the courthouse because the jury has a question. the issue, of course, is have they reached some kind of a problem where they re going to ask about whether or not they can end it? or do they want or have a particular question or is there a juror that s just holding out and wants something answered. we sit here and try to figure out and read the tea leaves. that s what it is. in a way, you ll want a question, you don t want a hung jury. what are they stuck on. maybe. what is the issue? the alternative to that is that they re hung. what s interesting to me, guys, is the fact that there has been no additional request for testimony, no additional request to look at evidence. all they ask for is an inventory list of evidence. i know from 30 years, generally they ll say, can we look at
martin. 17 months ago. george zimmerman has pled not guilty, claiming self-defense. before the jury left for the night, they did have one request. they asked the judge for an inventory list of the evidence by number and description which the court clerk provided after getting the approval of both the prosecution and the defense. joining us now, msnbc contributor joy reid, gary kazmir, a former new york city prosecutor who does criminal and civil litigation, and former prosecutor marcia clark who is also the author of the new novel killer ambition. so let s go around the horn and talk about the one little indication that we got from this jury. we ve been trying to read them, read them like tea leaves. they want a list of the evidence. joy, let s start with you. i think because this is a murder trial, because it has such gravity both for the defense and also for the victim s family, i think the jurors are being careful. they re not going to give mark
of the exhibits on the list. sunny, surprising for me to see they don t have this already ready, a list, an inventory of the evidence. wouldn t that be something that they would have ready to go? why do they have to do it in the middle of deliberations? yeah, i mean, i certainly always had an inventory list of my evidence. i m sure jeff did as well, perhaps mark. sometimes you don t think you need it. sometimes it just not done. but i was surprised as well. i will say this. a lot of people around the courthouse are saying, you know, verdict tonight, verdict tonight. that has never been my impression, but the fact that they wanted the inventory list so they could see what evidence was in there and they could sort of pick and choose by number tells me what i thought. this is a methodical jury, they re going to look at everything. what does it say to you, mark? i agree with that. i think they can look at whatever they want to look at hold on a second, mark.
they ve done it very quickly and then i ve had jurors come back or basically stay out days, stay out longer than the trial lasted. you know what it does indicate to me, though, is they re spending a lot of time with the case. in my experience, talking to jurors after a trial is over with, you normally find that they want to do their job and they want to do it the right way. i think that s why they asked for this inventory list. they re going to go through this stuff, they re going to be me methodical, they know trayvon s family has been in the court every day. this case matters. it matters to them, the lawyers. they re going to take their time. i don t think how long they stay out is really indicative of their ultimate verdict. sunny, the judge told them it has to be unanimous, a 6-0 decision by these six jurors. it can t be 5-1, 4-3. this is not a majority kind of issue, it s got to be unanimous. what happens, five people let s say hypothetically, they think
jurors hands. i have a minute left. all night long, huh? i think so. they have not been able to say a word to anyone about it, away from their families. five of these women are moms, been away from their kids. they don t even know whether it is friday or saturday, i almost make a joke. they just want to go forward. they don t care it is a weekend, they just want to get it done. the fact they asked for the evidence inventory list means they are digging in. this is an important night in terms of jury deliberation. tomorrow morning. back at it. eric, what else are they doing? this is what they re doing. i actually like this question, it shows me that they re really taking it seriously and really wanting to go through all the pieces of evidence before they come to decision. i agree. this is the job of the jury. to put that much dedication and ask for all of the evidence in the case, good move.