with black men or anyone by criminals or in any case like the trever dooley case where we have the due process being polluted by a circus brought in by outside interest, let the community, let the local law enforcement, let the process play out. i agree with that. charles, one of the problems is the that florida law is the florida law, the law of the state and we can huff and puff how unfair it is but the reality is this jury will be directed to follow the lesser of that state law. right. that means nothing to do with george zimmerman getting out of the car, walking along, being told as he s walking don t follow. none of that matters. what matters is did george zimmerman think i m going to die? right. we don t actually know, do we? it s a matter of what he believes, right? to figure what he believes, you
and that s what is so troubling about this case and that s why so emotional, piers. people all over the country are saying, especially minority parents, what if this were my child? that s a horrible feeling to imagine your child do nothing wrong but walking home minding his business and somebody gets out they car and chases him. let me turn to natalee jackson because you ve been in court. you ve heard all this evidence. i mean, there clearly is going to be a lot of contention over whether the case for second-degree murder has been proven. however, many people believe that there is a much more compelling argument for manslaughter or aggravated assault. could you see a situation where george zimmerman is convicted of one of those lesser charges, and would that be satisfactory if you couldn t get a murder charge against him? well, what is satisfactory is what the jury decides.
become whether the prosecution has proved the case beyond a reasonable doubt. but there is no question in my mind that he was the aggressor and in my mind, he has lost the right to say he was self-defending himself if he is the one whose the aggressor in the situation and you re right, trayvon then also has rights in this matter. and this is a very complicated case and it s going to be very interesting to see what the jury ends up doing with this. mel, i can see you shaking your head vigorously. you ve been in court. he wasn t told to stay in his car. he was told we don t need you to do that, sir. let me clarify that. let me it s true i can clarify that because i think actually exactly what happened is zimmerman had got out of his car and was trying correct. he said to find the street name and at that point he was asked are you following and he said yes or whatever and he said we don t need you to do that but he was actually outside it s true i can clarify t
if they blame zimmerman for causing this series of events, he will be convicted of something. the whole defense is that self-defense began when trayvon responded to zimmerman. they say self-defense began when trayvon ended up on top of zimmerman. and i suggested that s not when self-defense began. self-defense began when he chose to confront trayvon and when he didn t, he shot him to death. that s a view many people have and also say to me, look, what about trayvon martin s right to defend himself? wasn t he engaged in a form of self-defense himself and where does his right to do that supersede george zimmerman who has a gun? right, i tell you, tom has just articulated so perfectly. this is a man told to stay in the car. he has a weapon. i believe he confronted him. the question is going to really
undisputed. he got out of a car. he followed a kid on a ryan knee dark night. he had a concealed weapon and didn t identify himself as neighborhood watch. but here is the reason why i was shaking my head. under the law, which you both know, you can even the aggressor in a confrontation regain your innocence and claim self-defense successfully, and i think based on the evidence that s been presented, a jury would have a very hard time okay. let me bring in tom let me bring in tom because what the florida legal people i ve spoken to, tom, told me repeatedly is that that is the crucial thing. it doesn t matter in terms of zimmerman getting out of the car, walking, checking street names, whatever he was doing. none of that is materially important to the law in florida, which is if zimmerman genuinely believed his life was in danger, a lot of medical evidence that he may have been stunned and dazed by having his head banged than he is allowed to defend himself and can use legally his