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Jury Chosen in George Zimmerman Trial; Dow Drops

Aired June 20, 2013 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Don Lemon in New York.

Breaking news here on CNN, two big breaking news story, as a matter of fact. One is the Dow, down 350 points right now. It plummets. It has plummeted.

And also in Florida, a jury has been picked in the George Zimmerman trial, that volunteer neighborhood watchman accused of killing an unarmed teenager last year.

We're going to get live to CNN's Sunny Hostin -- excuse me -- not Sunny Hostin.

We're going to go to Jean Casarez, who is our legal analyst. She is down in Florida. She has been in the courtroom with the jury selection and really following this case from the very beginning.

I want to talk to you about this. It's all -- the jury is six women. Five are white. One is black or Hispanic, not exactly sure. And the four alternates right now, Jean, are being selected. And between them, it could be the two men, two women. But, again, all of them are white right now. That's what the...

(CROSSTALK)

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And, Don, I think we have got those alternates for everybody. They were just selected.

It is a white male, a white female, another white male and a white female. So all of the alternates are white. They were just selected minutes ago. This was such an intense process, Don, in that courtroom. It went by very quickly. It was very intense. There were what is known as back-strikes, just sort of like a game back and forth between the attorneys. Of course, the jurors are not there.

But I think the thing that everybody is surprised at is that it will be an all-female jury at this point to deliberate this case.

LEMON: And as I mentioned, we have Sunny Hostin here as well. Jean, don't go anywhere. I want to get to Sunny.

Sunny, you have been following this case and have been reading some of the questions that they asked jurors. What did you know about from the media? And one of them was a pregnant woman who is married. And she said, well, I know the media doesn't know everything. This was a difficult selection process for the folks down there.

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It really was. I estimated it would take about a week. Clearly, I was wrong. It took more than a week, about two weeks.

And it was very clear that they couldn't find someone that hadn't heard about this case. I don't think you want that in a case like this, because that person must have been living under a rock. You want someone that knows something about the case, not a lot, but that person can then sort of push that aside and just listen to the evidence.

And that's really what they were trying to get to during the questioning. OK. Everybody has an opinion about race. People have opinions about guns. But can you put those opinions aside and just listen to the evidence?

LEMON: Yes.

HOSTIN: And these jurors said, yes, they could do that.

LEMON: Jean, you know, we have been talking a lot about women and about mothers. We have seen the mothers from both Trayvon Martin's mother and George Zimmerman's mother. Their families have been in the courtroom for the jury selection process and for everything that's been going on there.

CASAREZ: That's right. And the parents for Trayvon Martin were in that courtroom right now as that jury was being selected.

Another interesting note that not only are there no men on the jury, no African-American men on the jury. There was an African-American man. It's the prosecution that struck that man, peremptory strike. Defense did not challenge it. So, because of that, there are no men on the jury.

LEMON: Yes. When will this trial start, either Jean or Sunny? Sunny first, and then Jean.

HOSTIN: Well, we're hearing that the opening statements may occur as early as Monday. And that makes sense, because these jurors are going to be sequestered, meaning they're not going to be able to go home or be with their families for the duration of the trial, which is supposed to take two to four weeks.

So, I suspect that the judge may want to impanel them today and then let them go home over the weekend, settle their affairs and come back for Monday ready to get to work.

LEMON: Jean, you have knowledge that no one else has watching this, neither of us here on the set. Sunny has been down there. But you're there now. Take us inside the courtroom as this jury was impaneled and was selected today.

CASAREZ: It was so intense. And it was fast. And the families were there listening. George -- I mean, Trayvon Martin's family was right there with Benjamin Crump. You had to just write down your numbers very quickly and put it all together. And that's how it is at the end, because the individual questioning had concluded. The general questioning by both sides had concluded.

And it was just those peremptory strikes for whatever reason they wanted, they felt a juror wasn't appropriate. And just like that, Don, you had a jury.

LEMON: Yes. We're hearing that George Zimmerman may speak soon. And if he does, we will listen in. He's being asked questions now. Let's listen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... during the lunch period about which jurors you would like to have on the jury or which jurors you would rather not?

