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Zimmerman Jury Back At Work; State Attorney's I.T. Director Fired; Anti Abortion Bill Passes Texas Senate; Third Asiana Crash Victim Dies; NSA Leaker Speaks From Russia; French Train Derails, At Least Six Killed; Runaway Train Death Toll Rises; Zimmerman Jury Deliberating During Lunch; State Department Calls For Morsy Release; Penn State OKs Settlements For Victims; Zimmerman Attorney Speaks Out

Aired July 13, 2013 - 12:00   ET

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome, everybody. It is 12:00 noon in the east. This is our special continuing coverage of the George Zimmerman trial. I'm Chris Cuomo.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. These are the big stories that we are covering today.

COUMO: First up, of course, day two in verdict watch, the murder trial of George Zimmerman. The jury right now is taking a planned lunch for an hour. So from noon to 1:00 Eastern, that's what they'll be doing. We're still live in Sanford monitoring everything as it happens.

BOLDUAN: And other news we're following, a man without a country. NSA leaker Edward Snowden is making his plea for asylum from the Moscow airport.

CUOMO: Also, we're learning this morning that another person has died in the crash of Flight 214 just as the final pieces of debris are being cleared away from the runway we got that news.

Let's shift back to our emphasis here this morning, Sanford, Florida, jurors in George Zimmerman's murder trial as I said taking a break. It's lunchtime for them. That's scheduled. It's very important that the jury gets its rest, gets its food so that they can focus on deliberations. They've been going for over six hours now in this, their second day.

What are their options? OK, take a look on your screen. George Zimmerman could be found not guilty of anything. He could be found guilty of second degree murder. He could also be convicted on a lesser charge of manslaughter. If the jury can't reach a unanimous decision, you have a hung jury, mistrial is declared. Will there be a retrial? That's up to prosecutors. It comes later. So that's what we know for now.

BOLDUAN: Those are the options right now. George Howell is live outside the courthouse in Sanford, Florida for us. George, so all eyes obviously on the jury, they're taking their lunch break as Chris has just said, but they are faced with a heavy task. The only thing we've heard is them asking for a list of exhibits that have been presented in court, some 200 items. Everyone is wondering what that means. Most people we've been talking to says that's pretty much regular course and shows this jury is going to be methodical. What are you hearing this morning?

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, and you know, that makes perfect sense, to get a list, an inventory of all the evidence, more than 100 I would imagine, more than 100 items of evidence that they'll have to look through to get the inventory and take the time to go point by point as they make their decision.

We know when they came into the courtroom this morning, Kate, they looked straight ahead. They didn't look at George Zimmerman or his defense team, did not look at prosecutors, looked straight ahead, talked to the judge and then went back into the room where they will continue with deliberations.

Let's take a second to break down what those charges mean because we talked about second degree murder, talked about manslaughter. The jury does not know presumably what that means as far as time behind bars. Here is what we understand it means.

As far as second degree murder, could be a minimum of 25 years in prison. That's a gun enhancement here in Florida, a minimum of 25 years and then up to life in prison. That is, of course, at the discretion of the judge.

When you talk about manslaughter, here in the state of Florida it's a minimum of 10 years up to 30 years behind bars. They call it a lesser charge, but when you look at the time you could serve behind bars, certainly it is significant.

And there's also the option, the possibility that George Zimmerman could be found not guilty. So we're waiting here on verdict watch to see exactly what this jury decides.

COUMO: George, it gets complicated, also, right, because when you're looking at the ranges, you have from a minimum to maximum. You have aggravating factors of Trayvon Martin is considered to be a minor by the judge, the use of a firearm. There are ranges.

Important to note, George, and you've said this all along, the jury does not know the sentences. It should not be a part of the corruption of their decision. The judge, Judge Nelson, will sit a month or two afterwards if there's a guilty verdict and decide the sentence.

So it could be serious no matter which charge there's a guilty that's what happens. But the jury, just to be clear, doesn't know that. A little more developing information here, George, that we'll get your take on in just a second.

We got new information today that the I.T. director, information and technology director for the State's Attorney's Office has been fired. His name is Ben Kruidbos. Why would care? Well, this is the same man who testified before he Zimmerman case went to trial that the State Attorney's Office withheld evidence from the defense in his opinion.

Kruidbos testified about images and deleted text messages on Trayvon Martin's cell phone. If you've been following this, you may remember that the defense was very upset about this. That they wanted the text and the prosecutor knew he had them and he didn't gave them to us.

