MSNBC – Prosecutors on Thursday made public a trove of evidence used to justify murder charges against Neighborhood Watch volunteer George Zimmerman, including a police report that concluded “the encounter between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin was ultimately avoidable by Zimmerman.”
The evidence – including 183 pages of documents, witness statements and other material – was released Thursday to news organizations and other requestors by special prosecutor Angela Corey’s office, which has charged the 28-year-old Zimmerman with second-degree murder in the killing of 17-year-old Martin on Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla. Also included was a document explaining what material was withheld.
The evidence, which was provided to Zimmerman’s attorney early this week, will be helpful to both prosecutors and the defense.
WATCH NBC’S KERRY SANDER’S REPORT NEW TRAYVON MARTIN EVIDENCE
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A Feb. 27, 2012 photo by the Sanford Police Dept., shows George Zimmerman on the night of Trayvon Martin’s shooting. The photo was released Thursday.
An autopsy by the Volusia County Medical Examiner on Martin’s body found that the teenager was killed by a shot to the heart and that traces of THC — or tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in marijuana — were found in Martin’s blood, though below the level that medical studies indicate would have caused “performance impairment.”
But the documents give contradictory assessments of how far away Zimmerman was when he shot Martin.
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