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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Not Guilty: The Zimmerman Trial
Aired July 17, 2013 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to this A.C. 360 special report: "Not Guilty: The Zimmerman Trial."
Tonight, we're going inside the verdict. The world now knows that George Zimmerman has been found not guilty of all charges for killing Trayvon Martin. As you know, six jurors made that decision.
This hour, my exclusive interview with one of those jurors, the first juror to speak publicly. She wants to only be known by her official designation, Juror B-37.
She reveals a lot, included what persuaded her, what moved her, what role, if any, race played and what she would say to the parents of the young man whose killer she and five others exonerated.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: When you first gathered together, what was it like? Did you know how big...
(CROSSTALK)
JUROR B-37: It was unreal. It was unreal. It was like something that -- why would they want to pick me? You know? Why would I be picked over all these hundreds of people that they interviewed?
COOPER: Did you have an idea in your mind about what happened?
JUROR B-37: No, because I hadn't followed the trial at all. I mean, I had heard bits and pieces of what had happened and the names that were involved, but not any details.
COOPER: And when the trial started, what was the first day like? There were the opening statements. Don West told a joke.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DON WEST, ATTORNEY FOR GEORGE ZIMMERMAN: Knock-knock. Who is there?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: What did you think of that?
JUROR B-37: The joke was horrible. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WEST: George Zimmerman who? All right, good, you're on the jury.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JUROR B-37: Nobody got it. I didn't get it until later, and then I thought about it. And I'm like, I guess that could have been funny, but not in the context he told it.
COOPER: Was there a particular witness that stands out to you?
Who did you find to be the most credible?
JUROR B-37: The doctor -- and I don't know his name.
COOPER: The doctor for -- that the defense called?
JUROR B-37: Yes.
COOPER: All right.
JUROR B-37: Yes.
COOPER: What about him?
JUROR B-37: I thought he was awe-inspiring, the experiences that he had had over in the war, and I just never thought of anybody that could recognize somebody's voice yelling, in like a terrible terror voice when he was just previously a half hour ago playing cards with him.
COOPER: A lot of analysts who were watching the trial felt that the defense attorneys, Mark O'Mara, Don West, were able to turn prosecution witnesses to their advantage, Chris Serino, for instance, the lead investigators. Did he make an impression on you?
JUROR B-37: Chris Serino did. He -- but to me he just was doing his job. He was doing his job the way he was doing his job and he was going to tell the truth regardless of who asked him the questions.
COOPER: So you found him to be credible?
JUROR B-37: I did. Very credible.
COOPER: So when he testified that he found George Zimmerman to be more or less overall truthful, did that make an impression on you?
JUROR B-37: It did. It did. It made a big impression on me.
COOPER: Why?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK O'MARA, ATTORNEY FOR GEORGE ZIMMERMAN: What did he say when you told him that?
CHRIS SERINO, SANFORD POLICE DEPARTMENT: I believe his words were, thank God, I was hoping that somebody videotaped it.
O'MARA: The fact that George Zimmerman staid thank God, I hope somebody did videotape the event or the whole event, his statement, what did that indicate to you?
SERINO: Either he was telling the truth or he was a complete pathological liar.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Why?
JUROR B-37: Because he deals with this all the time. He deals with, you know, murder, robberies. He's in it all the time. And I think he has a knack to pick out who's lying and who's not lying.
COOPER: The prosecution started off by saying that George Zimmerman was on top in the struggle. And then later on, they seemed to concede, well, perhaps Trayvon Martin was on top, but maybe was pulling away. Do you feel the prosecution really had a firm idea of what actually happened?
JUROR B-37: I think they wanted to happen what they wanted to happen, to go to their side, for the prosecution, the state.
There was a lot -- the witnesses that the defense had on, plus some of the prosecution witnesses, there was no doubt that they had seen what had happened. Some of it was taped so they couldn't refute any of that.
COOPER: What was on the 911 tapes?
JUROR B-37: Mm-hmm, the 911 tapes and John Good calling and all of that.
COOPER: How significant were those 911 tapes to you?
