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George Zimmerman made his first appearance in court Thursday in the case of the shooting death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin.

Wearing a blue jumpsuit, Zimmerman stood quietly as the judge read instruction's to his lawyer, Mark O'Mara. Zimmerman did not speak.

An arraignment date of May 29 was set and O'Mara has said his client will plead not guilty. At a press conference following the court appearance, O'Mara said he will seek a bond hearing "in the next few weeks." Zimmerman is expected to enter a not guilty plea. O'Mara said he was working on finding a place Zimmerman could safely stay if he is released before trial.

"He's tired," O'Mara said when asked about Zimmerman's condition. "He's gone through some tribulations of his own, being the focus of the intensity of this event. ... He's facing second degree murder charges now. He's frightened. That would frighten any one of us."

Prosecutors face steep hurdles to win a second-degree murder conviction against Zimmerman, experts say.

Zimmerman was charged after a public campaign to make an arrest in the shooting that galvanized the nation for weeks. Now the prosecutor and her team will have to prove Zimmerman intentionally went after Martin instead of shooting him in self-defense, to refute arguments that a Florida law empowered him to use deadly force.

Zimmerman, 28, turned himself in at a county jail Wednesday after prosecutor Angela Corey announced the charge in the Feb. 26 shooting of the 17-year-old that set off a nationwide debate about racial profiling and the rights to self-defense.

O'Mara, said on "CBS This Morning" Thursday that he plans to seek his client's release on bond because Zimmerman posed no flight risk.

"We just need to sort of take it one day at a time," O'Mara told co-hosts Erica Hill, Gayle King and Charlie Rose.

On Wednesday, O'Mara said Zimmerman was concerned about getting a fair trial.

"He is a client who has a lot of hatred focused on him. I'm hoping the hatred settles down ... he has the right to his own safety and the case being tried before a judge and jury," O'Mara said.

Trayvon Martin's parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, said on "CBS This Morning" that they were "at ease," "excited" and "overwhelmed" by Zimmerman's arrest.

"I felt a little bit at ease knowing that he had been apprehended, that he had turned himself in," said Tracy Martin, "and knowing that he wouldn't be able to possess a firearm after being arrested any more, knowing that he wouldn't be able to take another 17-year-old's life."

However, Fulton, who has campaigned with the rest of the family for an arrest and prosecution, said she thought the shooting was an accident.

Asked on NBC's "Today" what she would say to Zimmerman face-to-face, Fulton said she wanted an apology, then added: "I believe it was an accident. I believe that it just got out of control and he couldn't turn the clock back." She did not say more about how she thinks the shooting happened.

Legal experts said Corey chose a tough route with the murder charge, which could send Zimmerman to prison for life if he's convicted, over manslaughter, which usually carries 15-year prison terms and covers reckless or negligent killings.

The prosecutors must prove Zimmerman's shooting of Martin was rooted in hatred or ill will and counter his claims that he shot Martin to protect himself while patrolling his gated community in the Orlando suburb of Sanford. Zimmerman's lawyers would only have to prove by a preponderance of evidence -- a relatively low legal standard -- that he acted in self-defense at a pretrial hearing to prevent the case from going to trial.

There's a "high likelihood it could be dismissed by the judge even before the jury gets to hear the case," Florida defense attorney Richard Hornsby said.