The prosecution was very strong saying that is just not true, there was never any information I had that I didn't give you. So now we find out that the I.T. director has been fired. The termination letter addressed to Kruidbos said, he violated numerous policies and procedures of the State Attorney's Office.

Very important, George, we bring you back in now on this. There's no mention that he's been fired for what he said about the George Zimmerman trial. That was the letter. What is your information on this, George?

HOWELL: Well, let's look back at the timeline. From what we understand he was put on paid administrative leave back on May 28 given that termination notice to our facts, our information, the day that the jury started deliberating.

Again, he got his own attorney. In this situation he wanted to make sure that all the information from the state was shared with the defense. And he was worried that he could be somehow liable for not getting that information over. He got his own attorney.

That became an issue, one of the discovery violations. Even the defense team, when they found out he got an attorney, when they found out there was a possible discovery violation, they raised this argument before the judge.

The judge decided this issue will be handled post verdict. So after the verdict is reached, but again a possible discovery violation on the state that the defense has really been squawking about throughout this trial.

BOLDUAN: All right, George, stand by for us. We'll get back to you in a little while. I want to bring in our legal analyst again Sunny Hostin, former federal prosecutor, of course and Criminal Defense Attorney Mark Nejame.

I want to first start, guys, by asking about this latest development. What's your take on this? Because this happened everyone has to think back in their memory to when this happened before the trial. But what do you make of this development, Sunny, of this Kruidbos?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, certainly, it's not going to have any impact on the deliberations. It's not going to have any impact on the verdict. Let's say that right out. It will be an issue on appeal if the defendant is convicted. That is because there is a motion for sanctions pending.

The defense is alleging discovery violations, and the bottom line is they wanted to put in the information that was found on Trayvon Martin's phone. They wanted to put in the pictures and the text messages. Now, the judge didn't allow them to put it in because she said it couldn't be authenticated.

She said we don't even know if they're from Trayvon Martin's phone or that he is the one that sent them. Well, the defense is going to argue, had we had the information earlier, had the state had given us that information, we would have had time for our investigators to dig deeply into this.

And we could have authenticated it and we would have been able to put it into evidence in front of this jury. It may have changed the outcome of the trial. That's a significant appellate issue. Are they going to win on that? I don't know. But it is a significant appellate issue and that's why this issue is so important.

COUMO: All right, so it's out there. We have the latest reporting on it. Sunny, thank you for the take. We'll see how it develops, but that is a good point of analysis for now.

Let me move on to something else we just learned. We've been told, Mark Nejame, I want your take on this for a second, but we've been told that the jury was eating from noon to 1:00. We're know now told they are going to work through lunch, not they are on a hunger strike.

But that they want to work and eat at the same time. It sounds like a meaningless distinction but it really isn't, especially when you understand the psychology of juries. Mark Nejame, you've done this a long time. The idea that they want to work through lunch, what does that tell you?

MARK NEJAME, CNN LEGAL ANALSYT: It's consistent with what we've seen throughout, with them taking notes feverishly and wanting to work through breaks. I think this is a hard working jury. I think we're seeing justice at work. It's been said many times and it's correct, justice is the process, not the outcome.

This is a hard working jury who is not rushing a verdict. A lot of people thought they might want to get home on Friday. They've been away from their family for a long time. One lady has eight children, but they're doing what they believe is the right thing. You can only give them credit.

I think though that does suggest that they're arguably moving in a direction because if, in fact, they were really at some point deadlocked at this point and we don't know, then they might want to take a break and come back. If they're moving forward, then they want to keep moving in that direction.

BOLDUAN: That's actually an excellent point, Mark. Of course, you make many excellent points. That's not just the only one you've ever made. I didn't want to imply that.

NEJAME: Well, thank you.

BOLDUAN: But Sunny, this brings us to a lot of questions that people have. Not a lot of people get the opportunity to watch a trial like we have in this case from beginning to end. So much information coming at these jurors for hours on hours on end, 200 exhibits for them to consider, so many witnesses before them, so many conflicting stories.

Do you in your view as you watched the trial and watched the jurors watching this play out, do you see that there was any one witness, any one piece of evidence that you think has really stuck with them? What do you think is that big impression that you saw might be a light bulb moment for those jurors.

HOSTIN: Yes, it wasn't that kind of trial. It wasn't the trial with the smoking gun. It was clear to me they took in all the evidence, they were taking notes. This wasn't a "who done it" case? When you do, you see when watching a jury when finally there's a witness that says "I saw him shoot," that's when they have the light bulb moment and they start writing notes.

