George Zimmerman’s medical report from after Trayvon Martin shooting released
George Zimmerman seen here after his arrest on April 11, 2012. Zimmerman’s arrest follows weeks of anger and debate throughout the country in response to the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman’s attorney said his client would plead not guilty and invoke Florida’s “stand your ground” law, which gives people wide latitude to use deadly force rather than retreat during a fight.
George Zimmerman's medical report was released late Tuesday night to ABC News, and revealed that Zimmerman was diagnosed with a "closed fracture" of his nose, a pair of black eyes, two lacerations to the back of his head, and a minor back injury after the altercation that ended with him killing Trayvon Martin.
Zimmerman also reportedly declined hospitalization the day after, and said he "got nauseous" thinking about the shooting, local NBC affiliate WJHG reported. His doctor recommended that he see a psychologist.
Zimmerman, who has been accused of second-degree murder for killing 17-year-old Martin, told police that the teen knocked him to the ground and repeatedly hit his head against a concrete sidewalk after their conversation escalated, CNN reported.
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The medical report appears to easily support those claims, as well as statements made by Zimmerman's father, brother and lawyer, according to CNN.
"We're confident the medical records are going to explain all of George's medical history," Robert Zimmerman Jr. said in a March interview with CNN's Piers Morgan. "You return force with force when somebody assaults you. George was out of breath, he was barely conscious. George (would have been) dead if he had not acted decisively and instantaneously in that moment."
Some legal analysts believe that the facts revealed in Zimmerman's medical report will help his case, according to WJHG.
“The fact that real injuries were suffered is certainly going to help self-defense claim, but it doesn't answer the question of who started what happened to have been a fatal fight that night,” says former US attorney Kendall Coffey.
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Zimmerman has pled "not guilty" to the charges against him, CNN reported. He acknowledges that he shot Martin but claims that he did so out of self-defense.
The medical examiner who did an autopsy on Trayvon Martin found two injuries on his body: the gunshot wound that killed him, and broken skin on his knuckles, according to WFTV.
"It goes along with Zimmerman's story that he acted in self-defense, because he was getting beaten up by Trayvon Martin,” WFTV's legal analyst Bill Sheaffer said. “[But] it could also be consistent with Trayvon either trying to get away or defend himself."