A lawyer for Trayvon Martin’s parents says the second degree murder trial of the man who shot and killed their son is not about race.
Prosecutors say George Zimmerman profiled, followed and murdered 17-year-old Trayvon Martin as he walked in Zimmerman’s Sanford neighborhood last year.
Zimmerman says he fired in self defense.
On Thursday attorney Daryl Parks told reporters that Martin’s parents Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton want to keep race out of the trial.
“To this family, race is not a part of this process, and anybody who tries to inject race into it, is wrong”, said Parks.
The comments came after a day of testimony in from key prosecution witness Rachel Jeantel.
Jeantel was talking on the phone with Martin the night he died.
She said she thought race was an issue because Martin told her he was being followed by a white man, moments before he was shot.
Zimmerman was not arrested until weeks after the incident, following a wave of nationwide protests joined by civil rights leaders, and after an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.