A second juror in the trial of George Zimmerman has given a TV interview saying the former neighborhood watch volunteer “got away with murder” when he was acquitted earlier this month in the shooting death of black, unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin.
The woman, identified in court as juror B29, who is part Hispanic, said she would have liked to convict Zimmerman of murdering Martin but said her hands were tied by a lack of evidence.
“You can’t put the man in jail even though in our hearts we felt he was guilty,” she told ABC’s Robin Roberts in an interview due to be aired on Friday morning. “But we had to grab our hearts and put it aside and look at the evidence,” the woman said.
Excerpts of the interview were published on ABC’s website, http://abcnews.go.com/US/george-zimmerman-juror-murder/story?id=19770659.
Zimmerman, a white Hispanic man, was found not guilty of murder and manslaughter on July 13 after a racially charged trial. The verdict triggered demonstrations across the United States.
The jurors have remained anonymous under a judge’s order. Juror B29 allowed her face to be shown, but used only that name Maddy. ABC said the 36-year-old woman is Puerto Rican and that she recently moved to Florida from Chicago. She is a nursing assistant and mother of eight.
Juror B29 is the second juror to speak in a televised interview, and the first to show her face.
Juror B37, a mother of two who grew up in a military family, appeared last week on CNN with her face obscured. She said she believed Zimmerman, 29, was “justified” in shooting Martin, 17, during a confrontation in a gated community in central Florida in February 2012.
She said she did not think Zimmerman racially profiled Martin and believed Martin attacked Zimmerman first.
Shortly after the interview, which prompted a hostile backlash on social media, CNN said four other jurors released a statement distancing themselves from the comments of B37.
Juror B29 agreed with B37 that the case was never about race, despite accusations by the prosecution that Zimmerman had profiled Martin when he called police to report someone acting suspiciously in the community near Orlando.
The prosecution accused Zimmerman of profiling Martin and following him in the manner of a vigilante. Zimmerman’s lawyers said he acted in self-defense after Martin started beating his head against a concrete sidewalk.
Whatever the truth, juror B29 said Zimmerman had a lot to answer for. “George Zimmerman got away with murder, but you can’t get away from God. And at the end of the day, he’s going to have a lot of questions and answers he has to deal with,” Maddy said. ” the law couldn’t prove it.”
When the jury began deliberations, she said she initially favored convicting Zimmerman. “I was the juror that was going to give them the hung jury. I fought to the end,” she said.
On the second day of deliberations she realized there was not enough proof to convict Zimmerman of murder or manslaughter under Florida law, she said.
When asked by Roberts whether the case should have gone to trial, the juror said, “I don’t think so.” She added, “I felt like this was a publicity stunt.”
She said that after the trial had ended, she wrestled with her decision and had a hard time sleeping and eating. She said she feels she owes Martin’s parents an apology.
“I’m hurting as much as Trayvon Martin’s mother because there’s no way that any mother should feel that pain,” she said.
(Reuters)
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11 Responses
This is the best juror to get through the voir dire process. She paid attention to the evidence and based her decision solely on that.
I happen to agree that he got away with murder.
Will the media ever stop using this white hispanic nonsense, he’s as white as obama
There is no crime in following a black male. The black male didnt like being followed and violently confronted Zimmerman
The jurors statement
”
“But we had to grab our hearts andput it aside and look at the evidence
Just shows how warped she is
Self defense is not murder. If Zimmerman was Black, he wouldn’t have been charged to begin with. They never had a case and the prosecution illegally withheld evidence and should be disbarred.
Based on his statements, Zimmerman probably caused the unnecessary death of another person. Under American law, if you kill someone in self-defense in the mistaken belief that you need to do so to protect yourself, you are not guilty. While the law requires that murder be an intentional causing of someone’s death, popular speech less fussy. Thus while Zimmerman appears to have been correctly acquitted since he reasonably believed he was acting in self-defense, most non-lawyers would say he got away with murder.
I don’t remember any speaking out that OJ Simpson got away with murder especially when everybody knew that he had done it somehow when somebody was black it away with murder nobody’s concerned about it
“I happen to agree that he got away with murder.”
Yes, if you call self defense “murder”.
She could not convict him due to lack of evidence. I think that also says something…
I also happen to think personally that she does not want backlash once she is out on the streets and not safe in the jurors cocoon.
When they stop showing “little Trayvon, aged 12” and show him at age 16 with his pants pulled down, high on pot plus Robitussin with his middle fingers up then perhaps people will think differently….His double suspension for drugs and violence at school should also have been allowed to surface for the jurors..
Until then, they will keep looting and rioting and their leaders will initiate the rioting….
sad all the way round, yet this just escalates it…..
#7- What would have happened that night if George Zimmerman never got out his car?
To ddayleah who wrote: “.His double suspension for drugs and violence at school should also have been allowed to surface for the jurors… ”
Being an arrogrant teenager who displays his tush, is high, and gets suspended from school, etc., is not really grounds for capital punishment. If we executed every teenager for acting, well, like a teenager, our species would become extinct. All that is relevant was whether Zimmerman believed his life was threatened, and since Zimmerman knew nothing about Martin, that was solely based on the facts that Zimmerman knew at the time – that a strong teenager was mad at him and appeared to be attacking him. Since Zimmerman didn’t know anything about Martin’s background, it is irrelevant. Had Martin been on trial for assault of Zimmerman, his background would be relevant under certain conditions.
I agree with rabbi sifsei chachamim. If you’re hispanic you’re not white. The origins of the term ” white hispanic” probably emanates from the libtards at cnn like wolf blitzkreig and nancy dis-grace who were quick to incorrectly identify zimmerman as white. When the truth emerged that he was a minority cnn invented the term “white hispanic” to keep with their storyline.