JUROR B-37: The Lauer tape was the most significant because it went through before the struggle, during the struggle, the gunshot and then after.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
911 OPERATOR: Nine-one-one, do you need police, fire or medical?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maybe both. I'm not sure. There's just someone screaming outside.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
COOPER: You had the parents of Trayvon Martin testifying. You had the family of George Zimmerman, friends of George Zimmerman testifying about whose voice it was in the 911 call. Whose voice do you think it was in the 911 call?
JUROR B-37: I think it was George Zimmerman's.
COOPER: Did everybody on the jury agree with that?
JUROR B-37: All but probably one.
COOPER: And what made you think it was George Zimmerman's voice?
JUROR B-37: Because of the evidence that he was the one that had gotten beaten.
COOPER: So, you think because he was the one who had had cuts, had abrasions, he was the one getting hit, he was the one calling for help?
JUROR B-37: Well, because the witnesses of -- John Good saw Trayvon on top of George, not necessarily hitting him because it was so dark, he couldn't see, but he saw blows down toward George. And he could tell that it was George Zimmerman on the bottom. He didn't know who it was, but he knew what they were wearing.
COOPER: The one -- the juror who didn't think it was George Zimmerman's voice, who thought it was Trayvon Martin voice on that call, do you know why they felt that way?
JUROR B-37: She didn't think it was Trayvon's. She just said it could have been Trayvon's.
COOPER: So she wasn't even sure?
JUROR B-37: No. She wanted to give everybody an absolute out of being guilty.
COOPER: But you were sure it was George Zimmerman's voice?
JUROR B-37: I was sure it was George Zimmerman.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: And everybody else on the jury was, except for that one person?
JUROR B-37: I think so. I think they were.
I don't think there was a doubt that everybody else thought it was George's voice.
COOPER: What did you think of George Zimmerman?
JUROR B-37: I think George Zimmerman is a man whose heart was in the right place, but just got displaced by the vandalism in the neighborhoods, and wanting to catch these people so badly, that he went above and beyond what he really should have done.
I think he was a little negligible in doing what he did. COOPER: Negligent?
JUROR B-37: Negligent, sorry.
But I think his heart was in the right place. It just went terribly wrong.
COOPER: Do you think he's guilty of something?
JUROR B-37: I think he's guilty of not using good judgment. When he was in the car and he called 911, he shouldn't have gotten out of that car.
COOPER: He shouldn't have gotten out of that car?
JUROR B-37: He shouldn't have gotten out of that car.
COOPER: Do you feel George Zimmerman should have been carrying a gun?
JUROR B-37: I think he has every right to carry a gun. I think it's everybody's right to carry a gun. As long as they use it the way it's supposed to be used and be responsible in using it.
COOPER: George Zimmerman obviously did not testify, but his testimony essentially was brought into the trial through those videotapes, a number of videotapes. He walked police through a reenactment of what he said happened. How important were those videotapes to you?
JUROR B-37: I don't really know, because I mean, watching the tapes, there's always something in the back saying, is it right? Is it consistent?
But with all the evidence of the phone calls, and all the witnesses that he saw, I think George was pretty consistent and told the truth, basically. I'm sure there were some fabrications, enhancements, but I think pretty much it happened the way George said it happened.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Next, she's been bullied and bad mouthed, prosecution witness Rachel Jeantel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: When she used the phrase "creepy-ass cracker," did you see that as a negative statement or a racial statement?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) COOPER: I want to ask you a bunch -- I want to ask you about some of the different witnesses. Rachel Jeantel, the woman who was on the phone with Trayvon Martin at the start of the incident, what did you make of her testimony?
JUROR B-37: I didn't think it was very credible, but I felt very sorry for her. She didn't ask to be in this place. She didn't ask -- she wanted to go. She wasn't to leave. She didn't want to be any part of this jury. I think she felt inadequate toward everyone because of her education and her communication skills. I just felt sadness for her.
COOPER: You felt like, what, she was in over her head?
JUROR B-37: Well, not over her head. She just didn't want to be there and she was embarrassed by being there because of her education and her communication skills, that she just wasn't a good witness.
