Photo Credit: APBy DAVID MARTOSKO. The U.S. Department of Justice, overseen by Attorney General Eric Holder, has ordered the Sanford, Florida police department to keep possession of all the evidence from George Zimmerman’s second-degree murder trial – including the exonerated neighborhood watch volunteer’s gun.
Sanford police confirmed on Thursday that the DOJ asked the agency not to return any pieces of evidence to their owners. Zimmerman was expected to get his firearm back by month’s end.
The development is a sign that the criminal section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is seriously investigating Zimmerman to determine if federal civil rights charges should be filed.
Zimmerman was acquitted of murder and manslaughter on Sunday in a Florida courtroom, but civil rights violations provide an exception to the U.S. Constitution’s protection against double jeopardy after a defendant has been found ‘not guilty’ in a state or local jurisdiction.
That’s because if Zimmerman were tried in federal court, he would be charged with violating Trayvon Martin’s civil rights, not causing his death.
Read more from this story HERE.
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Photo Credit: Fox NewsFed’s Expand Fishing Expedition to Find Any History of Racism in Zimmerman’s Past
By FOX NEWS. Amid pressure from the NAACP and several Democratic lawmakers to pursue Zimmerman, the department expanded its probe Wednesday by setting up a public email address asking for any tips or information regarding the case.
The department also held a conference call with civil rights leaders on Monday.
The conference call included DOJ officials, along with representatives from the FBI and federal prosecutors. They spoke to civil rights leaders from Sanford, Fla., as well as others from around the country.
The call was convened by Tom Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division.
A Justice official told Fox News that both the conference call and the email address asking for tips and information are fairly standard procedure when dealing with a high-profile investigation such as this one. The department has used such tip lines in the past, including in a probe last year of the Albuquerque, N.M., police department. Read more from this story HERE.