Zimmerman Wants Florida to Pay Legal Bills

Aside from his lawyers' fees, state law requires Florida to cover George Zimmerman's legal costs because he was acquitted in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Suggested Reading Three Friends Were Headed To A Beyoncรฉ Concert, But One Dies On the Way. Guess What The Other Two Did Next? Our Fave…

Aside from his lawyers' fees, state law requires Florida to cover George Zimmerman's legal costs because he was acquitted in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

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That includes the cost of expert witnesses, travel, depositions, photocopies, even that animated 3-D video that defense attorneys showed jurors during closing argument that depicts Trayvon punching Zimmerman.

Defense attorneyย Mark O'Maraย said Monday that he would soon prepare a motion, asking Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson to authorize the payments.

That motion, he said, "is in the works."

Mark O'Mara said his office was still collecting the numbers, but the request could reach up to $300,000.

That would be on top of the estimated $902,000 that public agencies already have spent on Zimmerman's five-week second-degree murder trial that ended July 13.

The 29-year-old Zimmerman was found not guilty of second-degree murder or manslaughter by a six-memberย Seminole Countyย jury for shooting Trayvon [Martin], an unarmed black high-school junior from Miami Gardens, inย Sanford Feb. 26, 2012. Moments before the fight and shooting, Zimmerman had called police, describing the teenager as suspicious.

His acquittal prompted demonstrations across the country, including violence in Los Angeles and Oakland, Calif.

Read more at the Orlando Sentinel.

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