Nearly 450K sign NAACP petition calling for DOJ investigation into Trayvon Martin shooting
By Orlando Sentinel
6:08 pm, July 14, 2013
Nearly 450,000 people have signed a petition created by the NAACP after a jury found George Zimmerman not-guilty in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin Saturday, calling for the U.S. Department of Justice to launch a civil rights investigation.
"A jury has acquitted George Zimmerman, but we are not done demanding justice for Trayvon Martin. Sign our petition to the Department of Justice today," read a note accompanying the petition on MoveOn.org, which partnered with the NAACP and urged people to sign on its site as well. read.
By mid-afternoon Sunday, the petition had garnered more than 275,000 signatures on the NAACP site, and the petition by MoveOn.org drew almost 175,000.
The petition, created by NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous, and addressed to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, calls for the DOJ to file "civil rights charges against Mr. Zimmerman for this egregious violation."
On Sunday afternoon, a DOJ spokesperson released statement, which read, in part:
"As the Department first acknowledged last year, we have an open investigation into the death of Trayvon Martin...Experienced federal prosecutors will 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."
Jealous' petition argues that, "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...Please address the travesties of the tragic death of Trayvon Martin by acting today."
The petition is linked from both the NAACP web site and from Moveon.org. News reports earlier today said the NAACP website had crashed because of the number of people rushing to sign the petition.