Trayvon Martin: The Latest, Week 33

By: Jenée Desmond-Harris | Posted: October 18, 2012 at 11:26 AM

Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin (Getty Images)

Thursday, Oct. 18, 11:17 a.m. EDT: "Stand your ground" hearing this spring? After a hearing setting June 10 as the start date for George Zimmerman's trial, his defense team tweeted that they will likely ask for a "Stand your ground" hearing in April or May, the Washington Post reports. Under Florida law, Zimmerman can request the hearing and argue his self-defense case before the trial.

Wednesday, Oct. 17, 11:57 a.m. EDT: George Zimmerman trial set for June: A judge has set a tentative trial date next year for George Zimmerman, the neighborhood-watch volunteer charged with fatally shooting Trayvon Martin. Judge Debra S. Nelson set June 10 as the start of his second-degree-murder trial, the Associated Press reports.

Tuesday, Oct. 16: Trayvon's parents launch Change for Trayvon: Trayvon Martin's parents have unveiled a new website and political committee aimed at changing Florida's controversial "Stand your ground" law, the Orlando Sentinel reports. A new committee called Change for Trayvon and a corresponding website will collect funds to "be distributed to candidates, elected officials and efforts which support the mission of ... revising Stand Your Ground laws across the nation to ensure there is judicial or prosecutorial oversight," the site says.

Monday, Oct. 15, 2012, 9:48 a.m. EDT: Zimmerman's lawyer addresses race and criminal justice: Responding to a statement by Martin-family attorney Benjamin Crump, in which he called race "the elephant in the room" in the second-degree-murder case surrounding Trayvon Martin's death, George Zimmerman's attorney, Mark O'Mara, said, "What Mr. Crump is saying is that race is an issue in the George Zimmerman case because he insists that if a black man shot a white person in a similar situation, the black man would have been immediately arrested. This is not an indictment of George Zimmerman; this is fundamentally an accusation that the Sanford Police Department acted in a racist way, and that perhaps the criminal-justice system at large is biased against black men." Read more at Global Grind.

Read last week's updates on the Trayvon Martin case here.

Read all of The Root's news and commentary about the Trayvon Martin case here.

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