GEORGE ZIMMERMAN, DEFENDANT: Yes, Your Honor.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you have heard the decisions in the strikes made in this case by your attorneys?

ZIMMERMAN: Yes, Your Honor.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, so thank you.

And are -- is the decisions made by your attorneys acceptable to you?

ZIMMERMAN: Yes, Your Honor.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the jurors that I announced, were you able to hear the six members of the jury and the four alternates?

ZIMMERMAN: Yes, Your Honor.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And is this jury panel acceptable to you, sir?

ZIMMERMAN: Yes, Your Honor.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Please have a seat.

What I would like to do -- is you're getting your witness in line? Can I have the ones that we're not taking? I want to see first the ones I'm going to dismiss.

LEMON: OK. So, now you see that's what's happening inside the courtroom. I am surrounded by legal powerhouses here. Jean Casarez is down. She's our legal analyst. She's down in Sanford, Florida. She has been in the courtroom. Our Sunny Hostin, legal analyst as well, she is here in New York. She's going to help me out with this.

And also our senior legal analyst, Mr. Jeffrey Toobin, on the line now.

You heard the defendant, George Zimmerman, being asked questions and then answering. Standard procedure, Jeffrey?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Exactly. That happens in almost those words in every criminal case in every state.

LEMON: Yes. What do you think of the makeup of this particularly jury now? And we can put it up here. Four are white. One is black. One, they're not sure about the race. Could be Hispanic. Could be black. Four alternates, and in the four alternates, two or women, two are men. All of them are white. But pretty much who's going to decide this trial, because the alternates may never have to come in here, it's going to be all women, Jeffrey.

TOOBIN: That's somewhat unusual, but not without precedent.

I don't know if that helps one side more than the other, frankly. I don't think there is a particularly gender-driven division on this case. Obviously, the racial makeup of the case is something a lot of people will point to. It seems roughly consistent with that part of Florida, although, you know, it doesn't have to be exactly a replica of the community.

But I bet it's going to be a fast trial. And I think we got the jury that's going to decide it.

LEMON: I want to talk to the ladies here, because, Sunny, you can -- we can disagree with each other here on CNN.

HOSTIN: Sure.

LEMON: You think that it's that it being all women does say something.

HOSTIN: Yes. I used to prosecute child sex crimes. And so I went and met with a lot of jury consultants, actually, about the effect of having women on a jury. And I actually think, if I remember and recall correctly, that women do tend to be more sympathetic when the victim is a child.

And so I think that that will play out here. I was in the courtroom for some of the voir dire when this woman, the black woman -- or she could be Latina as well.

LEMON: Say what Voir dire is for.

HOSTIN: Voir dire, jury selection.

(CROSSTALK)

HOSTIN: And I was there when she was seated. She's from Chicago. Jean can correct me if I'm wrong. She's from Chicago, just recently moved from Florida. She is, I think, a nursing assistant. And she commented about the fact that she has a lot of children, either -- I think it was six or seven children, some of them very young, a set of twins, if I recall correctly, as well as one of the children the same age as Trayvon Martin. I just can't imagine that if Sybrina Fulton testifies, which she may, she's on the witness list, or if any -- there's a lot of testimony about his age and about the fact that he was a child, I think that could come into play.

LEMON: Jean Casarez, quickly, what do you make of what's been said here?

CASAREZ: To go along with that, I have been tallying up my notes. Five of the six female jurors are mothers. One is not a mother. But they have children that are in their 20s, a lot of them. But the lady that Sunny is talking about from Chicago, she has eight children; 20 years old is the oldest one. And she has several right around the age of Trayvon Martin.

LEMON: Jean Casarez, we're going to need you. Please don't go anywhere. And, Sunny, we're going to need you, Jeffrey as well.

But I have to get to another -- another breaking story here on CNN. It's not a good day to look at the balance in your retirement account, because stocks are falling in the final hour of the trading day on Wall Street.

We want to get now to Rana Foroohar, who is down on Wall Street, as well as our Felicia Taylor. Again, surrounded by people who can help me out here.

Rana, to you, what is going on here?

RANA FOROOHAR, CNN ANALYST: Well, it's a good question.

