Trayvon Martin’s parents plead with Gov. Scott’s task force to change ‘Stand Your Ground’

by Dara Kam | June 12th, 2012 Benjamin Crump, Sybrina Fulton, Jahvaris Fulton and Tracy Martin



LONGWOOD _ Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, the parents of the unarmed black teenager shot to death by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in February, made an impassioned plea to change the state’s Stand Your Ground law that they say encourages vigilantism.

Zimmerman claimed he shot their son Trayvon Martin in self-defense, permissible under the state’s Stand Your Ground law that allows people to use deadly force when they feel threatened.


“I believe my son was standing his ground…He was afraid,” Fulton told reporters outside the mega-church where the public is now addressing the task force for the first time since Scott created it after a national outcry over a delay in the arrest of Zimmerman. Authorities arrested Zimmerman two months after the Feb. 26 shooting in Sanford. “They do need to review these laws. “He was afraid…This is personal. They do need to review these laws.”


The couple also delivered 375,000 online petitions collected by Second Chance on Shoot First, a national campaign co-founded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.


“This is definitely personal to us. Our son has been sacrificed,” Tracy Martin said. “It’s a bad law. These laws are set up basically for the shooter to take an innocent life.”


Tracy Martin also disputed Zimmerman’s claim of self-defense, saying he ignored 911 operators instructions to remain in his vehicle and not to pursue Martin.
“He was defending himself against what?” Martin said.


The law gives the message that “it’s OK to be a vigilante in our society today,” Martin said. “The public is not going to stand around for it and we certainly aren’t going to stand around for it.”