Trayvon Martin family attorney: 'This isn't about race'

SANFORD, Fla. – In a case that prompted a national debate on race, a surprise statement Thursday afternoon by one of the Martins' family attorneys Daryl Parks, "We want to make it very clear, to this family, race is not a part of this process and anybody you tries to inject race into it is wrong. Let's be clear about it, very clear, this family does not want race as a part of this process and does not believe it should be a part of this process." 

I asked him, "you say race is not a factor but the Martins stood right there with the civil rights leaders at rallies all across the country as the racial undertones were building on this case, it seems a little disingenuous that all of a sudden you are saying that for this family it's not about race."

Parks responded, "The one time that we have said that you ought to consider and no one disagrees with it, not even you would disagree, that if it was reversed, if was reversed and it was Trayvon who shot Zimmerman. What do you think would happen?"

The news conference coming on the heels of a bombshell comment the state's key witness Rachel Jeantel delivered in court. Jeantel was the last person to speak with Trayvon Martin before he died. She was on the phone with him when the late teen left 7-eleven and was walking back to his father's girlfriend's town home. She was on the phone with Martin when he first spotted George Zimmerman who she says he described as a "creep a__ cracker". 

You may recall this case generated civil rights rallies nationwide. Now at trial, defense co-counsel Don West turning the debate on its head while questioning Jeantel. 

Don West: "So it was racial but it was because Trayvon Martin put race in this?"
Rachel Jeantel: No 
West: You don't think that's a racial comment?
Jeantel: No
West: You don't think that creepy a__ cracker is a racial comment?
Jeantel: No 

"She put it into context that some, a lot of people loosely use language right they probably shouldn't use right?" said Parks at a Thursday news conference. He also highlighted how Jeantel also testified that at one point Martin referred to Zimmerman using the N-word. "I think the irony of it is that how he used the C-word and the N-word to describe the same person, right? That's the irony so that let's you know that in terms of meaning it didn't have any significant meaning of the meaning to anyone, it's just a slang that he used for his age group."