long before the trial, marks o mara was fighting for george zimmerman and he kept george zimmerman off the stand. me hush pushed for an all or nothing second degree charge. a big day for mach who i spoke with just a short time ago. mark, there seems to be confusion earlier in the afternoon when the judge asked mr. zimmerman whether he would testify or not. he said he needed more time to decide. what finally made him decide not to? i assume for most of this trial, you ve known he s not going to testify. actually, that s not true. he was really considering testifying. he wanted to tell the jury what he did, why he did it and what he was facing when he made that decision to fire the shot. i think the confusion was more of semantics than substance, though. whenever that decision is made, it s always with consultation with counsel and george wanted to include that information.
minimum. you ve known how low the levels are so why do you fight so hard to have it admitted? because i think that should be our decision rather than the court s decision. i think when we have relevant admissible evidence it should be allowed in and we make the decision as part of the defense strategy, whether or not we ll present it. i don t think the court should preemp us and at the end she didn t and we make the decision keeping in mind the sustained stance of the evidence and how it may persuade the jury and keeping in mind the sensitivities that we have had throughout this trial and also pretrial concerning trayvon martin s family and the sensitivities of what they are going through now. so the decision was made it wasn t going to be probative enough for us to deal with the concerns surrounding it. how surprised were you that the judge didn t allow at least some of those text messages in? well, i respect the court s ruling. i was surprised because i think they are proper ev
call amnesia, witness root testified about this. because of the high stress event, it alters the manner in which they interpret the information they re receiving. reporter: in any of this sounds particular, it s because hysterical amnesia was a key topic in the jodi arias trial. she stabled her boyfriend by stabbing him 30 times and shooting him in the face. yet she says she doesn t remember doing any of that. do you have any memories of slashing mr. alexander s throat? no. reporter: the jury didn t buy it, and found her guilty of murder. james holmes, accused of shooting up a movie theater last year, may also have experienced amnesia. he says he doesn t remember killing 12 and wounding 58 and asked his jailers why he was behind bars. last month, he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
martin family attorneys. a very full night. what happened in court savidge reporter: it s the question dominating this trial, would george zimmerman take the stand? and today the judge asked him directly. have you made a decision yes, your honor. what is your decision, sir? after consulting with counsel, not to testify your honor. is it your decision not to testify in this case? yes, your honor. and are you making that decision freely and voluntarily? yes, your honor. reporter: with that the defense rested. with all that in mind, the evidence, the defense would rest. reporter: much of the day was spent on a use of force consultant who testified based on his analysis, zimmerman was non-confrontational lacking a warrior mentality, but it was a dummy that proved to be one of the strongest witnesses of the day. it began when john guy grabbed a life-sized man can to show their
investor dennis root testified for the defense about this. per distortion because of the high-stress event alters the manner in which they interpret the information they are receiving. that s a natural human response for anything. reporter: if this sounds familiar it s because it was a key top pick in the jodi arias trial. she killed her ex-boyfriend by killing him 30 times, slicing his throat and shooting him in the face but she says she doesn t remember doing that. do you have any memory of slashing mr. alexander s throat? no. reporter: the jury dn t buy it and found her guilty of murder. james holms may also have experienced amnesia. he says he doesn t remember killing 12 and wounding 58 and is said to have asked jailers why he was behind bars. last month, he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and remember staff sergeant robert