For the second time, George Zimmerman—the man who is charged with second-degree murder for fatally shooting unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26—has been released from jail on bond. Zimmerman left jail a day after Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester granted a $1 million bail with strict conditions; he was able to raise bond thanks in part to over $20,000 in donations raised since Thursday. "He is very happy to be out. It's been a very sobering experience spending the last month in jail," Zimmerman attorney Don West told reporters.
In the conditions for his release, the judge banned him from leaving Seminole County without his permission and forbade him to have or open a bank account. The Orlando Sentinel characterizes Lester's tone in his nine-page order as one of moral indignation: "By any definition, the defendant has flouted the system," Lester wrote. "It appears to this court that the defendant is manipulating the system for his own benefit."
Lester was referring to the last time Zimmerman got out of jail: back in April, Zimmerman was released on $150K bond, but the judge revoked it after prosecutors presented evidence that Zimmerman and his wife misled the court about how much money they had available to pay for the bond. That included not mentioning the $135K+ amount of money Zimmerman's legal defense had made from donations on his website. Prosecutors argued Zimmerman and his wife talked in code during recorded jailhouse conversations—substituting "Peter Pan" for PayPal and "$155" for $155,000— about how to transfer the donations to different bank accounts.
Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon's mother, spoke to reporters at a news conference in New Orleans today with the Rev. Al Sharpton. She says that knowing her son's killer "may walk free sometime, one day, it really hurts," according to the AP.
