Florida must pay Zimmerman's legal costs, says lawyer

[Loki]

Florida must pay Zimmerman's legal costs, says lawyer

The lawyer for a Florida man cleared of killing an unarmed black teenager has reportedly said he will ask the state to pay some of his client's legal fees.

The attorney told a local newspaper he would ask a judge to authorise between $200,000 (£130,000) and $300,000 to cover George Zimmerman's expenses.

Under Florida law, the state must cover the cost as Mr Zimmerman was acquitted, said the defence lawyer, Mark O'Mara.

Mr Zimmerman, 29, was found not guilty in July of Trayvon Martin's death.

The neighbourhood watchman admitted shooting the 17-year-old in an Orlando suburb last year, but said it was an act of self-defence. The case fiercely divided the US.

Mr O'Mara told the Orlando Sentinel that the state of Florida was obliged to pay his client's legal expenses, except for the cost of his lawyer.

He said this would include the costs of expert witnesses, travel, paying for transcripts and an animated video that the defence team used to reconstruct their account of the fatal confrontation in a gated community in the town of Sanford.

[YeshAtid]

After the ordeal he had endured for months upon months it is only right that Florida pay his legal fees.

[larali]

Good... if I was defending myself and my neighborhood from some thug and then had to deal with the fallout, I'd hope that my state would pay for the ordeal as well.

[Acquisitor]

Good... if I was defending myself and my neighborhood from some thug and then had to deal with the fallout, I'd hope that my state would pay for the ordeal as well.

this entire "Zimmerman case" is a horrible example of PC gone wrong imo, and that includes your president, who made completely inappropriate comments about "that black teen who could had been his son". disgusting.

A thug attacks you, damages your health, you feel rightfully threatened so you take your gun and end his life to save yours.

well done, nothing to talk about, I would have done the same, and most others would as well.

[Dombra]

Does Florida give him protection? After that pc rage I would not want to show myself in public

[Oneeye]

The media outlets that slandered him should owe recompense.

[The Illyrian Warrior]

OFF TOPIC: Since when you stand with Gigolo (gypsies).

[HarbingerMX]

To be fair the state should take that money out of blacks welfare checks.

[Bobby Six Killer]

To be fair the state should take that money out of blacks welfare checks.

Or cuban refugee scum

[HarbingerMX]

Or cuban refugee scum

Yeah, those reffy niggers too! Fuckin welfare moochers. They get off the boat and start collecting food stamps and stealing from medicare and shit. They need to start deporting their asses and let more of us hardworking Mejicanos in.