Justice Department Announces George Zimmerman Will Not Face Federal Charges

On Tuesday, the Justice Department announced that George Zimmerman, the former neighborhood watch volunteer who fatally shot Trayvon Martin in a 2012, will not face federal charges.

This official decision resolves a case that brought tons of the country’s attention about race relation and self defense.

The Associated Press reports:

Zimmerman has maintained that he acted in self-defense when he shot the 17-year-old Martin during a confrontation inside a gated community in Sanford, Florida, just outside Orlando. Martin, who was black, was unarmed when he was killed. Zimmerman identifies himself as Hispanic.

Once Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder by a state jury in July 2013, Martin’s family turned to the federal investigation in final hopes that he would be held accountable for the shooting.

That probe focused on whether the killing could be charged as a federal hate crime and on whether Zimmerman willfully deprived Martin of his civil rights, a difficult legal standard to

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