Americans are divided sharply along racial lines when it comes the shooting death of a black Florida teen, Trayvon Martin, a recent Gallup survey found.
African-Americans are nearly five times more likely to be convinced that gunman George Zimmerman is "definitely guilty" of a crime than non-blacks, according to the Gallup poll released Thursday.
Also striking: Blacks are twice as likely as non-blacks to believe that Zimmerman would have been arrested if the person he shot was white -- 75 percent to 35 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, 49 percent of non-blacks believe Martin's race didn't play a factor, compared to 20 percent of blacks.
Yet, an equal portion of blacks and non-blacks surveyed -- 21 percent -- think Zimmerman is "probably guilty" of a crime.
The survey results were derived from a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted between April 2 and April 4 of 3,006 Americans, including 242 blacks, as part of Gallup Daily tracking.
Thursday's Gallup poll gelled with the findings of an earlier survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press that found opinions about the media coverage of the Martin case were sharply divided on race. Of those saying there was too much coverage of Martin's death, 16 percent were black while 43 percent were white.
In the Tuesday survey, 56 percent of Republicans say there's been "too much" media about the February shooting, while only 25 percent of Democrats agreed.