COOPER: Did you find it hard at times to understand what she was saving?
JUROR B-37: A lot of the times, because a lot of the times, she was using phrases I had never heard before and what they meant.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RACHEL JEANTEL, FRIEND OF TRAYVON MARTIN: He looked like a creepy-ass cracker.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: When she used the phrase "creepy-ass cracker," what did you think of that?
JUROR B-37: I thought it was probably the truth. I think Trayvon probably said that.
COOPER: And did you see that as a negative statement or a racial statement, as the defense suggested?
JUROR B-37: I don't think it's really racial. I think it's just everyday life, the type of life that they live, and how they're living, in the environment that they're living in.
COOPER: So you didn't find her credible as a witness?
JUROR B-37: No.
COOPER: So did you find her testimony important in terms of what she actually said?
JUROR B-37: Well, I think the most important thing is the time that she was on the phone with Trayvon. So you basically, hopefully if she heard anything, she would say she did, but the time coincides with George's statements and testimony of time limits and what had happened during that time. COOPER: Explain that.
JUROR B-37: Well, because there was a -- George was on the 911 call while she was on the call with Trayvon, and the times coincide, and I think there was two minutes between when George hung up from his 911 call, to the time Trayvon and Rachel had hung up.
So really nothing could have happened because the 911 call would have heard the nonemergency call that George had called, heard something happening before that.
COOPER: What did you think of the testimony of Trayvon Martin's mother and father? Did you find them credible?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRACY MARTIN, FATHER OF TRAYVON MARTIN: I was listening to my son's last cry for help. I was listening to his life being taken.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JUROR B-37: I think they said anything a mother and father would say, just like George Zimmerman's mom and father. I think -- they are your kids. You want to believe that they are innocent, and that was their voice, because hearing that voice would make it credible that they were the victim, not the aggressor.
COOPER: So in a way, both sets of parents kind of canceled each other out in your mind?
JUROR B-37: They did, definitely, because if I was a mother, I would want to believe so hard that it was not my son that did that, or was responsible for any of that, that I would convince myself probably that it was his voice.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're sending...
911 OPERATOR: Do you think he's yelling help?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
911 OPERATOR: All right. What is your...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's gunshots.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
COOPER: How critical, though, was it for you in your mind to have an idea of whose voice it was yelling for help? How important was that yell for help?
JUROR B-37: I think it was pretty important, because it was a long cry and scream for help, that whoever was calling for help was in fear of their life. COOPER: When George Zimmerman said that Trayvon Marten reached for his gun, there was no DNA evidence, the defense said, well, had testimony in, well, it could have gotten washed off in the rain or the like. Do you believe that Trayvon Martin reached for George Zimmerman's gun?
JUROR B-37: I think he might have. I think George probably thought that he did, because George was the one who knew that George was carrying a gun. And he was aware of that.
COOPER: You can't say for sure whether or not Trayvon Martin knew that George Zimmerman was carrying a gun?
JUROR B-37: No.
COOPER: So you can't say for sure whether or not Trayvon Martin reached for that gun?
JUROR B-37: Right. But that doesn't make it right. I mean, it doesn't make it -- there's not a right or a wrong. Even if he did reach for the gun, it doesn't make any difference.
COOPER: How so?
JUROR B-37: Well, because George had a right to protect himself at that point.
COOPER: So you believe that George Zimmerman really felt his life was in danger?
JUROR B-37: I do. I really do.
COOPER: Do you think Trayvon Martin threw the first punch?
JUROR B-37: I think he did.
COOPER: What makes you think that?
JUROR B-37: Because of the evidence of on the T., on the sidewalk, where George says he was punched, there was evidence of his flashlight and keys there, and then a little bit further down, there was a flashlight that he was carrying. And I think that's where Trayvon hit him.
COOPER: So you think, based on the testimony you heard, you believe that Trayvon Martin was the aggressor?
JUROR B-37: I think the roles changed. I think -- I think George got in a little bit too deep, which he shouldn't have been there. But Trayvon decided that he wasn't going to let him scare him and get the one-over up on him or something. And I think Trayvon got mad and attacked him.
