Eric Zorn: Here's why, eight years later, the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman story won't go away

So George Zimmerman filed a lawsuit against two Democratic presidential hopefuls on Feb. 18 alleging they defamed him on Twitter earlier this month when marking the 25th anniversary of Trayvon Martin's birth.

Martin was 17 when, eight years ago Wednesday, Zimmerman, 28, shot and killed him during an altercation on a rainy night in a Sanford, Fla, subdivision.

Martin was African American. Zimmerman was what has been described as "white Hispanic." Police initially found that Zimmerman had fired in self-defense when Martin attacked him with his fists, and the national eruption of indignation that followed sparked the Black Lives Matter movement and resulted in Zimmerman being indicted and tried for second-degree murder.