Debra Nelson
Debra Steinberg Nelson is a Seminole County judge of the 18th Judicial Circuit Court, in Florida. She has presided on some relatively high-profile cases such as a baby-kidnapping case in 2008. In 2013, she was put in the national spotlight again, as she was the presiding judge in the controversial self-defense case known as the State of Florida v. George Zimmerman. Her reputation, among some, as a tough-on-defendants judge, has been analyzed in light of her handling of the case where George Zimmerman fatally shot the 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.Nelson was first appointed as circuit judge of 18th Judicial Circuit of Florida, by Governor Jeb Bush May 1999.