It wasn't that kind of case. We knew who shot. The only question is, you know, we know who was killed. The only question is was the shooting justifiable and so I think in putting that puzzle together, they're looking at all the pieces. They're not looking at one big closer, one big piece. It wasn't that kind of trial -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: That's an excellent point. Mark, Sunny, thanks so much. Stand by we'll have much more. Actually reading in "The Washington Post," Chris, just what Sunny was saying, they've described it as the jury is presented with a mosaic of facts that they need to piece together. There's not one kind of plate before them of real hard and true facts for them to consider. I think that really shows what Sunny is saying, the tough job ahead of this jury.

COUMO: It's a very human process. I don't know how many of you have served on a criminal jury. I actually have. I was shocked. I was sitting there and you're always worried about how long things are going to take? Yes, I'm an attorney, a legal reporter, a journalist.

They still put me on the jury. When you get back into the room and you start to see how seriously people take it seriously and how worried they are about the responsibility. This was a drug buy and bust case that I was on.

Imagine here where you have two lives on the line. Trayvon Martin is gone. They don't know the penalties, but they do know if there's a conviction in this case, George Zimmerman is in all likelihood going to be in jail for a long time.

BOLDUAN: They understand the weight of this, yes.

COUMO: They take it very seriously and you don't know what will matter to them. This is always the case, afterwards when the jury speaks, if they do. Then in hindsight you'd be like, I knew that that would matter a lot. We have a lot of indication, working through lunch, not all jurors do that.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and so we're going to be watching it closely as we always not too far from it. But first I want to move on to some other stories that we're watching. Now to Texas where the State Senate there has approved one of the strictest anti-abortion measures in the country, this is a story that we've been following for weeks now. The bill, it bans abortions after 20 weeks and requires clinics that perform these procedures to meet the same standards as surgical centers. Some would say -- the critics of this measure say that's going to force most of these clinics to close. Supporters of the bill say it's all about safety and making this as safe a process as possible for anyone.

But a version of the bill, as we said, died last month after an 11- hour filibuster by this woman, Senator Wendy Davis. Republican Governor Rick Perry is a strong supporter of the measure and he is expected to sign it into law.

Other stories we're watching in San Francisco, a third person died from injuries suffered in the crash of Asiana Flight 214. The plane crash landed at San Francisco's airport last Saturday. In keeping with the wishes of the family, doctors are not releasing the victim's name, only saying that she was a young female.

COUMO: All right, we're going to take a break. About 14 minutes past the hour. As we said, the jury working through lunch in the George Zimmerman case. We're following other news as well, you're looking at one of the stories right now, man without a country, NSA leaker Edward Snowden reportedly now seeking temporary political asylum in Russia. The question, will it work?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COUMO: All right, live shots, Sanford, Florida. That's the courthouse. That's where the jury is deliberating what the fate should be for George Zimmerman. We know they're working through their lunch. They're taking their job very seriously as they iron out a verdict. We're monitoring it throughout the hour.

When there is a verdict, if there is a verdict, we'll be given about a one-hour window. We'll be here the entire time looking for it all day today, special coverage of that. So we'll be with you.

Also monitoring other news this morning, first NSA leaker Edward Snowden spoke out for the first time since he's been hold up in that Russian airport. He said yesterday he does not regret leaking secret details about NSA surveillance programs. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EDWARD SNOWDEN, NSA LEAKER: A little over one month ago I had a family, a home in paradise, and I lived in great comfort. I also had the capability without any warrant of law to search for, to seize and read your communications, anyone's communications at any time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COUMO: Snowden also accepted offers for asylum from countries like Venezuela and Bolivia. He said he can't get anywhere because of threats from the U.S. he is requesting temporary asylum in Russia.

Let's bring in Elise Labott. She is in Washington right now. Elise, this has been a point of convention from the beginning, questions about America's mojo, and it seemed that Hongkong and then Russia was ignoring U.S. intentions here. What do we know about this latest offer of temporary asylum?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPORTER: Well, Chris, the Obama administration is furious to say the least that Snowden's latest appearance in Russia. White House and the State Department both slamming the government for giving Edward Snowden what they called a propaganda platform when he's considered a criminal here in the U.S.

Russia if you remember had said it was neutral on the case, couldn't do anything while he was in this transit area of the airport, but by facilitating this meeting with human rights activists, officials say Moscow is already treating him as if he has asylum.

