now as the defense prepares its closing arguments, the question some people are asking is could west s apparently strained relationship with the judge affect the trial. we continue with our panel alex bloom, david ferrer and joseph haynes davis. when she asked whether he would like to, defense attorney don west cut in. mr. zimmerman, have you made a decision as to whether or not you want to testify in this case? not at this time. okay. and when is it how long do you think you need before you make that decision? your honor, may we have an opportunity to speak? the case hasn t concluded yet. i understand that. and i ve asked mr. zimmerman if he needed more time to talk to his attorneys. and if he does, i will afford it to him. mr. zimmerman, how much more time do you think you re going to need to discuss this with your attorneys? i assume it will depend on
that s the most critical issue in this case, because all of self-defense depends on that. he don t didn t do that. judge alex, lisa is pretty critical of the overall presentation. how did you see it? i think it didn t have the power it needed, but i think, the prosecution needed to have a very powerful case. you know, we re not done. the prosecution has tomorrow, and i think guy s closing will be much more powerful. when you re giving the jury questions, all the defense is going to say, you know why they re asking questions? because they don t know, either. just like when they asked di maio, you don t know who threw the first punch. the natural reaction is neither do you. and that s the problem with the prosecution s case. mr. davis, there was another aspect of the closing that came up time and again. de la rionda raised this potential inconsistency with zimmerman s testimony to police that trayvon martin was circling the car. here is part of it. just as important is the fa
car. so he is in such dire strait or so fear that he gets out of the car to go follow him? so he s either truthful in saying he is circling the car or he is lying about it. either way, it shows that he is not telling the truth. joseph haynes davis, how effective was that aspect of the prosecutorial close? well, i think it s very effective in the sense that and again, i ve mentioned this on the show before. i m a concealed weapons holder, a law-abiding gunowner here in the state of florida. when you are in a situation like that, you have an opportunity to stay within your safe zone. that s how i was trained in my training. i believe that in that instance, what the prosecutor is saying that if he s in the car and someone is circling your car, you have a chance on the phone to say hey, look, he s circling my car and then drive away, or move to another location where
about the mannequin. i don t like the fact that the prosecution is really conceding the defense version of the case. we have the prosecution on top of the mannequin, like the defense attorney did. they didn t use the mannequin. i would had it standing up because that s one theory how the fight happened and when the shooting could have happened. i would have had george zimmerman on top as a number of witnesses had him and trayvon martin on the bottom. i would have had it moving around in a dynamic situation. i mean, to just do it the same way the defense did gives the jury the impression that everybody s now on the same page that at the time the bullet was shot george zimmerman was on the bottom, trayvon martin was on the top. joseph haynes davis, i have been surprised how much of george zimmerman s version has been able to come into evidence in this case. i recognize he gave police statements and re-enactment. but truly for what purpose would he have testified? his version of events
the least that there was nothing being distinguished by the state s turn with the mannequin. counselor, you are absolutely correct. listen, george zimmerman has testified, so to speak, by the statements that have been played over and over again with his interviews, with sean hannity interview and much much more. he has no reason to testify as to whether or not he really thought about when he didn t know what to say when the judge asked him, we will never know that because we won t know that. closing arguments tomorrow. thank you, lisa bloom, joseph haynes davis, alex ferrer. coming up, remember way back to november when mitt romney won the support of just 29% of latinos and republicans vowed to win them back? fast forward to today when much of the gop has decided that