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Interview with Juror B-37; Senate Giving Obama Confirmation Votes; Panama Finds Weapons on North Korean Ship.

Aired July 16, 2013 - 11:30   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUROR B-37, JUROR IN THE GEORGE ZIMMERMAN MURDER TRIAL: 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.

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, AC360: Do you feel like you know for sure what happened in the altercation? And did the other jurors feel for sure that they knew what happened?

JUROR B-37: Nobody knew exactly what happened. I mean, it started at one point and ended at another point. Witnesses said they heard left- to-right movement. Other witnesses said they heard right-to-left movement. But the credible witnesses said they heard left-to-right movement. So whatever happened, I think the punch came and then they ended up in front of -- in back of the house. I don't think anybody knows.

COOPER: When the defense in their closing argument played that animation of what they believe happened, did you find that credible?

JUROR B-37: I found it credible. I did.

COOPER: What did you think of the testimony of Trayvon Martin's mother and father? Did you find them credible?

JUROR B-37: I think they said anything a mother and a father would say. Just like George Zimmerman's mom and father. I think they're your kids. You want to believe that they're 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.

COOPER: How critical, though, was it for you in your mind to have an idea of whose voice it was yelling for help? I mean, 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: The prosecution didn't use the word "racial profiling" during the case. 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 had said 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 race did not play a role.

COOPER: So nobody felt 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 anybody that 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.

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 that 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. He told her that she could come over if she felt stressed or she needed anybody, come over to their house, sit down, have dinner. Not anybody -- I mean, you have to have a heart to do that and care to 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 -- I don't -- is that a yes or -- if he didn't go too far, is he somebody prone, do 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 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 who said the idea that he gets -- can have a gun worries them. Does that worry you?

JUROR B-37: It doesn't worry me. I think he'd be more responsible than anybody else on this planet right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: And there's much more from Juror B-37. She doesn't want us to release her name or her image. You have to hear so much more of this exclusive interview. And you will get a chance to tonight on "A.C. 360" at 8:00.

We'll be right back.

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PEREIRA: From the floor of the U.S. Senate it appears President Obama will finally get confirmation votes on most, though not all, of his political appointments. Sources tell CNN that Senators reached a tentative deal to avoid Republican filibusters on the nominees.

CNN chief congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, live from Capitol Hill.

I guess this is the result of some secret talks happening over the weekend, Dana?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, secret talks going on and on and on.

Let's start with what just happened moments ago on the Senate floor, Michaela. That is the president's nominee to be head of the Consumer Protection Bureau, Richard Cordray, he just cleared a very important hurdle, one that had been in his way for more than two years, to eventually become the actual head of the CPB. And that is something that -- the Obama administration thought it was critical because this agency was created to help consumers after the 2008 recession and so forth. So that's number one.

But as you said, it's part of a much bigger-picture issue that has been going on here in the Senate, and that is Democrats said that they were incredibly frustrated that he was one of more than half a dozen nominees that the Republicans were simply holding up. So we do understand from sources in both parties that after Harry Reid threatened to use what is known as the nuclear option, a change in the Senate rules to prevent any filibusters, they have a tentative deal to not go that route, effectively, blow up the Senate, and instead the president is going to get votes on his nominees, except that they're going to make some changes as to two of the people that are being put up, especially on the controversial and very political National Labor Board. That's, of course, the board that deals with labor disputes, which as you know, Michaela, is very, very political and highly controversial.

PEREIRA: Very much so. So a tentative deal reached here. We'll be watching and waiting. And we'll get word from you when that all goes down.

Dana Bash, thanks so much for that. We appreciate it.

BASH: Thank you.

PEREIRA: Juror B-37, she's stating her case and taking you inside those jury deliberations of the George Zimmerman trial. She's never been a juror before. She owns cats, dogs, birds, and says newspapers are not truthful. Our legal panel today includes a jury consultant. You'll hear what she says about this juror, coming up next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: A couple of minutes ago, right here on our air, you heard an exclusive interview are from Anderson Cooper's sit-down with Juror B- 37. They say a case is often won or lost in jury selection. Perhaps that was true in George Zimmerman's murder trial. The deliberating jury was made up of six women, five of them white.

She doesn't want to -- we're talking about Juror B-37. She doesn't want us to release her image, her name. Here's what we know about her. In jury selection, she says she's been married 20 years. Her husband is an attorney. She has two grown daughters. When she was asked if she had an opinion about the case, she said no. The shooting was, quote, "just an unfortunate incident that happened." And she used to carry a concealed weapons permit.

Let's bring in a defense attorney who's been on our air a whole lot lately. I feel like he's a colleague now.

Danny Cevallos, good to see you, my man.

And jury consultant and body language expert, Susan Constantine.

Good to see both of you. Thanks so much for joining us to talk a little bit more about this juror.

Danny, let's start with you.

It seems like a juror maybe you might not want if you're on the prosecution team.