And now publicly saying he won't leak any more information about the United States, officials are concerned that Snowden has accepted the conditions Russia laid out to consider his asylum and now this could move along.

President Putin in a box a bit right now, on one hand he has a lot of domestic political concerns, needs to show he's strong and not caving to the U.S., but also wants to preserve relationship with President Obama. The two are supposed to have a summit in September. I'm told that's on hold while this is being resolved.

COUMO: All right, thank you very much for that, Elise. Obviously, a situation we have to watch. We're all trying to figure out where Mr. Snowden is going to wind up? Will the U.S. be able to seek justice against him from their perspective? But thank you for the reporting, appreciate it.

BOLDUAN: All right, now to France where rail stations across the country observed a moment of silence today to honor the victims of a fatal train crash. At least six people were killed and 22 injured when a passenger train derailed south of Paris yesterday. The head of the railway says a mechanical failure caused the crash.

To the train wreck in Quebec, the death toll there is rising. Officials say 28 people are now confirmed dead and about 30 more are still missing this morning. The runaway train carrying crude oil exploded last Saturday in the town of Lac-Magantic near the border. The engineer claims he set the brakes on the tanker cars before leaving for the night, but railway company's CEO is questioning that and a criminal investigation is now under way.

COUMO: All right, it is about -- a lot of news to cover, the big story for us, George Zimmerman trial. We're on verdict watch. It's about 20 minutes past noon here in the east. The jury, eating lunch, but also still deliberating.

We'll be going through what got us to this point. Remember, the burden of proof is on the state. A big question is whether or not they left room for reasonable doubt. Our legal experts will way in. Please stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Giving you a live look once again at the courthouse in Sanford, Florida. The jury has been working today since 9:00 Eastern this morning. We will continue to watch and wait for the jury's decision right here live on CNN. We're never getting too far away from it.

COUMO: That's right. You're Kate Bolduan. I'm Chris Cuomo. You seem vaguely familiar.

BOLDUAN: I see you more than my husband.

COUMO: We've all been watching the Zimmerman trial very carefully for a lot of reasons. To bring you up to date, Thursday and Friday is when the closing arguments were. Both lawyers talked for hours, delivering their arguments to the jury. Let's show you some of the high points right now in case you missed it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BERNIE DE LA RIONDA, ASSISTANT STATE ATTORNEY: A teenager is dead. He is dead through no fault of his own. He is dead because another man made assumptions. He profiled him as a criminal. He assumed certain things. That Trayvon Martin was up to no good and that is what led to his death.

Why is he able to yell if the defendant claims the victim was -- How are you going to talk or is he lying about that. Look at the gun. Look at the size of this gun. How did the victim see that in the darkness?

Do you see what he is saying now? He's saying that armpits -- how does he get the gun out? He profiled a 17-year-old boy that had Skittles. That's the crime he committed that evening. He's skipping away, la, la, la. This innocent 17-year-old kid was profiled as a criminal.

MARK O'MARA, GEORGE ZIMMERMAN'S DEFENSE ATTORNEY: How many could- have-been have you heard from the state in this case? How many what- ifs? That's cement. That is a sidewalk, and that is not an unarmed teenager with nothing, but Skittles trying to get home.

And the suggestion by the state that that's not a weapon, that that can't hurt somebody, that that can't cause great bodily injury is disgusting. If I were to walk in today, let's say, and I just as an example walked in like this, walked into the courtroom as a lawyer, you would have an impression.

What in God's name is he doing with his sunglasses on? Who does he think he is? You may have an impression of George Zimmerman. Stand up, please. You may have an impression of him because he's sitting at the defense table and maybe, as we talked about, he's not just a citizen in the community, but he is a defendant.

Maybe he has something he has to defend. You look at these facts. You look at all this evidence and you have to say I have a reasonable doubt as to whether or not the state can convince me he didn't act in self-defense. That's all you have to do. You don't have to write innocent on the bottom of the verdict form.

JOHN GUY, ASSISTANT STATE ATTORNEY: If there was ever any doubt about what happened, really happened, was it not completely removed by what the defendant said afterwards? All of the lies he told, all of them, what does that tell you? There's only two people on this earth who know what really happened, and one of them can't testify, and the other one lied, not about little things like his age or whether or not he went to the hospital, but about the things that really truly matter.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COUMO: Now let's talk about what truly matters to our legal experts here. Avery Friedman, civil rights attorney and law professor in Cleveland. Richard Herman, a New York criminal defense attorney and law professor joining us from Vegas. We got Cleveland. We got Vegas. This is great. Thanks for joining us, fellas, appreciate it.

