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The reverberations of the killing of black teenagerTrayvon Martin by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in February 2012 are still being felt five years later. Martins death and Zimmermans controversial acquittal of second-degree murder sparked a national conversation about racial injustice and, along with numerous other shootings, helped inspire the Black Lives Matter movement.

Zimmermans case was at the center of Monday nights installment of Oxygens four-nightThe Jury Speaksseries, which featured interviews with five jurors from the case: Christine Barry, Maddy Rivera, Lauren Germain, David Ramirez, and Amy Trunalone (Ramirez and Germain were ultimately dismissed before deliberation). They also talked to Zimmermans attorneys Don West and Mark OMara, as well as witness Rachel Jeantel, to get their perspectives.

Heres what we learned.

As with many high-profile cases, the Zimmerman jurors were screened to make sure they werent bringing in any preconceived knowledge or ideas about the case. Germain admitted that she hadnt even heard of Zimmerman until she showed up for jury duty. But that wasnt the only factor in choosing a jury.

There was a clear racial aspect to the jury selection, West said. Rightfully or wrongfully, we were more suspicious, if you will, of African-American jurors because of the way the case was presented in the media.

Floridas legal system eschews a 12-person jury in favor of 10 members, including four blind alternates who are dismissed before the 6-juror deliberation. From a pool of 750 jurors, Wests style of selection ultimately resulted in eight white jurors and two Hispanic jurors, and a parallel ratio of eight women to two men.

You have a young black man whos been shot, but you have eight white jurors and two Hispanics, Ramirez said. That struck me as kind of funny.

Obviously, the goal is to find people who will favor you, West said.

No one from the prosecution team was interviewed for the special, but other players indicate the prosecutions strategy hinged on the testimony of Rachel Jeantel, a friend of Martins who was the last person he talked to on the phone before he was killed. On the stand, Jeantel recounted Martin telling her he was being followed. Thinking Zimmerman was a rapist, she urged her friend to get away. As a confused young person who recently lost her friend, Jeantel did not exactly give stirring testimony, and the defense fought her hard in cross-examination.

I felt like I wasnt a witness, Jeantel said. Mr. West made me feel like I was a suspect.

As a result, the jurors reception of Jeantels testimony was muddled. Trunalone felt empathy for Jeantels plight, Barry felt the defense was too hard on her, and Germain said Jeantel didnt seem credible because she went back and forth in her answers. In other words, Jeantel was not sufficient, in and of herself, to point the jurors to an easy conclusion.

Since the fatal encounter between Zimmerman and Martin took place at night, there were few reliable eyewitnesses. Even the neighbors who spotted some of the fight from their windows could not provide definitive proof as to whether Martin really was attacking Zimmerman in a life-threatening way. The trial, therefore, focused more on ear witnesses neighbors who had overheard the confrontation from far away, and audio tape of their 911 calls. One of the tapes even included someone screaming for help. Depending on who screamed, it could have mammoth implications for the case.

If a victim, the one who ended up being shot, was screaming for help for a minute and then was still shot, that gives premeditation, OMara said. On the other hand, if it was George who was screaming, then obviously he was screaming out for help, didnt get it, and then had to shoot out of self-defense.

The source of the scream proved impossible to determine. The court summoned both Martins and Zimmermans mothers to see if they recognized the scream. Both of them said it was their son.

Zimmermans lawyers argued that their client only shot Martin in self-defense. Therefore, they had to show that Martin posed a threat to Zimmermans life. Some people nearby claimed to have seen the struggle, with one person on top of the other raining down blows, but accounts differed as to whether Martin or Zimmerman was on top.

One key piece of evidence came from the placement of bullet holes in Martins clothing. He was wearing a hoodie when he died, but the bullet hole in his hoodie was about three inches above the corresponding hole in his shirt. Specialists argued that this meant Zimmerman had shot Martin while the latter was leaning over him.

When you saw where the bullet hole was and you heard from different professionals, logistically that had to be the case, Trunalone said.

They basically said thats the reason why it was self-defense, Rivera added.

By all accounts, the final jury deliberation was passionate. At one point, Rivera threatened to quit, saying she was done and just wanted to get home to her husband and eight kids after three weeks away. But ultimately, the jurors said they dismissed their emotions and focused on the facts they had been presented. Even when Oxygen reunited Barry, Trunalone, and Germain to see if their judgment had changed (years afterZimmerman auctioned off the gun he used to kill Martin,agreed to participate in a celebrity boxing matchthat was ultimately canceled, and made headlines for multiple arrests), they all said not guilty, though they all admitted theirpersonal distaste for Zimmerman.

