Zimmerman Jury Recesses for Day
Posted on Fri Jul 12, 2013 at 06:17:44 PM EST
Tags: George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin (all tags)
The jury in the George Zimmerman trial has recessed for the day. They will deliberate tomorrow beginning at 9:00 a.m.
News10 in Miami has profiles of the six jurors, with links to segments of their voir dire. If you'd rather read than watch video, check our forums where commenters live-blogged the voir dire. (Thanks especially to No Matter Never Mind, and CBoldt). If you just want the highlights, see below: [More...]
Note: the descriptions below are from the first round of voir dire, which was limited to pre-trial publicity. I will be adding anything significant from the second round, but it's more difficult because it was collective questioning and it wasn't always clear to us which juror was responding.
B-29: A Hispanic or African American nurse on an Alzheimer's ward who has seven children and lived in Chicago at time of shooting.
B-29 doesn't like news. She watches BRAVO. She doesn't browse the internet, except Facebook. Self-described Facebook fanatic. She's married.
She hasn't talked to anyone about the case or going for jury duty. She works part time, but her husband is the breadwinner. Her kids are 19, 18, 14, 10, and 3 year old twins.
She first heard of the case from friends in Chicago. They "took sides" because the victim was a child. She didn't comment, people soon stopped talking about it. She says she wasn't influenced by the conversations.
B-37: A middle-aged white woman who works for a chiropractor and has many pets. She described protests in Sanford as "rioting."
B-37 gets news from NBC. She watches the TODAY show. Since she has a lot of animals, newspapers go in the parrots cage without even being read. She has no use for newspapers because they aren't truthful. It's been a long time since she read one. She has at least: 1 parrot, 1 one winged crow, 3 dogs, 4 cats, and a lizard. She volunteers for a rescue group.
Her impression of the case: There was a death. Trayvon Martin, a teenage boy of color was shot and killed by Zimmerman after a scuffle late at night. She thought it was unfortunate somebody died and that's why you have a jury to prove innocence or guilt.
She has 24 and 27 year old daughters. One lives at home, one is 10 minutes away. She has not discussed the case with husband or daughters.
She remembers angry people, picketing people, and lots of news media. She thinks maybe it was overdone. She thinks the incident is just an unfortunate incident that happened. She does not listen to radio or do much on the internet. She shies away from politics and news. She doesn't pay attention to people giving opinions without facts.
B-51: A retired white woman from Oviedo who has a dog and 20-year-old cat. She knew a good deal about the case, but said "I'm not rigid in my thinking."
Her first impression was the case was sad. She watches Dianne Sawyer but did not know ABC was a national network. Her family is in Jacksonville (so are the prosecutors.) They didn't tell her any opinions about the case. They talk about their own 'dysfunctions' more than news.
She hasn't had much time for the news because she's been dealing with her uncle's death. She's executor of the estate. She is concerned about the media presence, it made her feel intimidated. She has been retired for five years.
She knew GZ was participated in Neighborhood Watch. She was surprised someone would be that active. She thought NW was just for passively watching, not patrolling.
B-51 never got the impression GZ was doing something wrong. She thought he was where he was supposed to be, doing what he was supposed to do.
She heard that GZ was told to wait for police. She recalls that he had called police, they asked him to wait and said they were on the way. She isn't sure if he waited. She said maybe the police weren't quick enough. She acknowledged it's possible GZ did something wrong.
She has been in managerial positions. She said when you get new information, you have to be big enough to change your mind.
She hadn't heard any of the evidence recordings but she had heard different experts say you can't tell anything from the recordings, including whose voice is on the call with the struggle. Later, she said she doesn't have opinion about who started fight. S
She has heard some of the Martin family attorneys on TV, perhaps at a memorial service or vigil. It didn't contribute to her knowledge of the case, or affect her emotionally. She hasn't heard any interviews of Tracy Martin or Sybrina Fulton.
She heard about criticism of the Sanford Police and remembers the police chief stepping down. She can't remember the details of the concerns. She lives in Oviedo. They have different police.
B-51 doesn't know what to think about whether GZ should have been arrested. All she remembers is seeing the back of his head in the video, and people were upset that he wasn't arrested sooner. She thinks Sanford Police were right to want to investigate before arresting. She didn't know about the prosecutor (Wolfinger) stepping down. B-51 repeatedly said 'jurist' instead of 'juror'.
B-76: A white middle-aged woman who said Zimmerman had an "altercation with the young man. There was a struggle and the gun went off."
She saw in the news a gun was involved, she knows GZ had a gun and was injured, thinks he was a community security guard. There was 'interaction', a struggle, a gun went off, a boy died and GZ was injured.
She heard about defense fund. She remembers one of his lawyers talking in court about the account. She had seen the Trayvon Martin's parents on TV but doesn't recall their lawyer. She saw the protests, but wasn't influenced. She recalls Zimmerman's wife was in the news, having something to do with the funds.
She has been in Seminole County since 1981 and does not have cable She watched some of the early pre-trial hearings. Asked about her reaction to GZ's injuries, she said it's possible they got in a fight before the gun went off.
On our forums, commenters wrote she came across as intelligent, articulate, fair, even tempered, patient. One thought she could end up as foreperson. (The media thinks B-51 will be the foreperson.)
She said she hadn't formed an opinion and got all her information from local TV news. She and her family members all think everyone deserves a fair trial, when the case was was on news they would say wait for the trial.
Someone, she thinks her daughter, wondered why a kid would be out at night getting candy. But none of them really formed any opinions. She thought her husband may have researched the case since he researches everything, but he wouldn't share it with her if he did. She said she would base a verdict only on the evidence.
E-6: A young white woman and mother who used to work in financial services. She didn't supervise others or resolve disputes. She used this case as an example to her adolescent children.
She first heard of the case shortly after it happened. She knew names of GZ and TM. She didn't have much time for following news. She doesn't recall seeing pictures other than a face photo of GZ. She thinks she only gets local TV channels. Her kids are 11 and 13.
She has mentioned the case when talking to her kids about safe behavior. She doesn't remember how specific the discussion was and she usually speaks to them in generalities. She talked about not doing things that would give others a false impression of doing wrong.
What stands out in her mind is it was an unfortunate incident. She doesn't know about Neighborhood Watch groups. She has never thought about whether they are a good or bad thing. She guesses it could be either.
When asked, she said she hadn't heard anything to make her think it wasn't self defense. She thinks there was no eyewitness. When asked to estimate how many times she has heard about the case in the news. She says maybe 200, there's something every few days.
She has heard the NEN recording with the screams. She said it was thought provoking, but she didn't form any opinions from it. She recalls reading the expert findings were inconclusive.
E-40: A white woman in her 60s who lived in Iowa at the time of the shooting. She heard national news reports and recalls the shooting was in a gated community and a teenager was killed.
She saw reports on local news in Iowa but didn't make an effort to follow the case. She doesn't have FaceBook, and gets very little news on internet. She hasn't researched the case since getting the summons.
O'Mara asked how she would deal with a fellow juror who wanted to bring in outside information. She said she'd steer the person away from that.
She likes NBC News and liked Peter Jennings. She doesn't prefer one network over another for political/ideological reasons.
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