Let's start with what we there in that last excerpt from the prosecutor. If you have any doubt, wasn't it's raced by what George Zimmerman said afterwards, all the lies. Let me ask you something, Richard Herman, let's start with you. Is that enough to convict somebody, that you say someone is a liar?

RICHARD HERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: No, that's not enough. They have a burden of proof. The prosecution has a burden to prove beyond and to the exclusion of any reasonable doubt that George Zimmerman did not have the right to self-defense, and I must tell you both, Kate and Chris, they have utterly completely failed in this obligation.

I am shocked that it's taken the jury this long. I am shocked the judge did not dismiss murder two as a matter of law or at least reserve on it. The summations by the government were just emotional pleas to this jury as opposed to O'Mara's which surgically showed them the law and the evidence and left them with no alternative. It must be not guilty.

BOLDUAN: All right, Richard, I mean, I know Avery is shaking his head and wants to jump in. Avery jump in. Were you as shocked as well?

AVERY FRIEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Well, I mean, there were a number of reasons why I think any objective observer was shocked about this. But there was no basis for dismissal at the end of the prosecution case. You know what? The jury has been deliberating now about seven hours, which tells us that with 200 exhibits, 200 exhibits and the extraordinary testimony in here that the prosecution has a chance.

Now, having said that, I actually have to agree with Richard that I don't think that -- the critical thing and that was to disprove self- defense. It's going to work where there is murder two. It's also going to work on the lesser included charge of manslaughter. So either way, if they couldn't prove self-defense or couldn't get rid of it, essentially, there should be an acquittal.

COUMO: Important thing to note here for people watching at home. The prosecution, as we all know, has this burden of beyond a reasonable doubt. On this self-defense thing, many of you online keep asking as if George Zimmerman's defense counsel has to prove that. They don't.

That's what you're hearing from Avery right now. The prosecution also has the burden of proof with self-defense. Avery, you mentioned manslaughter. Many people say here and Kate and I have been hearing it all morning, that seems like -- that's foreseeable, that's likely, maybe the jury could find manslaughter.

Let's talk about the instruction to the jury for manslaughter. It's different than the law on the books in Florida. Tell me what the instruction is, why it's different and how that matters. Avery, let's start with you on that and then we'll go to you, Mr. Herman.

FRIEDMAN: Well, it's an extraordinarily confusing issue because it's essentially reckless homicide. Essentially it is culpable negligence. Well, you know, if you're a jury, how do you know what culpable negligence is? You have to have a definition of that.

I think what happens honestly, Chris, is in a case like this, if the jury is not going to be able to get to murder two, they're going to be looking at manslaughter as a way to make the defendant responsible. I think that's troubling.

I think the defense should have objected to it even though that is the practice in Florida, and I think that if there's a conviction on manslaughter, take this to the bank, this case is headed to the Court of Appeals.

BOLDUAN: Now Richard, I want you to jump in on this as well, and also on this point, continuing on manslaughter. When manslaughter was added in to this towards the end, some people were thinking that indicates -- seems like that might be a better route, a better avenue for the prosecution to go to kind of target.

It's an easier burden, an easier threshold to meet. As you're listening to closing arguments by the prosecution, it sure sounded like they were still targeting and aiming for second degree murder. What do you think?

HERMAN: Yes, for the top charge. That's what they are looking for here. But manslaughter, we knew this was coming, as of law in Florida, they have to charge this. If the prosecution wants it, they charge it. There's no defense to that.

Don't think for a moment, though, if this case gets appealed to the 11th Circuit, if you want to look at the success rate on defense appeals of the 11th Circuit. You need a microscope because it's minute.

If Zimmerman gets convicted of manslaughter, which is a second degree felony, he's aggravated by the use of a gun and the fact that Trayvon Martin was a minor at 17. He could be looking at 30 years in prison on a manslaughter conviction. It's not there. Nobody knows what's going on right now. I'm just speculating, but I think in my mind --

BOLDUAN: We have to. We don't know.

HERMAN: The fact that they're working through lunch, I think they're close. Probably have four on the side of acquittal, maybe two outstanding who wanted to look at all the evidence yesterday. You could see a hung jury on manslaughter, but an acquittal on the murder two.

COUMO: Also interesting dynamic here. Hung jury we hear about. When you're a solo holdout in a group of 12 --

BOLDUAN: This has been my dynamic question.

