Trayvon Martin Case: Not Much Has Changed Since The 17-Year-Old's Death

It's been exactly one year since the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin rattled the country and pushed the issues of gun violence and racial profiling back into the national discourse. 

In February of 2012, Martin was walking through his father's gated community in Florida when he was followed, approached and eventually gunned down by a 28-year-old man named George Zimmerman.  Although Martin was unarmed, Zimmerman claimed that he acted in self-defense and he wasn't arrested until two months after the incident took place.

Public opinion raged and demanded that Zimmerman be trialed for killing an unarmed tee.  The case was so influential that even President Obama made a comment about it, stating that if he had a son, that "he would look like Trayvon." 

Though this case moved many to march wearing hoodies, like the one that Trayvon was wearing the night he was killed, it hasn't done much to change the controversial law that Zimmerman is using to justify why he shot and killed the boy.  He is currently on trial and has pleaded not guilty to second degree murder.

According to the "Stand Your Ground" law, a legal gun owner is not required to retreat if and when they feel endangered.  Instead, the law gives that person the right to use deadly force against a perceived threat of bodily harm.  Critics argue that not only does the law empower people to use a deadly weapon without outlining the terms of reasonable suspicion.  In addition, there's a huge racial disparity with the law since it was passed in 2005.  In more than 200 cases where "stand your ground" was invoked in Florida, 70 percent of those accused avoided prosecution and "defendants claiming 'stand your ground' are more likely to prevail if the victim is black," according to an analysis by the Tampa Bay Tribune.

Last Friday, on Feb. 22, a 19-member task force commissioned by Florida Governor Rick Scott to study the state's 2005 self-defense law announced that they saw no reason to make changes to the statute, which allows citizens to use deadly force where they have the "presumption of fear of death or great bodily harm."

While Martin's parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin continue to fight to amend "Stand Your Ground" and to pass the "Trayvon Martin" amendment which would make it more difficult for someone who initiates an altercation to claim immunity under the state's self-defense law, sympathizers will gather in New York City's Union Square in memory of the teen's life today rallying for change.