Special Prosecutor Angela Corey

Florida State Attorney Angela Corey announced Monday that the Trayvon Martin shooting case will not go to the grand jury. The jury had been scheduled to convene April 10 by State Attorney Norm Wolfinger. But after a firestorm of criticism of his office and the police in the investigation of the unarmed teenager’s killing, Wolfinger was taken off the case March 22 by Gov. Rick Scott, who appointed the hard-nosed Corey as special prosecutor.

Her decision not to go to the grand jury was no surprise. She has said previously she has never gone to a grand jury with a justifiable homicide case. On March 29, she told the Miami Herald:  ”I always lean towards moving forward without needing the Grand Jury in a case like this. I foresee us being able to make a decision and move it on our own.”

Corey would only require the grand jury’s imprimatur if she planned to file capital murder charges. Few people thought it was ever a possibility that such charges would be laid against George Zimmerman, the 28-year-old self-appointed crime-stopper who shot Martin after he followed him in a gated community where he lived and Martin had been visiting.

The confrontation that ensued has generated claims and counterclaims, leaked police documents, videos and enhancements of videos, recorded phone calls and enhancements of those calls, the views of experts and witnesses about what was said on those calls and who was screaming on one of them. Only three things can be said with absolute certainty: Trayvon Martin is dead, it was George Zimmerman’s bullet that made him that way and the public discourse about the case has not seen the like for a very long time.

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