BOLDUAN: Right. And Kate has been talking about how one out of six, you might be more emboldened because there are not so many people against you, easier to hold out. That's psychology for later.

I will tell you this, though, that we know -- Avery was talking about culpable negligence, which is typical lawyer odd language. It's also not in the instruction from the judge. She took it out. All that's in the rule book for the jury to go on, if you did something intentionally and it led to the death of Trayvon Martin, you could be guilty of manslaughter.

Why you did it being taken out, may simplify it for the jury. We'll bring you back in about 20 minutes to talk about what may be the main factors as we go on. I appreciate you being here. Thank you very much though.

BOLDUAN: All right, we're not getting far away from it, that's for sure. George Zimmerman's attorney sat down with CNN for a one-on-one interview. Ahead what Mark O'Mara says is the most surprising part about this case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COUMO: George Zimmerman, back in Florida this morning, waiting to hear the verdict in his trial. The jury has been deliberating for more than seven hours. Right now, they're having lunch, but working through it, important to note.

The judge said they can keep talking about the case if they want. They're taking that opportunity. We're watching everything coming out of that courtroom. We'll bring you updates as we get them we promise.

There's also other news this morning. The U.S. State Department calling for release of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy, calling his detention, quote, "politically motivated." This comes as tens of thousands of Morsy supporters gathered in Cairo to protest his ouster.

Some of the men who claim former Penn State Assistant Football Coach Jerry Sandusky abused them could soon get money from the school. The Board of Trustees has authorized the university to offer settlements to victims. But the dollar amount is being kept confidential. Sandusky was sentenced to more than 30 years in prison for sexually abusing ten boys over a 15-year period.

BOLDUAN: A tense waiting game in Sanford, Florida, continues. That's where jurors are into their seventh hour of deliberations as to whether or not George Zimmerman is guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin. They're even working through lunch as we've mentioned.

CNN's Martin Savidge sat down with Zimmerman's attorney, Mark O'Mara for a one-on-one interview. O'Mara said this case has been highly political in his view.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How much of this was politics?

O'MARA: It's guesswork on my behalf. But if I enter into this formula, an element or ingredient of politics, a lot more makes sense, a lot more about the way the case was handled early on, the way it was turned into a racial event when seemingly and now positively it wasn't, when a special prosecutor is brought in when there doesn't seem to be any reason why Norwolf Finginger, the sitting prosecutor, had perfect opportunity to sit on this case.

As a matter of fact, I deposed three assistants who were busting their butts on this case. So they were ready to go forward and we had a grand jury set. So when a special prosecutor comes in then waves the grand jury and then files charges that most good legal analyst including Alan Dershowitz say that's an abomination. You have to wonder if there's not some outside influencing, pressuring decisions.

SAVIDGE: It's an incredible indictment of the state of Florida to say that justice became secondary to what may have been politics.

O'MARA: Well, justice is going to come with the acquittal, but it certainly seems to have been pressured and tamped down by inside influences. I would like to have a crystal ball to know who started it and who is truly responsible for it. I certainly can feel the pressures myself.

SAVIDGE: Would you have believed that before this trial?

O'MARA: In a Grisham novel, yes. In real life -- and I'm not Pollyanna-ish. I've done it way too long for that. I'm surprised that in 2012 we're at the point where that could possibly happen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Now we have asked the state of Florida and prosecutors if they would be available to speak with us this week. They declined and said they'll be speaking after the verdict and they'll be speaking to CNN.

We reached out to the Martin family for interviews, but they're also waiting until they receive a verdict. Now you can see Martin Savidge's entire interview with Mark O'Mara at 2:00 Eastern right here on CNN. An attorney for Trayvon Martin's family is also speaking out. Daryl parks told our George Howell the Martin family is hoping and praying for justice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DARYL PARKS, ATTORNEY FOR MARTIN FAMILY: There's no happy ending for them either way. Their son is not here. It's not like they're going to rejoice and George Zimmerman is going to jail. It's an unhappy situation on both sides. However, what it does mean, though, is Tray's killer doesn't continue to walk freely as if he did nothing wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COUMO: At the end of the day there's a lot of unknown in this. The jury of six is dealing with it. What is known, Trayvon Martin was gone. He was not in the commission of a crime that night. That's why there has to be sympathy for his family. We know everybody has a lot of passion in this and it being televised and getting so much coverage has stoked a lot of that. This family lost their child.

BOLDUAN: That's the important thing we do need to return to, even though a lot of the focus has been on George Zimmerman, but we also do need to remember there are two people and two families that are irreparably harmed and changed by this.