COOPER: Do you have any doubt that George Zimmerman feared for his life?
JUROR B-37: I had no doubt George feared for his life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Ahead: On the streets, protesters are calling for civil rights charges against George Zimmerman.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: No justice, no peace!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: In the jury room, did race come up at all?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Do you feel that George Zimmerman racially profiled Trayvon Martin? Do you think race played a role in his decision?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: The prosecution tried to paint George Zimmerman as a wannabe cop, overeager. Did you buy that?
JUROR B-37: I think he's overeager to help people.
Like the lady who got broken in and robbed, while her baby and her were upstairs, he came over and he offered her a lock for her back sliding glass door. He offered her his phone number, his wife's phone number.
I mean, you have to have a heart to do that and care and help people.
COOPER: So you didn't find it creepy that -- you didn't find it a negative? You didn't buy the prosecution when they kind of said he was a wannabe cop?
JUROR B-37: No, I didn't at all.
COOPER: Is George Zimmerman somebody you would like to have on a neighborhood watch in your community?
JUROR B-37: If he didn't go too far. I mean, you can always go too far. He just didn't stop at the limitations that he should have stopped at.
COOPER: So is that a yes or -- if he didn't go too far, is he somebody prone, you think, to going too far? Is he somebody you would feel comfortable...
JUROR B-37: I think he was frustrated. I think he was frustrated with the whole situation in the neighborhood, with the break-ins and the robberies. And they actually arrested somebody not that long ago. I -- I mean, I would feel comfortable having George, but I think he's learned a good lesson.
COOPER: So you would feel comfortable having him now, because you think he's learned a lesson from all of this?
JUROR B-37: Exactly. I think he just didn't know when to stop. He was frustrated, and things just got out of hand.
COOPER: People have now remarked subsequently that he gets his gun back. And there are some people that said that the idea that he gets -- is -- can have a gun, worries them. Does that worry you?
JUROR B-37: It doesn't worry me. I think he would be more responsible than anybody else on this planet right now.
COOPER: The prosecution didn't use the word racial profiling during the case.
JUROR B-37: Uh-huh.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BERNIE DE LA RIONDA, FLORIDA ASSISTANT STATE ATTORNEY: This defendant made the wrong assumption. He profiled him as a criminal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: They used the word profiling. And that was something that was worked out between the judge and the lawyers when the jury wasn't in the room.
JUROR B-37: Right.
COOPER: Do you feel that George Zimmerman racially profiled Trayvon Martin? Do you think race played a role in his decision, his view of Trayvon Martin as suspicious?
JUROR B-37: I don't think he did. I think just circumstances caused George to think that he might be a robber, or trying to do something bad in the neighborhood because of all that had gone on previously. There were an unbelievable number of robberies in the neighborhood.
COOPER: So you don't believe race played a role in this case?
JUROR B-37: I don't think it did. I think if there was another person, Spanish, white, Asian, if they came in the same situation where Trayvon was, I think George would have reacted the exact same way.
COOPER: Why do you think George Zimmerman found Trayvon Martin suspicious then?
JUROR B-37: Because he was cutting through the back. It was raining.
He said he was looking in houses as he was walking down the road, kind of just not having a purpose to where he was going. He was stopping and starting. But, I mean, that's George's rendition of it. But I think the situation where Trayvon got into him being late at night, dark at night, raining, and anybody would think anybody walking down the road stopping and turning and looking, if that's exactly what happened, is suspicious. And George said that he didn't recognize who he was.
COOPER: Well, was that a common belief on the jury that race was not -- that race did not play a role in this?
JUROR B-37: I think all of us thought that race did not play a role.
COOPER: So nobody thought race played a role?
JUROR B-37: I don't think so.
COOPER: None of the jurors?
JUROR B-37: I can't speak for them. I'm not their voice--
COOPER: That wasn't part of the discussion in the jury room?
JUROR B-37: No, no, we never had that discussion.
COOPER: It didn't come up, the question of, did George Zimmerman profile Trayvon Martin because he was African-American?