All I go back to is the law, Trunalone said. That is what we have. Were a democracy, and what weve got is the law. Were to apply it blind to any other thing. At that moment, at that moment, did that person think their life was in jeopardy? Thats the way you have to answer the question.

Here is the original post:
George Zimmerman jurors explain their controversial verdict in 'The Jury Speaks' - Boston Herald

In The Jury Speaks, a four-part true crime series airing this week, Oxygen is delving into a handful of the most infamous cases in American history. The cases range from celebrity spectacle (Michael Jackson) to eerily topical (O.J. Simpson). But one casethe 2013 George Zimmerman trialstands apart as a singular moment in our national zeitgeist that still reverberates. While other trials before and after have captured the attention of the entire country, they didnt spark a movement.

The Jury Speaks seeks to reexamine the George Zimmerman trial through the eyes of the jurors who deliberated on the case; jurors who, unlike much of the country, hadnt been closely following the extensive media coverage of Trayvon Martins death. The irony, for the six women who ended up delivering a not guilty verdict, is that the two names that they had barely heard of before reporting for jury duty have followed them ever since. Its hard for me to sleep, its hard for me to eat because I feel I was forcefully included in Trayvon Martins death, juror Maddy explained in an interview following the trial. She continued, And as I carry him on my back, Im hurting as much [as] Trayvons Martins mother because theres no way that any mother should feel that pain.

Four years later, Maddy is still horrified by the tragedy of Martins death, but maintains that she had no choice but to adhere to the law as she understood it. Its a point that comes up time and time again in The Jury Speaksthe painful chasm between a personal urge to administer justice, and a citizens responsibility to go by the letter of the law.

As Maddy tells The Daily Beast, They give you this paper, and the five women were explaining it to me, saying, This is the way it has to goyou cant look at the situation from where George Zimmerman was calling 911 and was chasing him or, you know, hovering over himthats not necessarily intent to hurt anybody. You have to look at it when Trayvon Martin was on top of him. Did he feel like his life was in danger? So you look at the rules they gave you, and youre stuck in a box. You have no choiceits not emotional, its not what we want. In other words, The decision is made before we even get there.

Still, Maddy has doubts. I was the only juror who openly gave my objections and opinions to the world, she muses when asked about her post-trial interview. I just didnt have the chance to do it with [my fellow jurors], because they were very vocal, they said because I didnt know the law they were gonna help me. Was I manipulated? I dont know.

It bears mentioning, as so many did in the wake of the trial, that Maddy, who is Puerto Rican, was the only person of color on a six-woman jury. Maddy divulges, If were being totally honest, that she felt very different from her fellow jurors, although race wasnt the only factor: I was around high-maintenance women, women who were very educated, women who were not my color, women who were not raised with the struggle that I was.

While Maddy admits that she was not the only juror who struggled with the verdict, there was one woman whose motives she questions to this day. The only person who I can honestly say that I felt in my bones was racist, was the one who came out on TV, B37, she confesses. During an infamous CNN appearance, Juror B37 said that she believed Zimmermans heart was in the right place on the night of the attack, and that Martin probably threw the first punch.

[B37] tried to argue with me about a TV show that I taped, and then was like, Oh my god, there she goes with those ghetto shows, Maddy recalls. Me and her were constantly going at it. She would talk to me like I was five years old. We used to go out to restaurants to get something to eatour field trips, I swear to god I felt like I was seven years old. And when I would save my food to take it back to the hotel, she would say, Why are you saving food, you act like youre poor. So those comments, after a while, it got to the point where in the deliberation, I wanted to knock her teeth out. Everything that came out of her mouth was like, Hurry up! Hurry up! We need to hurry up with this! You guys know the answer already!

Maddy chuckles, concluding that, Me and her, we did not have a nice relationship.

What Maddy and her fellow jurors did have in common was a shared ignorance of the Trayvon Martin shootingbefore the trial, they were ostensibly unfamiliar with the details of the case, as well as the larger cultural significance of the shooting. Maddy explains that her lack of prior knowledge was equal parts preference and practicality. She was living in Chicago at the time, and I never watched the news, because in Chicago, all you see in the news is the same things: gangs, shootouts, another person passing away. After a while the news got repetitive. Being a mom and working over 40 or 50 hours a week, I used to just come home, go to sleep, wake up, take care of my kids, and then get ready to go to work again.

When she moved to Florida and showed up for her first day of jury duty, Maddy had no idea what she was in for. It was my first time ever having jury duty. Im sitting there thinking, I hope this goes quick. And so when they asked us to come back the next day, Im like, Why do I have to come back the next day? I thought this was a one-day process? On the second day I came in and filled out more papers, and there were like forty of us, and then little by little, they told us Were choosing you. And again, I was so naive, I thought, This sounds cool! How long is it gonna be? And theyre like no, youre getting sequestered, and Im like, Ok, what does that mean? I dont even know what sequestered is!

