21% Think Justice Department Should Charge Zimmerman With a Hate Crime
Most Americans don’t believe George Zimmerman was motivated by racism and do not believe he should be charged with a hate crime for shooting black teenager Trayvon Martin. But as with nearly every question regarding this case, there is wide racial disagreement.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 24% of all American Adults believe Zimmerman’s actions that led to Martin’s death were motivated primarily by racism. Fifty-four percent (54%) think the Hispanic Neighborhood Watch volunteer was chiefly motivated instead by a concern about burglaries in the neighborhood. Twenty-two percent (22%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording,click here.)
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The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on July 15-16, 2013 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.