Juror B37: George Zimmerman guilty of using bad judgment

[Galraedia]

Source: Raw Story

Juror B37 spoke with CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday night, insisting that George Zimmerman had good intentions but used poor judgment.

“I think George Zimmerman is a man whose heart is 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,” she said. “But I think his heart was in the right place. It just went terribly wrong.”

Juror B37, along with five other female jurors, found Zimmerman not guilty of second-degree murder for the killing of black teen Trayvon Martin last year. Zimmerman claimed that Martin attacked him and he shot Martin in self-defense.

Cooper asked the juror if she believed Zimmerman was guilty of anything.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/15/juror-b37-george-zimmerman-guilty-of-using-bad-judgment/

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“I think he is guilty of not using good judgment”~ Juror B37

[RandySF]

1. "Bad judgement" that results in a death is manslaughter.

[mzmolly]

3. Exactly.

WTF?

[dkf]

4. For which self defense is an exception.

If they didn't have the option to consider self defense, yes it would have been manslaughter.

[sir pball]

46. Which it probably shouldn't be, at least in blanket terms

There's "I know the neighborhood is bad but I really wanted a Coke so I went to the bodega" bad judgement, and the "Damn what the cops say, I'm following this punk to see what he's up to!" bad judgement. Former is tragic dumb assert, the latter should be invol. man or neg. homicide.

Disclaimer - I own an "arsenal" that horrifies many here and have held CCWs in 3 states - would now but NYC isn't exactly shall, or even may, issue.

[Baitball Blogger]

17. That's a good ole boy response.

"Oh, it's ignorance."

They use it often. Apparently, stupidity isn't actionable.

[cstanleytech]

18. Agreed which is what he should have been convicted for imo however

I think thats why they asked for definition of what manslaughter is under existing laws which tells me that maybe the laws need to be updated so that someone like zimmerman cannot skate away in the future.

[HooptieWagon]

20. Exactly.

The self defense standard is what a
reasonable person would do, not what one exercising "bad judgement" would do. A lot of blame to go around on this verdict...judge, prosecutors, and jury. Of course the ultimate blame falls on Zimmerman...absent his "bad judgement", Martin would still be alive.

[NutmegYankee]

33. +1

[Ter]

44. Bad judgement that leads to death is actually usually involuntary manslaughter

But that charge wasn't even presented.

[Scootaloo]

2. That's manslaughter then, you dumb, racist bag of shit!

Just unbelievable. Completely unbelievable

[lib87]

30. You said it!

Can't her statements be used to investigate this jury? Ugh, I'm getting mad all over again.

[NutmegYankee]

34. Amen to that!

[SHRED]

5. Anderson Cooper is weak

A weak interview.

[skeewee08]

10. Agree he was awful no more AC for me

[Skittles]

6. his heart got displaced by vandalism?

also very telling that she excuses Zimmerman targeting and stalking Trayvon due to "Georgie" wanting SOOOOOO much to catch "THESE PEOPLE"

[kestrel91316]

7. "Not using good judgement" + gunshot + death =

manslaughter, you ignoramus.

[Baitball Blogger]

19. +1000

[pacalo]

8. My husband & I were looking at each other with disbelief, listening to this woman's rationalization.

We watched the segment before we went out. She thought he was guilty of not using good judgment.

One teenager killed because Zimbo thought he "looked strange". And the jury says his murder was acceptable -- Zimbo just had bad judgment.

[Tx4obama]

9. VIDEO CNN Anderson Cooper interviews Juror B-37 (Full, 36:49 minutes)

[Iliyah]

11. The way I'm reading

this is these jurors didn't give a eff about Trayvon's death and that Z's bad judgment was just that.

Waiting on her fake news interview next.

[tblue]

21. After reading the juror profiles

I'm not surprised. They sure were not a jury of Trayvon's peers. I'm not just taking about race. Just their whole makeup was pro-gun and that comes with a lack of compassion for people with whom they don't identify.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

12. Thank God he only killed a black kid

Imagine if he'd killed a real person.

