Emotions ran high outside the George Zimmerman bond hearing at the Seminole County Courthouse in Sanford, Fla., after he was granted a bond of $150,000.
“We’re happy that at least there was a bond,” said Mark O’Mara, Zimmerman’s defense attorney. “We have several options. I don’t know where we’re going to end up. It’s a very difficult decision to make.”
Though optimistic about the outcome, O’Mara made it clear to the media that he is still very worried about the attention that the case is getting in terms of keeping families involved safe.
“It’s an enormously high-profile case, and there are a lot of high emotions that exist,” said O’Mara. “I don’t want them to spill over onto the family or my client.”
Though the Martin family attended the hearing, they declined to speak with the media. They were visibly upset with the outcome, and left immediately afterward.
Coming back to speak with the media on the Martin family’s behalf, attorney Benjamin Crump and his team said several times that the outcome wasn’t the only thing that they were unhappy about. They had a large problem with the apology delivered to the family by Zimmerman himself during the court hearing.
“Zimmerman made this self-serving apology in court 50 days later,” said Crump. “The real George Zimmerman’s website, and you all have reviewed it, never once said ‘I’m sorry.’ Why today?”
The Martin Family defense team said that they felt that the apology was not beneficial to anyone but Zimmerman himself. They felt that the apology should have been made privately rather than publicly.
While the defense and prosecution teams rarely agreed on anything, the one thing that both sides were firmly in agreement upon was not releasing any evidence at this time.
Prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda became irritated with the media when asked for an elaboration on various details, saying to “be patient, as we don’t have all of the evidence.”