Social Media Campaign demands justice for a 17 year old

An international petition, celebrity tweets, and spreading public outrage, has forced the US Justice Department to open an investigation on Monday into the shooting of a 17 year old black teenager. He was killed on Feb 26 in Florida by a neighbourhood watch captain who escaped arrest.
 
"The department will conduct a thorough and independent review of all of the evidence and take appropriate action at the conclusion of the investigation," the department said.

The campaign to draw attention to the case is the third largest in Change.org's history, and surpassed a petition of about 300,000 signatures credited last year with persuading Bank of America to drop plans for a $5 debit card fee, said Megan Lubin, a Change.org spokeswoman.


The victim's family lawyer, Ben Crump, said public pressure was behind an earlier promise by the US Justice Department to review the case. And some Florida legislators are moving to consider a change in the law to prevent a recurrence.

"People all over the world, more than 400,000 people, said we demand you make an arrest. That's what is building pressure to look at it," Mr Crump said.