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. I think I'm going to be sick

This is just beyond.

[Bombero1956]

14. Isn't this the idiot who just signed a book deal?

So not only are you guilty of letting a murderer go free but now you're cashing in on the tragedy.

[donquijoterocket]

43. it doesn't

excuse her bias and obvious ignorance,but I don't think she's got a book deal done yet. What I've been seeing is that she and her husband, a lawyer,have hired a literary agent to investigate the possibility. I've already seen wingnuts defend this as a way of gaining insight into the mind of this jury.I'd wish there were a way to prevent anyone from seeing any sort of financial reward from this ordeal which was screwed up from top to bottom from moment one.

[Marie Marie]

15. Bad Judgment - are you kidding me?

I can think of many examples of bad judgment - killing an unarmed child falls way beyond bad judgment.

[loudsue]

16. The ALL WHITE jury, I might add.

I read on DU the other day that there were no black people on the jury. If so....that is so blatantly wrong!

[LearningCurve]

23. I believe one juror was Hispanic

That's what has been commonly reported, at any rate.

[killbotfactory]

22. Whoops! No harm no foul. nt

[Left Coast2020]

24. Its all for the ratings

[Tumbulu]

25. Listening to this woman was painful

She comes across as a complete idiot. Which of course one would have had to be to come up with this verdict.

Who picked this jury?

[Bozvotros]

27. I totally agree

And Cooper had half a dozen chances to point out her inconsistencies and biases against Trayvon and ask her what right Zimmerman had to confront with a loaded weapon, anyone simply walking in the neighborhood. Or ask her what anybody with a heart and a conscience and a functioning sense of justice would have had to ask themselves. What if that was your son who was shot dead after being followed by an armed vigilante with a bad attitude despite being told by law enforcement to back off and wait for police back up?

[JDPriestly]

32. But -- if he had done that, we would not have gotten such an unvarnished rendition

of her thought processes and would not have known how utterly over her head she was.

The Stand Your Ground law gives a jury lots of excuses for applying subjective judgments to a case. That legal theory makes it easy to simply choose not to come to a manslaughter verdict for any superficial or prejudiced reason. Stand Your Ground laws have to go.

[azurnoir]

26. Juror B37 is planning on cashing in on Trayvon Martin's death

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014538378

[olegramps]

40. I believe that I read where her husband is an attorney. I hope no one buys her book.

From what I read it seems that she is going to explain the deficiencies in the law that prevented them from a guilty verdict. I believe that the real culprit was the judge in not allowing the jury to consider any of the events that preceded the confrontation such as the profiling of Travon Martin as a criminal.

[cyclezealot]

28. Bad Judgment

Probably a Sean Hannity Fan.

[Cha]

29. the stupid burns with this Juror and it's adding mega tons

of salt in our wounds.

Not using good judgment is when you make a bad joke. Killing someone you were stalking is murder or the very least Manslaughter.. you stupid juror.

[JDPriestly]

31. Sounds to me like manslaughter was really her verdict.

[Ruby the Liberal]

37. She said the initial read was 3 not-guilty, 1 2nd and 2 manslaughter

She was an original not-guilty and talked about convincing the other 3.

[ZRT2209]

35. birds of a racist feather flock together

[Ruby the Liberal]

36. I just listened to this moron

She ascribed the Vietnam Vet's "thats George's voice" testimony to the Medical Examiner that the defense called. When AC tried to get her to clarify, she doubled down on it.

[Caretha]

38. This reminds me of a jury

I had the pleasure of being the foreman on.

The charges against the 28 year old defendant on trial, were armed robbery & assault and battery of a police officer.

The preponderance of evidence against this creep/defendant was beyond a doubt.

Believe me, the defense attorney knew what he was doing and he set the stage. The defendant showed up looking young, clean cut, and with his grandparents and a young sibling in tow. He was portrayed as an innocent youth that had "used poor judgment".