COUMO: Trayvon Martin was the victim. The crime that was against the state, that's why prosecutors take up this cause. It winds up leading us to the point we got today, after 14 days of arguments and testimony, last two days, 14 and 15, trying to get the verdict out.

We're monitoring the George Zimmerman murder trial by the minute. As anything comes up, we will tell it to you. Something we'll look back on. There's defense counsel. He has a large piece of cement. If you missed this, we'll tell you why it was not just a stunt from the defense perspective. We'll have our legal experts weighing in on why that could have mattered very much to the jury. Please stay with us.

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COUMO: It's about 45 minutes past noon now. Jurors in the George Zimmerman trial are eating and discussing their way through lunch. They've been deliberating for over seven hours over the past two days. We, just like you, are waiting for their verdict.

We'll be following their story throughout the hour as long as we can and monitoring other major headlines as well. There we are, live in Sanford, Florida. We're happy to have you joining us. I'm Chris Cuomo.

BOLDUAN: I'm Kate Bolduan. Great to see you. We are all watching and waiting for the verdict. While we do that, we're looking at both sides of the closing arguments, both sides of the case they laid out. Our legal experts are joining us once again, Avery Friedman in Cleveland and Richard Herman in Las Vegas. COUMO: Well, where we left here before the commercial break was with the defense counsel holding a large piece of cement. Avery, please explain why this was important to the defense going into what's in the jury instructions about the use of a weapon and what that means of the reasonableness of thinking that you're in serious bodily injury.

FRIEDMAN: There you go, self-defense, self-defense, self-defense. We heard a lot of promises by both sides. For example, remember at the beginning we heard an opening statement by the prosecution that we were going to see all sorts of things, including Trayvon Martin on top. Well, that went up in smoke. It never went anywhere.

But when in closing argument, when we saw the way the defense showed the jury, look, this is what this means, looks at this concrete. It's ground and pound. And on top of that, what else should we see when it came to that, self-defense, self-defense, self-defense. Once you show that, the prosecution can't disprove it, you're looking at acquittal.

BOLDUAN: But Richard, before you jump in, why don't we actually listen to that bit of the closing argument from Mark O'Mara? It's one of the highlight moments that stuck with people and you can imagine also stuck with the jury. Do we have that clip? Let's go to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'MARA: That's cement. That is a sidewalk, and that is not an unarmed teenager with nothing, but Skittles trying to get home. That was somebody who used the availability of dangerous items from his fist to the concrete to cause great bodily injury -- not that it was necessary for self-defense, but great bodily injury against George Zimmerman. And the suggestion by the state that that's not a weapon, that that can't hurt somebody, that that can't cause great bodily injury is disgusting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Is disgusting, Mark O'Mara says. Richard, what do you think that impact had on the jury?

HERMAN: I think it's disgusting. I think it had a tremendous impact on the jury. Kate, they're trying to show he was a young boy walking, armed with only Skittles. I'd like to know how many young men age 17 the state tries as adults. But in any event, that was pretty demonstrative.

I mean, look at the evidence, the credible evidence that came in. He was punched in the face, his nose may have been broken, blood was certainly going down his throat. His head was being banged into the ground there partially on the cement, at least two, maybe three times, maybe more.

John good, the neighbor saw the punches to the head. He had no dark in this fight. It was dark. It was raining. Did George Zimmerman in his mind reasonably fear imminent death or severe injury? Was it reasonable for him to believe that? The answer has to be self- defense. You can't wash off the blood and say look what actually happened to him. You can't do that.

COUMO: All right, hold on a second. I'll say yes, you can. You guys are too much on the same side. There's another side of this case.

HERMAN: It's rare.

COUMO: It's too rare right now. I have to defeat it. Let's just offer up what's the other side that could be going on in this room. Do we know that this piece of cement was used as a weapon? Do you believe -- the jury has been presented with evidence that beyond a reasonable doubt shows Zimmerman's head was barbed against concrete when there was a lot of discussion about them winding up on grass.

Do they know beyond a reasonable doubt that those injuries were caused by that or is there just u just as good a chance that they're back there thinking sure, he got hurt. This kid had some advantage in the fight, but it wasn't serious bodily injury, it was fist fight injury. It wasn't something that would trigger his ability to reasonably use a weapon against a kid that was unarmed. What do you think of that? What's the other side?

