A juror in the George Zimmerman trial made her first public appearances since the trial reached its verdict on Saturday, saying race did not play a role in the jury’s decision but admitted she believes Zimmerman went "above and beyond" his role as a neighborhood watch member.
Juror B37, who asked to remain her anonymity, said she did not find the prosecution’s witnesses to be credible and that race did not play a role in the jury’s decision.
However, she also acknowledged her belief that Zimmerman went "above and beyond" in his decision to ignore police direction by confronting Trayvon Martin.
Appearing on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” she said neither she nor any of the other jurors discussed race when reviewing the case.
“I don’t think it did. If there was another person, Spanish, white, Asian; if they came in the same situation as Trayvon did, I think George would have reacted the same way,” she said.
“I think all of us thought race did not play a role. We never had that discussion. I think he just profiled him because he was the neighborhood watch and he profiled anyone that was acting strange.”
However, she did acknowledge that the jury was initially split on the decision, saying that two jurors initially pushed for a manslaughter charge and a third pushed for a second-degree murder conviction. Eventually, all settled on not guilty verdict.
And in a revealing moment, the juror said Zimmerman went “above and beyond” acceptable action by confronting Martin.
“[Zimmerman] got displaced by the vandalism in the neighborhood and wanting to catch these people so badly that he went above and beyond what he should have,” she said. “It just went terribly wrong. I think he’s guilty of not using good judgment. When he was in the car and called 911 he shouldn’t have gotten out of that car.”
Juror B37 says she wants to maintain her anonymity but she has been willing to speak out on the case. As reported earlier on Monday, juror B37 announced plans to write a tell-all book about her experiences on the jury in the Zimmerman trial .
“Nobody knew exactly what happened,” Juror B37 said when asked about the specific details of the case. “I don’t think anybody knows.”
When asked if she feels sorry for the death of Trayvon Martin, she responded, “I feel sorry for both of them.”
“I think both of them were responsible for the situation they got themselves into,” she added. “I think they each could have made the decision to walk away.”
And in another revealing exchange, the juror said that while she agrees with the decision to return Zimmerman’s gun, she at first appeared hesitant when asked if she would want him serving in neighborhood watch in her own neighborhood.
“I think he has every right to carry a gun. I think everyone has a right to carry a gun.”
But Juror B37 paused for several seconds when Cooper asked about serving on a neighborhood watch in her own community.
“If he didn’t go too far,” she said. “He didn’t stop at the limitations he should have stopped at. I would feel comfortable having George, but I think he’s learned a good lesson. I think he didn’t know when to stop.”
Juror B37 said she never wants to serve on a jury again. And admitted she has concerns about her own safety following the verdict.
“I’m not really scared, but I want to be cautious,” she said. “We cried over it afterwards. I don’t think any of us could ever do anything like that again.”