The jury was 8 women and 4 men. The women were between the ages of 40 - 65. All the women except for me wanted to find him innocent and give him a second chance. They argued that everyone made mistakes and deserved the benefit of the doubt. I pointed out that we were not here to determine whether the defendant deserved second chances etc., we were here to decide if he had committed the crime, and we would remain here until that was determined or there was a hung jury, and the state could waste more time and money prosecuting him again. They thought they could wear me down. They were worried what his sentence would be if he was found guilty, so I agreed to let them send a question to the judge regarding that. The very terse and quickly returned answer from the Judge was that it was his purview and it had nothing to do with the juries job determining innocence or guilt.

When they realized I could and would out wait them, they came to see it my way and reluctantly found him guilty, so they could get back to their homes, tv's, and their soap operas.

When I was leaving the court after the verdict was read, the Bailiff stopped me, thanked me for doing my job/duty and imparted a bit of extra information - he said the Judge & prosecutors were very surprised that we had returned a guilty verdict, and that the defendant had a record a mile long and had been in out of court many times and not been convicted before. Of course, that was information that was not allowed into the record or present trial.

Later I found out that the Judge gave him the maximum sentence for his crimes.

[John2]

42. Regardless of what,

the Zimmerman supporters claimed, I would have voted Zimmerman guilty of second degree murder. based on how I saw the evidence, and I'm a Black male. It wouldn't have mattered to me what race Zimmerman was or Trayvon.

First of all as a man, weighing over 200 pounds, I wouldn't have believe the defense's or Mr Good's story a 17 year old boy weighing 40 pounds less than me, would be capable of beating me to death, enough that I would be screaming for help. It would have took more than John Good's story to make me fall for that. He also embellished his description with the MMA or ground pound description. And he was so able to see clearly and tell where voices were coming from in the dark than anybodyelse could, even Zimmerman. Especially with how slim Martin was in those photographs of his body.

I would not have discounted Trayvon's rights to self defense and his fears of Zimmerman not identifying himself at night. Zimmerman initiated the pursuit of Martin and we are talking about the difference from a grown man following a minor at night in a Truck. For all we know, Martin could have thought Zimmerman was a white supremacist or something. I bet that never cross their minds.

And there was no evidence that Martin circled back and jumped this man. So if he used force on Zimmermen because of fear, Trayvon had just as much right as Zimmerman, even more so because Zimmerman initiated the whole provocation. I also wouldn't have bought his explanation about carrying around a loaded gun with the safety off in his holster.

His thoughts about Trayvon and words, to me, would have covered the depraved heart element, such as comparing Trayvon to a punk, Ahole and up to no good, which does indicate ill will, despite O'Mara's claims.

And as far as the physical evidence with the injuries on both participants, the only life threatening injury in the entire provocation was done by Zimmerman, not Trayvon. Zimmerman's injuries only indicated someone put up a fight against him. None of his injuries indicated self defense or he defended himself against anyone. He had none on his hands or arms, that he threw any punches.

The injury on Trayvon indicated he put up a fight against someone. The only injury he took was a gun shot wound to the chest. That indicates to me Zimmerman only used a gun as a method of self defense as the initial aggressor. So I would have convicted him of second degree murder.

[Caretha]

47. There is not

a point in your post I disagree with. My post, was basically to explain my experience with how stupid some jurists can be. They pay no attention to the details or law, they base all of their decisions on silly premises.

[LiberalFighter]

45. Maybe that part needs to be imparted to juries.

That the judge will determine the sentence based on any past incidents. So if it is a first time the judge may (likely) will give a more lenient sentence compared to a more harsh penalty if there is a history.

[bitchkitty]

39. "These people" - says it all. n/t

[Sivafae]

41. "These people" seem to be the problem. N/t

[Kennah]

48. Bad judgment where someone gets hurt is assault. Bad judgment where someone dies is manslaughter.

[telclaven]

49. *sigh*

Got into argument with my father over this. Said he'd be found guilty of manslaughter at least. My dad was convinced he'd walk. Guess he was right and I was hopeful.