SANFORD, Fla. (CNN) — George Zimmerman, set to stand trial in the 2012 shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin, on Tuesday waived his right to a “stand your ground” pretrial immunity hearing.

Zimmerman’s attorneys have decided they will try this as a self-defense case.

Florida’s deadly force law, also called “stand your ground,” was passed in 2005.

It allows people to meet “force with force” if they believe they or someone else is in danger of being seriously harmed by an assailant. Under the law, a person can use deadly force anywhere as long as he is not engaged in an unlawful activity; is being attacked in a place he has a right to be; and reasonably believes that his life and safety are in danger as a result of an overt act or perceived threat committed by someone else.

In a pretrial immunity hearing, a judge would have ruled whether Zimmerman’s actions were protected under the “stand your ground” law; a ruling in favor of the defendant would have meant that no criminal or civil trial could proceed.

Martin was shot and killed on February 26, 2012, while returning from a nearby convenience store to his father’s fiancée’s house in a gated community in Sanford, Florida.

Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain, acknowledged that he shot the unarmed 17-year-old, but said Martin physically attacked him and he fired in self-defense.

Initially, no charges were pursued, and the case soon became the center of a national controversy.

Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder on April 11, 2012.

During Tuesday’s motions hearing, Zimmerman defense attorney Mark O’Mara told the judge there was nothing in the law that required the immunity hearing to take place before Zimmerman’s trial.
O’Mara said the hearing could be requested after the defense has presented its case, but “we’d much rather have the jury address the issue of criminal liability or lack thereof.”

After the motions hearing ended, prosecutors and defense attorneys were to meet in private with the judge to discuss jury issues for the June 10 trial.

SANFORD, Fla. — George Zimmerman, charged in the shooting death of a 17-year-old Florida boy, sued NBC Universal on Thursday for using “the oldest form of yellow journalism” by editing an audio tape of his 911 call to make him sound racist, the lawsuit said.

Zimmerman is seeking “damages in excess of the jurisdictional limit” in Seminole County Circuit Court in Florida, where the lawsuit is filed.

Zimmerman, who is Hispanic and is charged with second-degree murder, is accused of fatally shooting Trayvon Martin, who was African-American. The February incident has provoked national controversy.

Zimmerman says he shot Martin in self-defense. Attorneys for Martin’s family say the teen was shot and killed “in cold blood.”

“NBC saw the death of Trayvon Martin not as a tragedy but as an opportunity to increase ratings, and so set about to create the myth that George Zimmerman was a racist and predatory villain,” the lawsuit said.

“Because of NBC’s deceptive and exploitative manipulations, the public wrongly believes that Zimmerman ‘us(ed) a racial epithet’ while describing Martin during the call to the dispatcher on that fateful night,” the suit said.

A spokesman for NBC Universal couldn’t be reached immediately for comment.

The defamation lawsuit accuses the network of sensationalizing and manipulating a potential “racial powder keg that would result in months, if not years, of topics for their failing news program, particularly the plummeting ratings for their ailing Today Show.”

The edited recordings included multiple deletions, removed intervening dialogue between Zimmerman and the dispatcher and juxtaposed unrelated content “to make it appear that Zimmerman was a racist, and that he was racially profiling Trayvon Martin,” the lawsuit said.

NBC aired various edited versions of the 911 call on March 19, 20, 22 and 27, the suit said.

The suit accuses the network of malice, including correspondent Ron Allen’s segment on the Today Show on March 27.

“Allen’s broadcast removed a critical aspect of the dialogue between Zimmerman and the dispatcher, bringing the ‘up to no good’ and ‘he looks black’ statements even closer together, to further the false and defamatory implication that Zimmerman had said he believed Martin was ‘up to no good’ because ‘he looks black,’ ” the suit said.

The lawsuit accuses NBC of falsely claiming that Zimmerman said “f—ing coons” on the February 26 call.

“The truth, as known to the defendants, was that Zimmerman said ‘f_____ punks’ and there was no evidence, or reason to believe, that Zimmerman uttered a racial epithet during the call,” the suit said.

Zimmerman only mentioned Martin’s race when prompted by the dispatcher, the suit said.

NBC never aired an “earnest” retraction and never apologized to Zimmerman, who has since experienced death threats, a bounty on his head and a genuine fear for his life, the suit said. He now lives in hiding, court documents said.

“NBC’s President, Steve Capus, made a bogus non-apology that claimed the doctoring was merely a ‘mistake,’ ” the suit said.

Zimmerman wears a bulletproof vest and was even dismissed from his college because it felt the death threats endangered fellow students, the lawsuit said. At the time of the incident with Martin, Zimmerman was living in a community known as The Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford, Florida, court papers said.

“Due to the defendants’ journalistic crimes, Zimmerman has been transformed into one of the most hated men in America,” the suit said.

The suit also names as defendants Lilia Rodriguez Luciano of Dade County, Florida, who was reporting directly from Sanford County, Florida. She was terminated by NBC as a result of her reporting, the suit said.

Also named as a defendant is Jeffrey Burnside of Dade County, another journalist who was reporting from Sanford County to his station WTVJ in Miami, Florida, the suit said. Burnside was also fired by NBC, the suit said.

SANFORD, Fla — A photo posted online Monday shows George Zimmerman with blood on his nose and lips.

His attorneys say it was taken the night unarmed teen Trayvon Martin was killed in Sanford, Florida.

Zimmerman says he shot Martin in self-defense. Martin’s attorneys say he was shot and killed “in cold blood.”

Prosecutors have charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder for the February 26 killing.

The picture, posted Monday on Zimmerman’s defense website, was taken by a police officer, Zimmerman’s attorneys wrote.

The state had previously provided a black-and-white copy of the image, the attorneys wrote on the website. “This high resolution digital file was finally provided to the defense on October 29.”

A police report from the night of the incident said Zimmerman was “bleeding from the nose and back of his head.”

The 28-year-old volunteer neighborhood watchman was driving through his gated community when the incident occurred. Martin was walking through the neighborhood to his father’s girlfriend’s house.

Zimmerman has claimed that after the two exchanged words, Martin charged at him, knocked him to the ground and banged his head repeatedly against a concrete sidewalk.

Martin’s family says Zimmerman attacked the teen, who had done nothing wrong.

Martin’s death sparked nationwide protests and inflamed public passions over race relations and gun control, as well as Florida’s controversial “stand your ground” law, which allows the use of deadly force when a person perceives a threat to safety.
More on the story at CNN.com