George Zimmerman, who shot unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin, appears in court today to face charges of second degree murder. Now his lawyer says he is concerned about getting a fair trial.

It has taken more than 40 days to reach this point: 45 days, to be exact, since neighbourhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin as he walked through a gated community in the Florida town of Sanford. 45 days since the local police chief decided not to arrest Zimmerman because it might violate his human rights.

Last night, after Florida's special prosecutor, Angela Corey, announced that Zimmerman was now in custody and would face a charge of second degree murder, Trayvon Martin's mother Sabrina Fulton was dignified despite her grief. "We simply wanted an arrest," she said, while the teenager's father Tracy Martin added: "We will continue to walk by faith, we will continue to hold hands on this journey. White, black, Hispanic, Latino... we will march until the right thing is done."

George Zimmerman's new lawyer, Mark O'Mara, who is no stranger to appearing in the public eye, expressed his fears that a case which has sparked such a national firestorm about race and crime, could ever allow his client a fair hearing. "He is a client who has a lot of hatred focused on him," he said. "I'm hoping the hatred settles down."

Angela Corey has already taken pains to stress that her decision to prosecute had nothing to do with the public pressure for charges to be bought, yet there is so much evidence and speculation out there, it seems a tough challenge to find a jury that can look at the facts afresh. Since the shooting happened, you could have listened to the original 911 call in full - or a deliberately edited version, for which heads have rolled at one TV network.