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In her first television interview, George Zimmerman’s mother, Gladys, defended her son against charges of racism and expressed her faith in the judicial system as his case unfolds.
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“I feel that it’s about time, the time that all this commotion was happening, we were forced to leave our home,” Gladys Zimmerman said on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight. (Clips of the interview here). “We were forced to just disappear and because of the death threats that we were getting, it was very dangerous for us to — even to think about to come to defend our son.”
Obscured in shadows for her safety, Zimmerman answered Piers Morgan that the biggest misconception that people had about her son was that he was a racist. “That is something that, you know, people who don’t know George and people who knew George they didn’t bother to come up front and said, no, he’s not racist,” she said.
Zimmerman faces charges of second degree murder for the killing of African American teenager Trayvon Martin. When Morgan brought up the possibility that her son could face “25, 30 years in prison” if convicted, Gladys Zimmerman said that she believed in justice.
“I believe in the judicial system. I believe from the beginning that, you know, he is innocent, and I mean, the media had played a big role against my son. They had portrayed him in a bad, bad picture. But there is justice in America, and I believe in justice,” she said.
Zimmerman’s brother, Robert, who also appeared on the show, gave the host an update about George, saying that he was not currently incarcerated but that he’s required to stay in Seminole County, Fla. which has been a “little bit restrictive.”
MORE: New Evidence: No Trace of Trayvon Martin’s DNA on George Zimmerman’s Gun