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Outside the courthouse, perhaps a hundred protesters who had been gathering through the night, their numbers building as the hours passed, began pumping their fists in the air, waving placards and chanting No justice, no peace! Sheriffs deputies lined up inside the courthouse, watching the crowd, who were chanting peacefully, but intently.

By 11:20, more than an hour after the verdict had been read, the crowd outside the courtroom had begun to dwindle; fists were no longer aloft, placards had come down.

Among the last of the protesters to leave the courthouse lawn was Mattie Aikens, 33, of Sanford. She had been standing outside since noon, holding a bag of Skittles and a can of Arizona watermelon drink, which Mr. Martin was carrying the night he was shot. More than an hour after the verdict, she was still shocked. He should have went to prison, she said. He should have just got guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty.

Mark OMara, one of Mr. Zimmermans lawyers, said, George Zimmerman was never guilty of anything except firing the gun in self-defense.

In a news conference following the verdict, Angela B. Corey, the state attorney who brought the charges, rebuffed the suggestion that her office overcharged Mr. Zimmerman.

We charged what we had based on the facts of the case, she said. We truly believe the mind-set of George Zimmerman and the reason he was doing what he did fit the bill for second-degree murder.

Calling it a very trying time, Benjamin Crump, a Martin family lawyer, said he had urged Mr. Martins parents to stay out of the courtroom for the verdict. They were home and planning to attend church on Sunday. The parents, he said, were grateful for all the support.

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Zimmerman Is Acquitted in Trayvon Martin Killing - The New ...