FRIEDMAN: The problem is that we are in closing argument. The judge told the jury, listen, this is not evidence and I think you're right, Chris. I think that's exactly right. But the problem is that there is so much ambiguity in the prosecutor's case that it's reasonable for the defense to say, look, you think the banged up head, the broken nose just happened?

It happened on the concrete. That wasn't the concrete from the sidewalk, of course, not. But the point was during the argument it was persuasive. The jury paid attention and that's going to factor in to their decision making, the right thing to do in defending a case like this.

HERMAN: Chris, you have too much prosecution in your blood there. Please give my best to your brother and especially your dad.

COUMO: Don't try to curry favor with me, Herman.

BOLDUAN: Give me your final thought.

HERMAN: Listen, the un-rebutted evidence is that the head hit the concrete two or three times. That's un-rebutted. Chris, you said there are so many what-ifs and so many things that are not connected here. That's reasonable doubt. That's why there must be an acquittal in this case. It can't go any other way. There must be an acquittal.

COUMO: They've been at it for a long time already. I'm talking about the jury, not these two trying to curry favor with me. Remember, the burden is on the prosecution. If they believe that it is not reasonable that George Zimmerman should not have thought there was going to be serious bodily injury, then they could convict him in this case. That's why I had to leave it that way.

FRIEDMAN: That's right. That's exactly right. COUMO: Thank you very much, Avery. Not so much thanks to you, Richard. Thank you very much for the analysis and insight. We appreciate it.

BOLDUAN: Thanks to you both.

All right, we're also watching other news this morning, the investigation in the crash of Asiana Flight 214. That investigation continues as a third victim of the accident dies in a bay area hospital.

COUMO: And of course, it goes without saying we're watching the courtroom in Sanford, Florida. That's where the jury is. They're deliberating. It's all up to them. As soon as they have a verdict, we will get it to you we promise. Stay with us.

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COUMO: Welcome back everybody. Just before 1:00 in the east. You are looking at the place that is the point of focus for so many this morning. The courthouse in Sanford, Florida, where the jury should be wrapping up their lunch, continuing deliberation into George Zimmerman's charges in the Trayvon Martin murder case. We're going to bring you the verdict live as soon as there is one. Updates as we get them.

BOLDUAN: Now to San Francisco where a third pin has died in the crash of Asiana Flight 214, this as the investigation into just what caused that crash. That investigation continues.

For more on all this, let's go to San Francisco where Stephanie Elam has been following the story. Stephanie, I want to talk about where the investigation stands and operations at the airport. But first let's talk about this victim, the third person to die. I know there are not a lot of details being released about this young girl. But what do we know?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Kate. We do know that it was a minor. She was a female. She died at San Francisco General Hospital where she's been in critical condition since a week ago today when the accident happened. Her parents have asked that her name not be released. We do know she was under the age of 18, not very much information there.

We can also tell you that they have confirmed that there is another girl, one of the first original two girls that we know died the day of the crash. One was hit by a fire truck in response to the fire. They were dousing the plane with foam and in that foam they covered her. Not clear whether she died from those injuries or from the plane crash -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: The medical examiner has been looking into that to try to determine what was the cause of her death. Stephanie, let's talk about the latest where the investigation. There are updates at San Francisco airport this morning. ELAM: Yes, that's true, Kate. They're saying it could take them upwards of a year, but this is obviously their priority, to find out exactly what happened here. NTSB officials have left here. They've gone back to D.C. They're still investigating.

One thing I can tell you. I flew into San Francisco airport yesterday. I purposely sat on the left-hand side of the plane so I could get a bird's eye view of the runway. They were fixing it up extremely fast. It was repaved. They put new lights up.

The FAA test flew a couple of planes and it is open again. They worked very hard, very fast to get that open again, also repairing part of the seawall. I grew up in this area. When you land in San Francisco, it looks like you're going to land in the bay.

When they hit the seawall, there was minor damage. They repaired that as well. Getting this airport back up and running again. I just checked the boards, there's still a Flight 214 on Asiana Airlines landing at around 11:15 a.m. coming in from Seoul. They haven't retired the number at this point.

BOLDUAN: Wow. All right, Stephanie Elam following it from San Francisco for us. Thank you so much.

COUMO: Right now in Sanford, Florida, we're watching the situation, six jurors, all women, going over the evidence. They asked for lays of some 200 exhibits, going at it for over seven hours. When they come back in, this is where they'll sit and they'll be delivering the fate of this man, George Zimmerman, guilty or not guilty of killing Trayvon Martin. CNN's special live coverage continues after a break.

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