail and at an undisclosed [...]
[...] outrage and calls for action. Zimmerman was eventually charged with second-degree murder and has since been released on $150,000 [...]
[...] In February, 17-year-old Martin was shot and killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman after what is widely believed to be a racially-motivated confrontation in a Florida suburb. The case sparked widespread outrage and protests, and Zimmerman was eventually arrested and charged with second-degree murder. He has since been released on bail. [...]
A sensational trial fraught with demonization and victimization may in the short term perversely help the community get the conviction it seeks but it could also paradoxically see itself at its mercy given the history of the legal system to work against minors, something authorities were almost cognizant of when they decided they had no choice but to bring Zimmerman to trial….
It will also be interesting to see how the media plays this out as Mr Zimmerman is released into no man’s land….
http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2012/04/george-zimmerman-trial-released-on-150-000-bail-but-no-idea-where-he-will-hide-out/