Lawyer for Trayvon’s parents plays crucial role
Benjamin Crump seeks peaceful outcome
SANFORD, FLA. Benjamin Crump, the highest profile lawyer in the Trayvon Martin murder case, is just a spectator in the courtroom where the man who killed the unarmed 17year-old boy is about to be tried. But the soft-spoken attorney could play the biggest role in shaping the outcome of this racially tinged affair.
Crump is the legal adviser to Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, the divorced parents of the black teenager shot to death in February 2012 by George Zimmerman, a white Hispanic neighborhood watch volunteer.
Until the night Martin and Zimmerman had their deadly encounter, Sanford was best known as the end of the line for Amtrak’s Auto Train, which brings vacationers’ vehicles to central Florida. Now it is ground zero for a murder trial steeped in questions about vigilantism and racial profiling.
MEDIA SAVVY
Crump has had a lot to do with putting this murder case on the media’s radar. He held news conferences to demand Zimmerman’s arrest, led marches that attracted support from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, and echoed his clients’ demand for justice on national television.
With the disarming demeanor of a country lawyer, Crump first gained national attention in 2006 when he represented the family of Martin Lee Anderson, a 14-year-old who died after being roughed up by guards at a Florida boot camp for troubled youngsters. Crump’s handling of that case caused the state to close the camps and give the Anderson family a $5 million settlement.
This year, Crump’s push for justice in the Martin case resulted in the neighborhood association where the teenager was killed to reach an outof-court settlement with his family. But as aggressive as Crump has been in seeking compensation for Martin’s family, he is even more tireless in his efforts to make this case less about race than the quest for justice.
SEEKS FAIR VERDICT
“We don’t care what the racial makeup of the jury is,” Crump told me during an interview outside the courtroom. “We just want a jury that can put aside its biases, consider the evidence and deliver a fair verdict.”
Crump said if the trial is “fair and transparent,” Martin’s parents will accept the jury’s decision — even if it finds Zimmerman not guilty.
“They will accept the rule of law,” Crump said of his clients, who are not giving interviews during the trial. “But who knows what is in (a juror’s) heart? So that is why they are praying for a fair and impartial jury.”
Crump said Martin’s mother prays that God will help her forgive Zimmerman, who says he fired in self-defense. Prosecutors argue that he precipitated the shooting by pursuing the teen as he walked through the neighborhood during a light rain with the sweatshirt’s hood pulled up.
What’s certain, Crump said, is that he and Martin’s family will do everything they can to urge their supporters to accept the verdict with dignity — even if it frees Zimmerman. Moments later, Crump called for a peaceful response to the verdict during a television interview.
Afterward, Crump looked at me and said, “I think the jury will render a just verdict, and when it does, I hope the folks on the other side won’t act up, either.” Me, too.