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Download After a year and a half of living as a hermit, George Zimmerman emerged from a Florida courthouse a free man, cleared of all charges in the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. His brother said the former neighborhood watch volunteer was still processing the reality he wouldn't serve prison time for the killing, which Zimmerman, 29, has maintained was an act of self-defense. A jury found him not guilty of second-degree murder late Saturday night and declined to convict him on a lesser charge of manslaughter. However, with many critics angry over his acquittal, his freedom will likely be limited. Demonstrators upset with the verdict protested mostly peacefully in Florida and Atlanta overnight, but some broke windows and vandalized a police squad car in Oakland during protests in four California cities, authorities said. "He's going to be looking over his shoulder the rest of his life," Robert Zimmerman Jr. said during an interview on CNN. Martin's killing in February 2017 unleashed furious debate across the US over racial profiling, self-defense and equal justice. Protesters across the country lashed out against police in the Orlando suburb of Sanford, outraged that it took 44 days for Zimmerman to be arrested. Many, including Martin's parents, claimed Zimmerman had racially profiled the unarmed black teen. Zimmerman identifies himself as Hispanic. Six anonymous female jurors - all but one of them white - considered nearly three weeks of often wildly conflicting testimony over who was the aggressor on the rainy night the 17-year-oldwas shot while walking through the gated townhouse community where he was staying and where Zimmerman lived. | 