And I think you have to go back to the announcement yesterday from the Fed that quantitative easing, that asset buying program where we have been seeing the Fed pour $85 billion a month into the market is going to be tapered. It's going to be scaled back at some point next year.

At some point after that, interest rates will start to rise. Now, this is something that we know has been coming for a long time now. And Ben Bernanke and the Fed have been kind of trying to tiptoe away from it, because we knew we were going to have a market reaction. The Fed's buying program has had some effect in pushing the market up over the last few years.

Now the big question is, how much is it going to dip now that we know that this quantitative easing program is going to be ending?

LEMON: Felicia, you're down there. What's the mood as you look out onto the trading floor?

FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can't say that there's been any, you know, pickup in panic at all.

What this is, though, is obviously we're seeing a fairly healthy sell- off. And it sounds odd to say that. But it's just -- it's a pullback. And it's also trading on any negative headline that it sees. Something that crossed the headlines just about 20 minutes ago, and that's when you really saw the selling pressure accelerate, was word evidently from the International Monetary Fund that it is preparing to suspend aid payments to Greece by the end of next month unless the Eurozone leaders plug what is about a three billion euro hole, what they call a shortfall, that has opened up in Greece.

So, that, again, a negative headline, it will throw the market into another selling mode. Also, what's out there in the last hour of trade are these high-frequency traders that trade on algorithms. We haven't been able to push through resistance on the S&P of 1610. So what they have done is they're just hammering it back down again.

LEMON: OK. So, Felicia, listen, at one point, I looked up. And at the top of the hour, it was down 350 points. Can someone bottom-line it for me? For people who -- when you say those numbers, sometimes, I can't even figure out how much to tip someone, the percentage of that. So, what does this all -- what does this mean right now if this continues in this direction? What does this mean for us today?

TAYLOR: Well, OK. So the bulls in the marketplace will start to question whether or not they can jump back in. Is this going to present a buying opportunity? This is a 2 percent pullback. That's fairly significant. The question becomes, you know, how much further is the market going to get hammered by this anticipation of this pullback in stimulus?

I wouldn't -- I wouldn't be surprised if we continue to see a further retracement. So, the question then becomes, when do you start to buy again? The equity market in the United States is still one of the safest markets to buy into. There's also the strengthening dollar. That's something that people are going to be keeping an eye on. That looks like that is going to accelerate as well.

But, again, any kind of negative headline that comes out on a day like this will continue to exacerbate the selling off at the end of the day. We have got another 50 minutes to go.

LEMON: All right. So, Rana, what does this mean for people who don't sit around all day and watch the ticker at the bottom of the screen to see what the Dow is doing or who don't have it up on their computer?

FOROOHAR: Are you suggesting that's what I do all day?

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Well, yes, because you're the expert here.

So, for people like me who just kind of go, hey, listen, I -- someone, help me out with my investments, what does this mean to me?

(CROSSTALK)

FOROOHAR: Look, the bottom line is that there are three legs on the stool that is the global economy, the U.S., Europe and China. Europe and China are looking kind of shaky right now. But the U.S., the underlying data is still pretty good. There is a recovery on. You are going to continue to see volatility in the market, particularly around announcements over things like unemployment.

The Fed has said that it will start scaling back those asset buys depending on where unemployment goes. They want it to go down to 7 percent and ultimately 6.5 percent. So, every time you see data coming out, I think you're going to see market jitters. So, I think we're in for several months of this.

LEMON: OK. Rana Foroohar...

TAYLOR: You bring up another good point, though. I don't -- I didn't mean to interrupt.

LEMON: Quickly, Felicia. Yes, real quickly.

TAYLOR: Absolutely.

The other thing she brought up is that third leg is China. One of the numbers that came out today was that they're pulling back in manufacturing. That's not a good sign.

LEMON: OK. Thanks to both of you ladies. We appreciate it.

FOROOHAR: Thank you.

LEMON: We're going to continue to follow the markets.

We're also monitoring two breaking news stories here. Actually, we're monitoring three, because, don't forget, there's an immigration bill that they're talking about in Washington today. That's breaking news as well. We're following news down in Florida. A jury has been impaneled in the George Zimmerman trial, the volunteer neighborhood watchman, also the Dow tanking, down some 330 points as we go to break.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: It is a day for breaking news. We're following it all here on CNN.