JUROR B-37: No, I think he just profiled him because he was the neighborhood watch, and he profiled anyone who came in acting strange. I think it was just circumstances happened that he saw Trayvon at the exact time that he thought he was suspicious.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Next: how a divided jury managed to make a unanimous decision.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUROR B-37: There was a holdout.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ISHA SESAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Isha Sesay. The "AC 360" Special Report "not guilty, the George Zimmerman trial" continues in a moment.
But first, here's a look at the headlines tonight. Tensions are escalating after Panama seized a North Korean cargo ship with missiles underneath packs of sugar. North Korea is one Panama to immediately release the ship and its crew. It also says the shipment was part of a quote "legitimate contract." The weapons were discovered Monday. They apparently belonged to Cuba which called them quote "obsolete" and said they were being sent to North Korea to be repaired.
Does this picture go too far? Many say yes, and tonight, the outrage is building over "Rolling Stone's" cover photo of the Boston bombing suspect. The angry as the magazine saying the image of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is a slap in the face of Boston and to the victims of the terror attack. Walgreen CBS and several other businesses are refusing to sell the controversial issue.
In a statement, the magazine says the cover story falls within the traditions of journalism and "Rolling Stone's" long standing commitment to serious and thoughtful coverage to the most important culture and political images of our day.
And while baby watch goes on, the due date to have the duchess was four days ago, and as great Britain waits, so do millions around the world. Prince Charles' wife Camilla says in an interview she hopes the baby arrives by the end of the week. And then there's queen Elizabeth. The great grandmother-to-be was asked if she wants that baby to be a boy or girl? She replied by saying I don't think I mind. I would very much like it to arrive. I'm going on holiday.
OK then. And that's a look at some of the stories making news tonight. I'm Isha Sesay.
Now, back to the "AC 360" Special Report, "Not guilty, the George Zimmerman trial."
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: This is an "AC 360" Special Report, "not guilty, the Zimmerman trial." Juror B-37 takes us inside the verdict. In this second half hour of my interview, who Juror B-37 believes is responsible for the fight that cause Trayvon Martin his life. How jurors voted the first time. And whether she believes the shooting of Trayvon Martin was justified.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Do you think Trayvon Martin played a role in his own death? This wasn't just something that happened to him, this is something he also --
JUROR B-37, GEORGE ZIMMERMAN MURDER TRIAL: I believe he played a huge role in his death. He could have -- when George confronted him and he could have walked away and gone home. He didn't have to do whatever he did and come back and be in a fight.
COOPER: And the other jurors felt that, as well?
JUROR B-37: They did. I mean, as far as my perspective of it, they did.
COOPER: Let's talk about how you reached the verdict. When the closing arguments were done, the rebuttal was done, you into that jury room, what happened? JUROR B-37: Well, the first day we went in, we were trying to get ourselves organized because there's no instructions on what you do, how you do it, and when you do it. So we all decided we nominated a foreman so she could have the voice and kind of run the show. The first day we got all the evidence on the tables and on the walls. Then we asked for an inventory because it was just too time consuming, looking for evidence when it was in no order whatsoever.
COOPER: Did you take an initial vote to see where everybody was?
JUROR B-37: We did.
COOPER: So where was everybody, how was that first vote?
JUROR B-37: Weed that three not guilties, one second degree murder and two manslaughters.
COOPER: So half the jury felt he was not guilty, two manslaughters and one second degree?
JUROR B-37: Exactly.
COOPER: Can you say where you were on that?
JUROR B-37: I was not guilty.
COOPER: So going into it, once the evidence -- all the evidence had been represented, you felt he was not guilty?
JUROR B-37: I did. I think if the medical examiner could have done a better job by presenting Trayvon's evidence --
COOPER: You mean the state --
JUROR B-37: I mean, the state. They should have bagged his hands, they should have dried this clothes, they should have done a lot of things they didn't do.
COOPER: Do you feel you know truly what happened?
JUROR B-37: I have a rendition of what I believe happened, and I think it's probably as close as anybody could come to what happened. But nobody is not going to know what exactly happened except for George.
