Calling the killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin a “tragic, unnecessary shooting,” Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday repeated the Justice Department’s intention to take a fresh look at the case and evaluate whether federal prosecutors could bring charges of their own.
A decision is very likely months away. But several legal experts say it would be surprising if the federal government filed a criminal case against George Zimmerman.
“Based on what’s in the public eye, it would be very difficult to get a conviction in this case,” said Samuel Bagenstos, a former top official in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
If the government were to bring a criminal case, it would most likely invoke the four-year old federal hate crime statute named for Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, both of whom were killed in vicious bias attacks. Shepard was targeted in Wyoming because he was gay. Byrd was singled out in Texas because he was black.
If the government were to bring a criminal case, it would most likely invoke the four-year old federal hate crime statute named for Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, both of whom were killed in vicious bias attacks. Shepard was targeted in Wyoming because he was gay. Byrd was singled out in Texas because he was black.
Part of the federal law is a provision making it a crime to cause “bodily injury to any person … because of the actual or perceived race” of the victim. It’s that element of intent that makes prosecutions under the statute so difficult.
The Justice Department will take a fresh look at what federal investigators learned about the shooting and at the evidence gathered for the George Zimmerman trial. But proving intent is very difficult. The government has gotten convictions under the Hate Crimes law in cases where there has been strong evidence showing racial motivation. NBC’s Pete Williams reports.
“Usually when you have a successful prosecution, you have multiple statements made by the defendant about the victim’s race while the defendant is attacking, or you have a group of people that went out looking for someone of a particular race to attack,” Bagenstos said.
“Proving what’s on somebody eles’s mind is as difficult thing to do in the law as possible.”
He and other former civil rights prosecutors say it would not be enough for the Justice Department to claim that George Zimmerman started following Trayvon Martin because of his race. The government would also have to convince a jury that Martin was killed because of his race, not because of self-defense or some other motive, the experts said.
William Yeomans, another former DOJ Civil Rights Division official noted, “That would be the big hurdle: establishing that George Zimmerman was thinking about race when he inflicted the bodily injury.”
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