George Zimmerman (right) is congratulated by members of his defense team Don West (left) and Lorna Truett after being found not guilty. (Getty Images)
Demonstrators outside the court, many holding Arizona Iced Teas and Skittles like Trayvon Martin had when he was killed, react after the verdict. (AP)
Tragic teen Trayvon Martin, 17. (Family photo/Splash News)
George Zimmerman’s wife, Shellie (center), celebrates with family and friends following her husband’s not guilty verdict. (REUTERS)
Trayvon supporter Darssie Jackson sheds a tear outside court with her children Linzey Stafford, 10, (left) and Shauntiana Stafford. (REUTERS)
A demonstrator wears a shirt with a picture of George Zimmerman as a target during a protest in front of the Seminole County Criminal Justice Center today. (Getty Images)
Demonstrators outside court during deliberations. (REUTERS)
Forensic pathologist Dr. Vincent DiMaio testifies in court about injuries George Zimmerman suffered during the fateful encounter. (Getty Images)
The neighborhood watch volunteer, who fatally shot an unarmed black teenager in a racially charged encounter in central Florida, was cleared of all charges tonight.
The jury of six women delivered the verdict after 16 hours of deliberations — including 12 hours today.
Zimmerman sat stone-faced when the verdict was read, and then he nonchalantly shook hands with his lawyers.
Seminole County Court Judge Debra Nelson admonished audience members to keep reactions to themselves — and they did, as no one uttered a peep when the words “not guilty” were read.
The case became a lightning rod of racial politics as the country debated whether Zimmerman’s claim — that he feared for his life — justified his killing of unarmed Trayvon Martin, who was walking home from the store.
In a controversial decision, Judge Nelson allowed the jury to consider convicting Zimmerman on a manslaughter charge, which would require a lesser burden of proof and carries a prison sentence of up to 30 years.
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Prosecutors tried to paint Zimmerman as a lying, violent man, eager to play at being a police officer, one who unfairly profiled an innocent youth.
To get a conviction on second-degree murder charges prosecutors had to show Zimmerman acted with ill will, spite, or hatred.
Defense lawyers said prosecutors hadn’t proved their case, and that Zimmerman was justified under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” laws to use deadly force in saving his own life.
Zimmerman’s attorneys portrayed Martin, 17, as a pot-smoking troublemaker, who liked to fight and had been suspended from school for skipping classes.
To bolster their claim, they released pictures of guns and drugs they said Martin kept on his cell phone.
The trial included grisly images of Martin’s fatal wounds and testy exchanges between Martin’s friend Rachel Jeantel, the prosecution’s star witness, and defense lawyer Don West.
Jeantel was talking to Martin on his cell just as the confrontation with Zimmerman began.
While Zimmerman had been slammed for assuming the black teen was a criminal, Jeantel testified that Martin referred to Zimmerman, whom Martin did not know, as a “creepy-ass cracker.”
Jeantel, who stunned the court by testifying that she couldn’t read cursive writing, said Martin’s last words were “Get off! Get off!” before the phone went dead.
West challenged Jeantel, suggesting she didn’t call police when Martin’s phone cut off because she thought he provoked the fight.
“That’s why you didn’t do anything — because Trayvon Martin started the fight and you knew that,” West said.
“No, sir!” Jeantel shot back from the witness stand. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
A 911 call captured someone screaming for help during the Feb. 26, 2012 attack, though no one could definitively say who was crying out. Martin’s family claimed the voice was that of their son, while Zimmerman’s relatives asserted it was George calling for aid.
Testimony from voice-recognition experts had been ruled inadmissible because it was impossible to tell from the brief, poor-quality recording whether it is Martin or Zimmerman calling for help.
Martin’s deathbrought national attention to Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” laws, inspired the “Million Hoodie March” and prompted President Barack Obama to call the case a “tragedy.”
“If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon,” Obama said in March 2012.”
A neighborhood watch coordinator in a gated community in Sanford, Fla., Zimmerman was running an errand on a rainy night when he spotted Martin, wearing a hooded sweatshirt and walking around.
Zimmerman, then 28, called police to report what he said was a “suspicious” person.
“This guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something,” Zimmerman said on the recorded call.
Zimmerman complained of break-ins in the neighborhood, adding: “These —holes, they always get away,” according to 911 recordings.
Martin was living in the Retreat at Twin Lakes temporarily, and was returning from a snack run to a nearby 7-Eleven when Zimmerman spotted him.
The teen was talking to Jeantel on his cell phone while he walked home.
Jeantel said Martin was frightened of the strange man following him and tried to run home — prompting Zimmerman to leave his car and give chase even though dispatchers told him to stay put, prosecutors charged.
What followed was a deadly confrontation in which the unarmed teen allegedly punched Zimmerman in the nose, and eventually overpowered the older man, standing over him and allegedly slamming his head into the sidewalk, Zimmerman claimed.
That’s when Zimmerman, allegedly fearing for his life, shot and killed the teen.
Forensic evidence and witnesses, who spoke at trial, backed Zimmerman’s contention that Martin had been standing over him during their struggle.
It took police in Sanford, Fla., about 30 minutes north of Orlando, 44 days to arrest Zimmerman, as local cops accepted his claims of self-defense – citing Florida’s 2005 “Stand Your Ground” laws as reason not to arrest him.
As outrage over the case grew and cries of racism came from all corners of the nation, a special prosecutor was appointed and accused Zimmerman of racial profiling, charging him with second-degree murder. He later turned himself in.
Zimmerman did not testify during the two-week trial.
The all-female jury has been sequestered.
Most members of the panel are married with children. Only one of the jurors, a married mom who works as a nurse, is black.
The rest of the panel, identified during the trial only by assigned numbers, included a retired, single woman without kids who worked in real estate; a property manager; a volunteer animal rescuer; a safety office who recently moved to Florida from Iowa and a woman who worked in financial services.
With Post Wire Services and additional reporting by David K. Li and Laura Italiano