Washington (CNN) -- In the emotional aftermath of the Trayvon Martin killing last year, Attorney General Eric Holder signaled the unlikelihood of filing federal hate crimes charges against admitted shooter George Zimmerman. "For a federal hate crime, we have to prove the highest standard in the law," Holder said in April 2012, 45 days after Zimmerman shot the African American teenager in what was depicted by civil rights groups as a racially motivated killing. In words that now sound prescient, Holder described to reporters that day how "something that was reckless, that was negligent does not meet that standard." "We have to show that there was specific intent to do the crime with requisite state of mind," he said.
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President Obama will have no role in deciding on federal charges
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Federal hate crimes laws require proof of racial motivation, legal experts say
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AG Holder has called that a high legal bar; says Monday that facts and law are paramount
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The jury in the George Zimmerman case rejected state criminal charges
Those seeking federal charges say the killing was racially motivated, arguing that Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, targeted @placeholder for special scrutiny because the teenager was an African-American.