After the highly anticipated outcome in the George Zimmerman trial for the murder of teenager Trayvon Martin, one juror apparently couldn't stand all the backlash from many protesters who weren't in favor of the verdict reached on Saturday, and opened up to CNN's Anderson Cooper about what went on behind closed doors with the six women in charge of convicting or freeing the man who divided the nation and sparked many concerns about racial issues and gun control in America.
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The woman, identified only as "Juror B37" said she had "no doubt" George Zimmerman feared for his life in the final moments of his struggle with Trayvon Martin, and that was the definitive factor in the verdict.
"I think George Zimmerman is a man whose heart was 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, adding later that although she thought his heart was in the right place, the confrontation went "terribly wrong."
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Juror B37 went on supporting the defendant. "If anything, Zimmerman was guilty of not using good judgment," she said.
"When he was in the car, and he had called 911, he shouldn't have gotten out of that car," she added.
The unidentified woman got a little personal exposing the case, calling the defendant and the victim by their first names when talking to Cooper. She said she believed Martin threw the first punch in the confrontation that followed.
"I think George got in a little bit too deep, which he shouldn't have been there. But Trayvon decided that he wasn't going to let him scare him ... and I think Trayvon got mad and attacked him," she said.
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She insisted she believed Zimmerman felt his life was in danger before shooting Martin, and it was his voice that was heard screaming for help in 911 calls.
"He had a right to defend himself," she said. "If he felt threatened that his life was going to be taken away from him, or he was going to have bodily harm, he had a right."
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She denied that race was a factor in the decision the jury reached. "Anybody would think anybody walking down the road, stopping and turning and looking -- if that's exactly what happened -- is suspicious," B37 said.
"I think all of us thought race did not play a role. We never had that discussion."
The juror also addressed protesters who think justice was not made when Zimmerman was acquitted.
"I want people to know that we put everything to get this verdict. We didn't just go in there and say 'we're gonna come in here and just do guilty, not guilty,' we thought about it for hours and cried over it afterwards."
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Nevertheless, the jury was divided at first. "We had three 'not guilty,' one second degree murder and two manslaughters," B37 added.
"There was a couple of them in there that wanted to find him guilty of something and after hours and hours and hours of deliberating over the law, and reading it over and over and over again, we decided there's just no way, other place to go," she said.
"There's not a right or wrong. Even if he (Trayvon Martin) did reach for the gun it doesn't make any difference."
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"How so?" asked Anderson Cooper. "Well, because George had a right to protect himself at that point," continued the juror.
"So you believe George Zimmerman really felt his life was in danger?" insisted Cooper. To which the woman responded, "I do, I really do."
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