Next for Zimmerman: safety concerns, Justice weighing civil rights case

Published July 14, 2013 / FoxNews.com

The Justice Department said Sunday that it will review the George Zimmerman case for possible civil rights violations, after a jury acquitted the Florida neighborhood watch volunteer in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, while Zimmerman's attorney says his client's safety is at risk.

NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous started the drive by posting a petition Sunday morning on the website MoveOn.org that is addressed to Attorney General Eric Holder.

"The most fundamental of civil rights -- the right to life -- was violated the night George Zimmerman stalked and then took the life of Trayvon Martin," Jealous wrote in the petition.

The Justice Department has already been reviewing the handling of the criminal case in which Zimmerman, a Hispanic, fatally shot Martin, a black teen, in February 2012, raising concerns about such issues as racial profiling and equal justice.

"The Department of Justice's Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division, the United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation continue to evaluate the evidence generated during the federal investigation, as well as the evidence and testimony from the state trial," the Justice Department said in a statement Sunday. "Experienced federal prosecutors will [now] determine whether the evidence reveals a prosecutable violation of any of the limited federal criminal civil rights statutes within our jurisdiction, and whether federal prosecution is appropriate in accordance with the Department's policy governing successive federal prosecution following a state trial."

A all-female six-member jury announced late Saturday that it found Zimmerman ‘not guilty’ of all counts against him, which included charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter.

Jealous told CNN’s “State of the Union on Sunday morning, “There is reason to be concerned that race was a factor in why (Zimmerman) targeted young Trayvon.”

He also said he has not spoken directly with Holder but has spoken to his senior people.

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He also said he has not spoken directly with Holder but has spoken to his senior people.

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