DANNY CEVALLOS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, there's two ways of looking at it. You can't really use these broad stereotypes, although they've been kicking around for years. You can look at the female aspect as there's some wisdom that females are more law-enforcement friendly, so maybe the prosecution thought that. There's also the idea that a female might be more parental and might see Trayvon Martin as a child that shouldn't have been injured. So I don't necessarily think that the prosecution made some huge blunder putting this juror on. They may have had a good reason to think that she was an acceptable juror.

And remember, when it comes to jury selection, it's usually some juror that's in the middle that both sides have something they like. Otherwise, they'd exercise a peremptory, and get them out of there.

PEREIRA: Susan, you're a jury consultant. You're a body language expert. What struck you the most about what this juror, Juror B-37, had to say?

SUSAN CONSTANTINE, JURY CONSULTANT & BODY LANGUAGE EXPERT: Well, I think that she identified with George Zimmerman. She is a caretaker. And by looking at, you know, all this evidence in the case, and she's looking at George saying, you know, he's a caretaker, because look at this lady that was down the street. She was the one that needed some help and George was right there to rescue them, to help them out. And it took, you know, caring, a loving spirit, so to speak, that would help a person like that. And I think the fact that she tends to be a pet rescuer, having like multiple animals in her home, that she identified that caretaker in him. She identified herself being very much like him in their character.

PEREIRA: So, Danny, Susan's saying she identified with George. Does that smell like bias toward Zimmerman to you?

CEVALLOS: Well, ultimately, sure. I mean, at the end of the case, it's acceptable for a juror to have some kind of bias. After all, they've developed an opinion about the case. The question is, did she bring some by bias to the table? And reasonable minds may differ about that. That's why people like jury selection consultants can help suss out those tendencies better than most mortals can, because it is a very, very complex science, the sociology of selecting jurors.

However, this particular juror, by the end, it's clear that the defense was successful in getting her to root for their side of the case.

PEREIRA: We know that the lives of the two families, let's be honest, both the Zimmerman family and the Martin family, are forever changed. But I'm curious, now that we're talking about the jurors, how about these jurors? Let's talk about this one specifically because we've heard from her. What awaits her? How does she move on from this?

Susan?

CONSTANTINE: Well, you know, this is going to be very hard. But keep in mind, she's the first one that came out. And I noticed that during the voir dire process that she was very expressive. You know, when she was talking, she used hand movements, big and open. That's telling you she's like an open book. So I was not surprised that she was the first one to come out and talk. The difference was her demeanor was much quieter when she was being interviewed. But I saw a different picture when I was in the courtroom.

PEREIRA: All right. We want to say a big thank you to Susan Constantine and Danny Cevallos. We appreciate your time today, lending your voices to the conversation.

A reminder for you at for you at home, there is much more of Anderson Cooper's conversation with Juror B-37. You can tune in tonight at 8:00 eastern for "A.C. 360."

Now to Panama. Authorities searched a ship for drugs, but what did they find? They found weapons hidden behind a cargo container of brown sugar. Just ahead, you'll hear what the captain did.

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PEREIRA: When Panamanian officials seized a North Korean cargo ship about to enter the Panama Canal, they thought and suspected it had been carrying drugs. Boy, they were stunned at what they discovered instead -- undeclared weapons, including apparent missile parts. The officials say that ship had come from Cuba.

Barbara Starr's following developments for us from the Pentagon.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Michaela, Panamanian authorities stopped the ship after getting a tip it was carrying drugs. But when they opened up the cargo hold, look at what they found. Hidden under the cargo, missile parts, or at least that's what they think they have here. That's what they are looking at.

A lot of drama associated with this when they stopped the ship. The crew resisted arrest. The captain of the ship tried to fake a heart attack and then commit suicide, according to the Panamanians. The president tweeting out a photo of the cargo of the weapons that they found. He's now asking for an international team of inspectors.

No one knows yet where the North Koreans were headed with this ship, where they were taking this cargo of weapons, where they might have picked it up in the first place.

The North Koreans do try and sell their missile technology to get hard currency that they need, but shipping this kind of material, smuggling it through the Panama Canal, very heavily frowned on by the Panamanians. They maintain very good control over security operations in the canal. And they are not happy about this -- Michaela?

PEREIRA: Quite a discovery.

Thank you so much, Barbara Starr. We appreciate it.

I want to show you what 450 pounds of dynamite can do. You ready?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(EXPLOSION)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are some explosions happening.

(EXPLOSION)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's the first boiler, the second boiler.

(EXPLOSION)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Third boiler.

(EXPLOSION)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: How about that? Precision in a series of surgical explosions. The sprawling Port Everglades Power Plant in Hollywood, Florida, came crashing down at first light this morning. That aging facility will be replaced by a more efficient gas-powered technology. That new plant should be online in about three years from now. We're told it was the biggest demolition of a power plant in Florida history.

Thanks so much for sharing your time with me. I'll be back with you again tomorrow.

AROUND THE WORLD starts after this quick break.

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