After the outcome became known late Saturday, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund said it would push for the Department of Justice to bring civil rights charges against Zimmerman, who was accused in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old black youth Trayvon Martin.
Speaking to NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, NAACP president and CEO Benjamin Jealous compared the Zimmerman trial to the one six decades ago of two white men who were acquitted for the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till, a black teen in Mississippi.
"We hoped that the verdict this time would reflect the gravity of what happened," he told host Rachel Martin. "The reality is that if Mr. Zimmerman had done what the police had asked and stayed in his vehicle, Mr. Martin would still be with his family today."