COOPER: So you took that first vote. You saw basically a jury split. Half the jurors, including yourself, not guilty, two people thought manslaughter, one person thought second degree murder had been proven. How do you go about deciding things?
JUROR B-37: We started looking at the evidence. We listened to all the tapes. Two, three, four, five times.
COOPER: The 911 recordings?
JUROR B-37: The 911 recordings. Then there's the re-enactment tape. There were some tapes from previous 911 calls that George had made.
COOPER: The reenactment tape, that's the tape of George Zimmerman walking --
JUROR B-37: Exactly. We looked through pretty much everything. That's why it took us so long. And then at the end, we just -- we got done, and we just started looking at the law, what exactly we could find and how we should vote for this case, and the law became very confusing.
COOPER: Yes. Tell me about that.
JUROR B-37: It became very confusing. We had stuff thrown at us. We had the second degree murder charge, the manslaughter charge. Then we had self-defense, Stand Your Ground. And I think there was one other one. But the manslaughter case, we actually had gotten it down to manslaughter, because the second degree, it wasn't a second degree anymore.
COOPER: So the person who felt it was second degree going into it, you had convinced them, OK, it's manslaughter?
JUROR B-37: Through going through the law. And then we had sent a question to the judge and it was not a question that they could answer yes or no. So they sent it back saying that if we could narrow it down to a question --
COOPER: You sent a question out to the judge about manslaughter.
JUROR B-37: Yes. And what could be applied to the manslaughter. We were looking at the self-defense. One of the girls said -- asked if you can put all the leading things into that one moment where he feels it's a matter of life and death to shoot this boy or if it was just at the heat of passion at that moment.
COOPER: So that juror wanted to know whether the things that had brought George Zimmerman to that place, not just in the minute or two before the shot actually went off --
JUROR B-37: Exactly.
COOPER: But earlier that day, even prior crimes?
JUROR B-37: Not prior crimes, just the situation leading to it, all the steps. As the ball got rolling --
COOPER: From him spotting Trayvon Martin, getting out of his vehicle, whether all of that could play a role in --
JUROR B-37: Determining the self-defense or not.
COOPER: Did you feel like you understood the instructions from the judge? Because they were very complex. I mean, reading them, they were tough to follow.
JUROR B-37: Right. And that was our problem. I mean, it was just so confusing what went with what, and what we could apply to what. Because I mean, there was a couple of them in there that wanted to find him guilty of something. And after hours and hours and hours of deliberating over the law and reading it over and over and over again, we decided there's just no way -- other place to go.
COOPER: Can you talk about the process of the other jurors changing their minds? You talked about the first juror went from second degree murder to manslaughter, then put out the question to the judge for manslaughter. And then it was basically because of the jury's reading of the law that everybody finally decided manslaughter doesn't hold?
JUROR B-37: That's exactly right.
COOPER: Was there any holdout?
JUROR B-37: There was a holdout. And probably -- well, we had another vote, and then everybody voted -- put it in the little tin. We had a little tin, folded our little papers and put it in the vote and she was the last one to vote. And it took probably another 30 minutes for her to decide that she could not find anything else to hold George on, because you want to find him guilty of something. She wanted to find him guilty of something but couldn't because of the law, the way the law was written. He wasn't responsible for negligible things he had done leading up to that point.
COOPER: Did you also want to find him guilty of something?
JUROR B-37: I wanted to find him guilty of not using his senses, but you can't fault anybody -- you can't fault him -- you can't charge him with anything, because he didn't do anything unlawful.
COOPER: You're saying he overreacted or made bad choices but it wasn't against the law.
JUROR B-37: Exactly. That's exactly what happened.
COOPER: You're saying maybe it wasn't right getting out of that car, but it wasn't against the law.
JUROR B-37: Exactly. He started the ball rolling. He could have avoided the whole situation by staying in the car. But he wanted to do good. I think he had good in his heart. He just went overboard.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Coming up, the verdict --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We the jury find George Zimmerman not guilty.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And the emotional toll it took on jurors.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUROR B-37: After we had put our vote in, and the bailiff had taken our vote, that's when everybody started to cry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE ZIMMERMAN, ACQUITTED IN KILLING TRAYVON MARTIN: Swelling, wouldn't let them do anything to my nose right now.
