IN RE: gzdefensefund.com (UPDATES) / Rep.

Frederica Wilson - February 7, 2013 Lake Mary, Florida

FROM THE DESK OF ROBERT ZIMMERMAN JR

An open Letter to The Honorable Congresswoman Frederica Wilson (D-FL) / 24th District of Florida:

Dear Congresswoman,

On Tuesday February 05, 2013 you introduced a resolution honoring the life of Trayvon Martin, urging the repeal of Stand Your Ground laws, and calling on the United States government to address the crisis of racial profiling. Your office released the following statement: Today, Trayvon Martin would have celebrated his 18th birthday. We all know the tragic circumstances surrounding his murder: Trayvon was racially profiled, chased, made to fight for his life, and ultimately murdered. Yet we as a nation have yet to take substantive action to stop such a heartbreaking incident from happening again. Enough is enough: We as a nation have buried too many young black boys. Lets set Congress on course to address the underlying causes behind the crisis that Trayvons death symbolizes. Lets take action to stop racial profiling and give our people a chance to succeed. Let me begin by stating that the Zimmerman Family, from the night of February 26 to this day, has viewed any loss of life, including Trayvon Martins as a tragic event. I have gone out of my way on several occasions to express this view and to express our sympathy to Tracy Martin, Sybrina Fulton and Jahvaris Fulton. It is unfortunate and inappropriate that as a member of Congress, you have used the weight and credibility afforded your words by virtue of your position as a legislative official to promote bias on a pending legal case against a defendant who must be presumed innocent in accordance with law. The Constitution of the United States which you swore to uphold establishes the principles of a defendants right to a fair trial, and a defendants right to be presumed innocent until such time a court of law finds otherwise. You assert in your statement that Trayvon Martin was murdered and that we all know the tragic circumstances surrounding his murder as a rationale for your assertion. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Only a court of law can determine if anyone who passed away in any situation was in fact murdered, or if they met death as a consequence of their own actions. Until a court does or does not make that determination the Constitution has made the determination that in our country the accused are in fact regarded as innocent in the eyes of the law.

To be clear: There is not now, nor has there ever been, any evidence that suggests my brother George Zimmerman racially profiled Trayvon Martin. Information released from the FBI demonstrates no evidence of racism at all on the part of George. Rather, it quite extensively documents the opposite. Equating the actions of anyone forced to use a firearm to defend themselves with the underlying causes that are responsible for the too many young black boys that our nation has buried is irresponsible and misleading. Further, it is insulting to the collective intellect of rational people. The evidence presented in court will continue to show that George Zimmerman showed tremendous restraint while enduring a sustained brutal attack at the hands of Trayvon Martin, and that he fired his gun to save his own life not to take anothers. The reality is that George Zimmerman acted in self-defense, and using your positions leverage to jeopardize his right to a fair trial is unethical and divisive. Citizens lawfully carrying weapons that they are forced to use in order to defend themselves from savage attacks cannot be cited as any kind of substantive contributor to the high homicide rate of African-Americans. There are many reasons for the homicide statistics of the African-American community, and George does not symbolize any of them. Your constituents, as well as Americans generally should be concerned about your ability to carry out your duties objectively. Your position of promoting a racially-driven narrative of a murder that has never been proven is inconsistent with reality and flies in the face of the central tenet of our judicial philosophy: The presumption of innocence. This is the standard the world aspires to: a sacred standard ordained by our founders in the Constitution as the cornerstone of our judicial system, not a mere suggestion that your un-founded assertions supersede.