“We do not prosecute by public pressure or by petition. We prosecute based on the facts on any given case as well as the laws of the state of Florida,” Corey said.

Martin’s parents, who were in Washington when the announcement came, expressed relief over the decision to prosecute the killer of their 17-year-old son.

“The question I would really like to ask him is, if he could look into Trayvon’s eyes and see how innocent he was, would he have then pulled the trigger? Or would he have just let him go on home?” said his father, Tracy Martin.

Many legal experts had expected the prosecutor to opt for the lesser charge of manslaughter, which usually carries 15 years behind bars and covers reckless or negligent killings, rather than second-degree murder, which involves a killing that results from a “depraved” disregard for human life.

The most severe homicide charge, first-degree murder, is subject to the death penalty in Florida and requires premeditation — something that all sides agreed was not present in this case.

“I predicted manslaughter, so I’m a little surprised,” said Michael Seigel, a former federal prosecutor who now teaches law at the University of Florida. “But she has more facts that I do.”

Zimmerman’s new attorney, Mark O’Mara, said Zimmerman will plead not guilty and will invoke Florida’s powerful “stand your ground” law, which gives people wide leeway to use deadly force without having to retreat in the face of danger.

The lawyer asked that people not jump to conclusions about his client’s guilt and said he is “hoping that the community will calm down” now that charges have been filed.

“I’m expecting a lot of work and hopefully justice in the end,” O’Mara said.

Zimmerman, whose father is white and whose mother Hispanic, turned himself in earlier in the day and will make a court appearance as early as Thursday, when his lawyer plans to ask for bail.

Corey’s decision followed an extraordinary 45-day campaign by Martin’s parents to have Zimmerman arrested despite his claim that he shot in self-defense. They were joined by civil rights activists such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, as well as many politicians and supporters in Sanford and cities across the nation.

Protesters wore hooded sweatshirts like the one Martin had on. And the debate reached all the way to the White House, where President Barack Obama observed last month: “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”

The confrontation took place in a gated community where Martin was staying with his father and his father’s fiancée. Martin was walking back in the rain from a convenience store when Zimmerman spotted him and called 911. He followed Martin despite being told not to by a police dispatcher, and the two got into a struggle.

Zimmerman told police Martin punched him in the nose, knocking him down, and then began banging Zimmerman’s head on the sidewalk. Zimmerman claimed he shot Martin in fear for his life.

A judge could dismiss the charge based on “stand your ground,” legal experts said. But not if prosecutors can show Zimmerman was to blame.

“If you’re the aggressor, you’re not protected by this law,” said Carey Haughwout, public defender in Palm Beach County.

Zimmerman’s brother Robert Zimmerman told CNN on Wednesday night: “Our brother literally had to save his life by taking a life. And that’s a situation nobody wants to be in, ever.”

On Tuesday, Zimmerman’s former lawyers portrayed him as erratic and in precarious mental condition. O’Mara, who signed on after Zimmerman’s previous attorneys withdrew, said that Zimmerman seemed to be in a good state of mind but that the pressure had weighed mightily on him.

“He is troubled by everything that has happened. I cannot imagine living in George Zimmerman’s shoes for the past number of weeks. Because he has been at the focus of a lot of anger, and maybe confusion and maybe some hatred, and that has to be difficult,” the attorney said.

O’Mara also said the difficult case is compounded by the heavy media attention, which might make it hard to seat an impartial jury. Corey, similarly, complained: “So much information got released on this case that never should have been released. We have to protect this prosecution and this investigation for Trayvon, for George Zimmerman.”

Corey, the prosecutor in Jacksonville, was appointed to handle the case by Republican Gov. Rick Scott after the local prosecutor disqualified himself. She has tried hundreds of homicide cases and is known for tough tactics aimed at locking up criminals for a long time and making it difficult to negotiate light plea bargains.

The U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights division is conducting its own investigation. But federal authorities typically wait until a state prosecution is complete before deciding how to proceed.

Tensions had risen in recent days in Sanford, a town of 50,000 outside Orlando. Someone shot up an unoccupied police car Tuesday as it sat outside the neighborhood where Martin was killed. But as the hour of the prosecutor’s announcement neared, the Martin family and their lawyer pleaded for calm.

Outside Sanford City Hall, Stacy Davis, a black woman, said she was glad to see Zimmerman under arrest.

“It’s not a black or white thing for me. It’s a right or wrong thing. He needed to be arrested,” she said. “I’m happy because maybe that boy can get some rest.”

___

Farrington reported from Tallahassee, Fla. Associated Press writers Curt Anderson in Miami, Kyle Hightower in Sanford and Mike Schneider in Orlando contributed.

As of Tuesday, 424,000 Republican absentee ballots had been mailed — to military personnel, overseas residents and other Floridians — and about 84,000 had been returned in a state that has 4 million registered Republican voters. Early voting in Hillsborough, Hardy, Hendry, Monroe and Collier counties begins Monday and runs through Jan. 29. Florida’s other 62 counties will hold early voting Jan. 21-28.

Republican insiders expect as many as a third of the GOP ballots to be cast early in the effort to choose a nominee to oppose President Barack Obama.

“It’s pointing towards record turnout,” said state GOP spokesman Brian Hughes, adding that the number of Republican absentee ballots requested is more than 200,000 ahead of the 2008 pace at the same point before the election. “We’re seeing an enthusiasm not only around being involved in picking our nominee, but beyond that, making sure we beat Obama.”