COOPER: So, whether it was George Zimmerman getting out of the vehicle, whether he was right to get out of the vehicle, whether he was a want-to-be cop, whether he was overeager, none of that, in the final analysis, mattered, what mattered was the seconds before the shot went off, did George Zimmerman fear for his life?
JUROR B-37: Exactly. That's exactly what happened.
COOPER: Did you have any doubt George Zimmerman feared for his life?
JUROR B-37: I had no doubt George Zimmerman feared for his life in the situation he was in at the time.
COOPER: So when the prosecution, in their closing argument, is holding up the skittles --
BERNIE DE LA RIONDA, STATE PROSECUTOR: He bought skittles and some kind of watermelon or iced tea or whatever it's called.
COOPER: Holding up the can of iced tea saying this is what Trayvon Martin was armed with, just a kid who had skittles and iced tea, did you find that compelling at all or did you mind Mark O'Mara with the concrete block compelling?
MARK O'MARA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: But that's cement.
JUROR B-37: Mark with the concrete block definitely. It's just the skittles and the Arizona can was ridiculous to even put it up and compare the two. I mean, anybody can be armed with anything. You can bash somebody's head against a tree or a rock or this concrete.
COOPER: So you believe that Trayvon Martin was slamming George Zimmerman's head against the concrete without a doubt?
JUROR B-37: I believe he hit his head on the concrete. I think he was probably trying to slam it. I don't know how hard George's head hit on the concrete. It hit enough to get damage, bruising, swelling, I think it's -- it was definitely enough to make you fear when you're in that situation. COOPER: And the photos of George Zimmerman, the photos of his injuries, to you those were -- were those something you also looked at in the jury room?
JUROR B-37: We did. We did. We did that kind of evidence first, then we listened to all the tapes afterwards.
COOPER: And that was important to you because that also made you believe George Zimmerman was legitimate in fearing for his life?
JUROR B-37: I believed it. I believed it because of his injuries.
DEBRA NELSON, GEORGE ZIMMERMAN MURDER TRIAL JUDGE: Please pay attention to the instructions I am about to give you.
COOPER: The two options, second degree murder or manslaughter, you felt neither applied?
JUROR B-37: Right, well, because of the heat of the moment and the Stand Your Ground. And he had a right to defend himself. If he felt threatened then his life was going to be taken away from him or he is going to have bodily harm, he had a right.
NELSON: It's important that you follow the law spelled out in these instructions.
JUROR B-37: That's how we read the law. That's how we got to the point of everybody being not guilty.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We the jury find George Zimmerman not guilty, so say we all, foreperson.
COOPER: How has this been for you? I mean, how was making that decision, when you all realized, OK, the last holdout juror decided OK, manslaughter, we can't hold George Zimmerman to manslaughter. There's nothing we can hold him to, not guilty. In that jury room, emotionally what was that like.
JUROR B-37: It was emotional to a point. But after we had put our vote in and the bailiff had taken our vote, that's when everybody started to cry.
COOPER: Tell me about that.
JUROR B-37: It was just hard. Thinking that somebody lost their life, and there's nothing else could be done about it. I mean, it's what happened is sad, it's a tragedy this happened. But it happened. I think both were responsible for the situation they had gotten themselves into. I think both of them could have walked away. It just didn't happen.
COOPER: It's still emotional for you.
JUROR B-37: It is. It's very emotional.
COOPER: Can you explain the emotion?
JUROR B-37: It's just sad that we all had to come together and figure out what is going to happen to this man's life afterwards. You find him not guilty, but you're responsible for that not guilty and all the people that want him guilty aren't going to have any closure.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Next, where do Juror B-37's sympathies lie?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Do you feel sorry for Trayvon Martin?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Can you tell me just a little bit about that last day in the jury room. Did you know you were close?
JUROR B-37: We knew we were close. We knew we were close five hours before we got to where we were, because we were slowly making progress the entire time. We didn't come to a stumbling block. We were just reading and reading and reading and reading and knew we were progressing.