You see the Dow there. If you don't want bad news, don't look at the screen. It's down 330 points. Also, at the bottom of your screen, you see a courtroom in Sanford, Florida. The jury has been selected for George Zimmerman, George Zimmerman facing second-degree murder charges for the killing of an unarmed teenager last year.

And another developing story, a deal in the works in Congress to build a big, long fence along the border with Mexico, some 700 miles, plus, a surge of border agents, in exchange for that, a possible path to citizenship for millions of people now in this country illegally.

The idea is to build support among Senate Republicans for this push to fix the immigration system. But not everyone is buying in on this. Not everyone is buying it. We have reaction just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. DAVID VITTER (R), LOUISIANA: And I think it's important that we look at the details of the amendment. Let's actually read it before we vote on it. And I think once the American people do, they will understand the same thing they came to understand about the underlying bill. It doesn't truly fix the problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: David Vitter from Louisiana there. So, that's an initial reaction from one of the Senate's more conservative Republicans.

We're going to talk this over with Maria Cardona, a Democratic strategist, with Ben Ferguson, a conservative talk show host.

Ben, first to you. What story are we covering right now?

(CROSSTALK)

BEN FERGUSON, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Yes. Yes. Didn't we have -- didn't we do this in 2006? I'm having deja vu.

Did the Senate -- did they not do the exact same thing they're saying they're doing this time?

LEMON: Listen, the question...

(CROSSTALK)

FERGUSON: We passed a bill on this. It was a 700-mile fence.

LEMON: Yes. But should Republicans support the immigration bill? If it's amended to include this border fence and doubling of federal border agents, should Republicans say yes? Should they support it?

FERGUSON: Well, the question is, is Congress going to lie to us the same way that they did in 2006? We have already passed a bill that was going to have a 700-mile fence.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: How did Congress lie to us in 2006?

FERGUSON: They passed this. They passed a bill to have a border fence called the Border Security Act in 2006.

LEMON: You said Congress lied in 2006. How did Congress lie?

FERGUSON: Yes. They lied. And we built 36 -- we built 36 miles of this fence. That's it.

So now they're saying, oh, OK. We know we said we were going to do it the first time and we didn't do it. But don't worry. This time, we really mean it. They also said in '96 we were going to have biometrics at our entry ports. That was in 1996, which they're now claiming is going to be a part of this bill this time. And they haven't done that either. So, why should I trust them on either of these issues?

LEMON: Maria, can you -- Ben is saying Congress didn't keep their word. Can you imagine?

FERGUSON: Yes, shocking, right?

MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Imagine that.

Look, Don, I'm not crazy about this deal, but for a very different reason, in fact, the exact opposite of what Ben is saying, because of what the actual facts show. The facts show that the border, the southern border is more secure than it has been ever and that resources going to the southern border are more than what we spend on the DEA, ATF, and FBI combined.

The crime at the border is a third of what it was 10 years ago.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Maria, I'm going to tell you, I know -- let me gauge what Ben is going to say right now. Ben is going to say -- Ben is going to say, wait a minute, those are talking points, because they do sound like talking points.

CARDONA: It's facts.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: But there are so many things that are being done wrong as well.

Go ahead, Ben.

FERGUSON: Don, the border is so secure that we have only let, like, 11 or 12 or 13 or 14 million people in that we couldn't catch. We're doing a great job with the border.

(CROSSTALK)

CARDONA: That has happened in the last 30 years. That has happened in the last 30 years, Ben. You're right. And that's why we have to fix the broken immigration system.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Hang on. Both of you, stop, stop, stop.

So, I will get to you, Maria, but Ben first.

When she says we have to fix the broken immigration system, so then you keep saying Congress isn't doing this. We're not doing that. So, Ben, what do we do, then?

FERGUSON: Well, I think you have to look at, are they doing a bait and switch? And the answer is yes. The American people are more in favor of securing the border, more than 60-something percent, 63 percent, 64 percent in a CNN poll just a couple days ago. They're more in favor of that than actually having a pathway to citizenship, which is only in the 30 percent.