Of all the candidates, Romney had the biggest jump on early voters, who started receiving ballots before he notched his first win at the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses.

The former Massachusetts governor’s campaign is better organized in Florida than any other. And it immediately sent out literature to court voters as soon as ballots were sent in December. That meant some people opened their mailboxes to find both a ballot and an appeal from Romney.

At the same time, an outside group supportive of Romney — the Restore Our Future super PAC — went on the air with TV ads backing him in mid-December, the ads timed to coincide with the delivery of ballots. It has spent more than $750,000 on TV ads.

Romney himself went on the air just after the first of the year. He’s spent roughly $800,000 on TV ads so far. No other campaign or candidate-aligned super PAC is on the air.

“Even as Iowa was beginning to heat up, we were already messaging absentee voters in Florida,” said Brett Doster, a Tallahassee-based Romney aide. “There were already votes being cast and I can assure you that they got Romney messaging and it looks like they weren’t getting any messaging from anyone else.”

That was true until Texas Rep. Ron Paul’s campaign recently got in the game and sent out its own literature. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s campaign planned to start doing the same this week, adding to efforts by its volunteers — and automated calls — to encourage early voting.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign also has asked volunteers to make calls and has paid for automated calls. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Pennsylvania Sen. Santorum have done little to woo early voters.

Elizabeth Pike, a 71-year-old retiree from Pompano Beach, is among those who already have voted. She cast her absentee ballot for Gingrich — but not because she was courted by the campaign.

“He was speaker of the House. When he wanted to get something through, he was very successful,” said Pike. “He can speak well and he could represent us well.”

In 2008, about 554,000 absentee ballots were cast overall among nearly 1.2 million early votes cast, but the number of Democratic ballots requested this year is far lower, since Obama doesn’t have a primary challenger.

This year, the ballots aren’t being returned nearly as quickly as they’re going out.

Orange County elections supervisor Bill Cowles said he thinks many voters have been waiting to see what happens in other early states before making up their minds.

Part of that may be to make sure their preferred candidate doesn’t drop out before Florida votes.

Seminole County elections supervisor Michael Ertel said he remembers receiving a lot of calls when Republican Fred Thompson dropped out of the 2008 race a week before Florida voted. They wanted to know if they could have their ballot back and vote again. They were out of luck.

“Once you’ve cast your absentee ballot,” Ertel said, “you’ve cast your ballot.”

The piano was a mystery for about a month. On Jan. 1, 2011, the charred instrument showed up on a Biscayne Bay sandbar, a couple hundred yards from shore. A 16-year-old student eventually admitted he put it there as part of an art project. A day after it was removed, someone set up a table with two chairs, place settings and a bottle of wine.

It’s still not clear how the 100-pound, 8-foot-tall Lego man washed ashore. The local tourism bureau hoped to use Lego man to promote the area, but the man who found it has placed a claim on it. He can keep it if the owner doesn’t collect it before early next year. As for the bar-bank robber, he was arrested at his watering hole, not too long after the holdup.

Author Tim Dorsey, whose novels include Florida strangeness both real and fantasy, said the state is an odd place because of its diverse, highly transient population.

“There’s pockets of strangeness all over the country, but here it’s a baseline lifestyle. There, it’s the aberration. There, it’s the tail end of the bell curve. Here, it’s the peak of the bell curve,” Dorsey said.

Young people made up a large part of the peculiar tales.

In Palm Beach County, an elementary school teacher opened an end-of-the-year gift from an 8-year-old student’s grandmother and found toiletries and a loaded handgun. A Tampa woman upset with her 15-year-old son’s bad grades forced him to stand on a street corner with a sign that read: “Honk if I need an education.”

A 15-year-old Florida Keys girl who is a big fan of the “Twilight” books and movies was afraid that her mother would get upset by the bite marks her boyfriend gave her after they acted out her vampire fantasy. She made up a story about being attacked; doubtful investigators got her to tell the truth.

Deputies arrested an 18-month-old’s father after they found the man passed out in his mobile home while the toddler was in the yard picking up beer cans and drinking them.

Pasco County deputies said a woman walked into a bank with a 3-year-old boy and robbed it. A homeless man held up a Tampa bank, fled on a city bus and handed out stolen cash to passengers.

And while he didn’t rob it, an unhappy Palm Coast bank customer left quite a deposit. He urinated in a drive-thru bank tube and drove off.

Animals always account for a fair share of odd news. At the Miami airport, a Brazilian trying to get through security was caught with several baby pythons and tortoise hatchlings in his underwear. A woman found a 7-foot alligator in her bathroom, and a man stored his dead cougar in a freezer.

In north-central Florida, an Ocala ice cream shop got rid of its costumed mascot — a waving vanilla cone — because passers-by kept mistaking him for a hooded Ku Klux Klansman.

In unusual crime stories, two managers of a Lake City Domino’s Pizza were charged with burning down a rival Papa John’s as a way to increase business. Two deaf men using sign language were stabbed at a Hallandale Beach bar when another costumer thought they were flashing gang signs.

And finally, a North Naples man who was pulled over for a traffic violation called 911 and reported a shooting nearby to get out of a ticket. He still got a ticket and was also charged with making a false 911 call.