The parents of Trayvon Martin this week called for federal officials to investigate the prosecutor who decided not to charge their son’s killer. The family alleges that State Attorney Norm Wolfinger, who has since stepped down from the case, met with the Sanford, Fla., police chief hours after the 17-year-old’s death and overruled a detective’s recommendation that the shooter, neighborhood-watch volunteer George Zimmerman, be charged with manslaughter. Wolfinger dismissed the allegations as “outright lies” and said no such meeting took place. Zimmerman claims that he shot Martin in self-defense after the unarmed black teen assaulted him. But his account was called into question by two audio forensic experts, who concluded that a voice heard calling for help moments before the shooting—captured on a neighbor’s 911 call—was not Zimmerman’s, as his supporters claimed.
Right-wing pundits have been disturbingly quick to defend Zimmerman, said David Carr in The New York Times. DrudgeReport.com, a conservative blog, published numerous stories casting doubt on “how much of a victim Trayvon was.” The site claimed he had been repeatedly suspended from school, and published pictures of the teen striking hip-hop poses. “The facile implication was that the young man was obviously well-acquainted with thug life” and got what he deserved.
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