So, the point is this. If they think they can pass amnesty or any type of immigration reform bill without securing the border, it virtually is meaningless because there's still going to be an influx of people coming across that border. And we have not fixed the problem. And Americans even understand that bipartisan right now.

LEMON: All right, Maria, really quickly, because I'm up against the clock. I have a lot of breaking news. Real quickly.

(CROSSTALK)

CARDONA: Right. No one wants amnesty, Ben. Democrats are focused on securing the border...

FERGUSON: Sure, they do.

CARDONA: ... and on -- focused on a pathway to citizenship, which, by the way, the majority of the American people believe that the two need to happen in order to fix our broken immigration system.

The bottom line is, Ben, if Republicans don't do this, you're never going to see the inside of the White House in 50 years.

FERGUSON: Then you should be thrilled. You should be thrilled, because you're always going to win.

(CROSSTALK)

CARDONA: I'm not thrilled, because I think it's a problem that needs to be fixed.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: I will hook you guys up. I will let the producers do it. But I'm going to move on with the show. We appreciate it.

CARDONA: Thank you, Don.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Ben Ferguson, Maria Cardona, all right.

Lots of breaking news here on CNN, including the Dow Jones industrial average down about 350 points. And a jury has been selected in the George Zimmerman trial. We're going to go live to Sanford, Florida, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Two big breaking news stories here on CNN. Look at the Do down 351 points. It was going along swimmingly. Well, that was a week ago. Now, it is down and it is less than an hour, really about 35 minutes left in the trading day. How will it close? Well, we're going to see. We're going to check in live on Wall Street in just a moment.

And also breaking news into CNN, a jury has been selected in the George Zimmerman murder trial. It's -- all six jurors, we should tell you, are female. Five are white. One is black or Hispanic. Four alternates have also been selected, two men, two women, all of them white as well.

We have our legal analysts here. Sunny Hostin is with me, and Jean Casarez, legal analyst down in Florida, she has been in the courtroom. Why are we talking about the racial makeup of the jury? Because this will come down to race. That's what he's on trial for, Sunny -- for killing, but because he may have targeted him.

(CROSSTALK)

HOSTIN: Yes, I'm not sure that it will necessarily come down to race, don, because, clearly, the prosecution, if you look at the initial papers, talked about profiling. They used the term profiling, which is a loaded word. But the question is, will they hone in on that and will they say he was profiled because of his race, or was he profiled because of the way he was dressed, was he profiled because of the way he was behaving?

So, that is still to be determined. But, certainly, the pretrial publicity has really focused on race. And I was there in Sanford. And there were people protesting and there were courtroom watchers. And they definitely felt that race would be an issue. You have got six women. Five are white. One is black or Hispanic.

I remember looking at her in the courtroom. And I suspect what's going to be more important, Don, in this case is the fact that these women are mothers.

LEMON: Jean Casarez down in Florida, Jean, people have been asking me on social media, why -- why not 12? Why six? Explain that to us.

CASAREZ: Well, that's because we are in Florida. And in Florida, you have to have a capital case to have a jury of 12. Every other case has a jury of six.

And I want to tell you, as a correspondent out here, I really focus on the facts. And here are some more facts that I have for everybody. Five of the six women are mothers. Two of them are very new to the area. The lady from Chicago has only been here for four months. And another woman has only been here for seven months. And before that, she lived in Iowa.

So that is, I think, very interesting. But the fact that many are mothers, some with children close to the age of Trayvon, I don't think can be ignored.

LEMON: All right. Jean Casarez, thank you very much. Stand by, because we are going to be talking about this throughout the hour.

Sunny Hostin, stand by as well.

So, we will be watching that. And we're also going to watch the Dow. You can see we're going to keep it up in the corner of your screen there, down 344 points. Down 358 points, that was the highest -- the lowest that I have seen it since we have been on the air. We're going to follow that for you as well.

And still ahead here on CNN, he may be best known as Tony Soprano. And, today, the entertainment community is mourning the loss of the larger-than-life actor James Gandolfini. We will look back at his amazing acting career next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)