COOPER: And did the jurors, did you all get along well? I mean, was there conflict? Was there -- how did the deliberation process, how was being together this long?
JUROR B-37: The deliberation, it was tough. We all pretty much get along. At times, I thought we might have a hung jury, because one of them said they were going to leave and we convinced them no, you can't leave. You've been in this too long to walk out now.
COOPER: Did you cry in that jury room?
JUROR B-37: I cried after the verdict. I didn't cry out when they were reading the verdict out in the jury room. Because we were all crying before we went in.
COOPER: What do you mean you were crying before you went in?
JUROR B-37: Well, we were in a separate room. When the foreman handed the bailiff our verdict, and then we were crying back there before we went to the jury room. So they gave us about 20 minutes to try and get everything together.
COOPER: What do you think you were crying about?
JUROR B-37: The pressure. The pressure of all of it, and everything just kind of came to a head. Because I kind of tried to keep everything out, emotionally out during the whole process and it just flooded in after it was done.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The verdict, we the jury find George Zimmerman not guilty.
COOPER: Did you realize how big this trial had become?
JUROR B-37: I had no clue. No clue whatsoever.
COOPER: Did it make sense to you that there was this much attention on it?
JUROR B-37: It didn't to me, because I didn't see it as a racial thing. I saw it as a murder case, as a second degree murder case. It just -- it was just unbelievable that it had gotten so big and so political -- not really political, I don't want to say that, but so emotional for everybody involved and I never would have thought when we went over to the hotel to get all our stuff from the hotel, we got to the hotel, and the parking lot was just a regular parking lot. By the time we came out, it looked like Disney world. There was media, there were police, there were -- and it really kind of started to sink in when we went to get our stuff and the state police showed up because they were going to be our escorts home.
COOPER: Are you scared now?
JUROR B-37: I'm not scared. I don't know how to say it.
COOPER: You clearly don't want people to see your face.
JUROR B-37: No. But I don't want anybody else around me to be affected by anyone else. I mean, I'm not really scared but I want to be cautious, if that makes any sense.
COOPER: It's understandable.
JUROR B-37: Yes.
COOPER: But you want people to know -- why did you want to speak?
JUROR B-37: I want people to know that we put everything into everything to get this verdict. We didn't just go in there and say, we're going to come in here and just do guilty, not guilty. We thought about it for hours and cried over it afterwards. I don't think any of us could ever do anything like that again.
COOPER: Do you feel sorry for Trayvon Martin?
JUROR B-37: I feel sorry for both of them. I feel sorry for Trayvon and the situation he was in. And I feel sorry for George because of the situation he got himself in.
COOPER: But you want people to know, and the reason you are speaking is, you want people to know how seriously you took this?
JUROR B-37: I do. I don't want people to think that we didn't think about it and we didn't care about Trayvon Martin because we did. We are very sad that it happened to him.
COOPER: And you want his family to know that, as well?
JUROR B-37: I do. And I feel bad that we can't give them the verdict that they wanted, but legally we could not do that.
COOPER: When you lay your head tonight on the pillow, in your heart, and in your head, you are 100 percent convinced that George Zimmerman, in taking out his gun and pulling the trigger, did nothing wrong?
JUROR B-37: I'm 101 percent that he was -- that he should have done what he did except for the things that he did before. That's not the way I wanted to say it.
COOPER: You mean he shouldn't have gotten out of the car. He shouldn't have pursued Trayvon Martin, but in the final analysis, in the final struggle --
JUROR B-37: When the end came to the end --
COOPER: He was justified.
JUROR B-37: He was justified in shooting Trayvon Martin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: After that interviewed first aired, Monday night, four jurors released a statement saying the opinions of Juror B-37 quote were her own and not in any way representative of all the jurors. B- 37 then sent to our program a statement that said quote "for reasons of my own, I needed to speak alone, there will be no other interviews. My prayers are with all those who have the influence and power tore modify the laws that left me with no verdict option other than not guilty. No other family should be forced to endure what the Martin family has endured."
I'm Anderson Cooper. That's it for our "AC 360" Special Report.