At the time, her youngest daughter was only three months old, and Maddy gets understandably emotional describing the toll that the forced separation took on her: When my husband was allowed to come visit me for thirty minutes on Sundays, my three-month-old hardly knew me! And thats time you cant get back.

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Once Maddy and her fellow jurors, along with George Zimmerman, were free to go, Maddy began to experience a new kind of pain. When I came out of deliberations, they put us in the car, and then I saw the helicopters, Maddy recalls. Im coming home, and Im like, What is going on? And they explained it to me, they gave me a big red folder, and in the folder there were a bunch of different news channels that wanted to speak with me, and I was like, About what? In my mind, Im thinking that when you go to court, its private, not knowing that half of the people at that trial were news people. She continues, When I came out, when I got home, and I started watching the TV, I started panicking. I had no idea it was more about black and white, about racismI realized how big it was. In the months and years after the trial, Maddy went through it all losing my home, work, friends and some family. She was harassed, threatened, and treated like I was a contributor to Zimmerman killing.

These tough words were very hard to handle, Maddy says. Again, I had no knowledge of how big the trial would bewere victims of the society that brings us into this situation. For three years of my life I had to feel like Im carrying a child on my back.

These days, Maddy feels as though shes finally channeling the stress of the trial and the personal reckoning that followed into positive change. Shes studying to become a teacher and working at a kids after school program. Im just trying to protect another child from being victimized, she explains. I want to make a difference.

As for George Zimmerman, Maddy feels sad every time she sees a new troubling headline: It causes me to think he doesnt value his own life, so it was easy for him to take someone elses.

Excerpt from:
The George Zimmerman Juror Haunted by Trayvon Martin's Death - Daily Beast

The four-part Jury Speaks on Oxygen looks at the trials of Michael Jackson, O.J. Simpson, George Zimmerman and Robert Durst.

The Zimmerman jury was the toughest episode to produce, executive producer Nancy Glass said by email Saturday. We reached out to all six jurors and the four alternates. Five out of 10 refused to talk about the case. One juror said it ruined her life and her marriage. She said she would never speak about it again.

The Jury Speaks: George Zimmerman premieres at 9 p.m. Monday on Oxygen.

Three out of the six voting jurors agreed to participate, but two of them would not be in the same room as the third, Glass said.

Amy Tronolone and Christine Barry get together with alternate Lauren German to reassess the Zimmerman verdict. In 2013, the Seminole County jury acquitted the Neighborhood Watch volunteer of murder in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed, black 17-year-old.

Madelin Rivera, the only nonwhite on the six-woman jury, is interviewed separately.

This case was so controversial and the aftermath was so emotional, it isnt surprising the jurors were reluctant to talk, Glass said.

The verdict sparked the Black Lives Matter movement and protests across the country.

Rivera had given interviews to ABCs Good Morning America and the syndicated Inside Edition. Glass said its the first time that Tronolone, the jury foreperson, and Barry have spoken since the immediate aftermath of the trial.

Barry derides the interview that Rivera gave to GMA as nonsense, and Germain agrees.

Everybody has their own opinion, Rivera told me in an interview last week. Im not here to talk trash about anybody else.

Defense attorneys Mark OMara and Don West give interviews to The Jury Speaks.

We spoke to the lead prosecutors on several occasions, but they had no interest in speaking publicly about the case, Glass said. This has been a common theme with prosecutors who lose high-profile cases.

Glass said she hopes viewers take away a message from the Zimmerman episode.

Being a juror on this trial was much more difficult and complex than anyone can imagine, she said. A young man lost his life, and even though the jurors stand by their verdict based on the letter of the law, the charges levied and the evidence presented, they feel as if justice wasnt served. The narrow guidelines they were given forced them into their verdict. What they learned about Zimmerman in the aftermath of the verdict has disturbed some of them deeply.

Rivera says she followed the instructions given to the jury, but still believes that Zimmerman got away with murder, a point she made to GMA in 2013.

Tronolone and Barry also say they followed the law although they felt sympathy for Trayvons family.

The Jury Speaks started Saturday with a look at pop singer Jackson, who was found not guilty of molesting a 13-year-old boy. The series continues at 9 p.m. Sunday (today) with a look at the O.J. Simpson murder trial. The series concludes Tuesday with a look at Dursts acquittal of murder in 2003.

hboedeker@orlandosentinel.com and 407-420-5756.

Excerpt from:
George Zimmerman: 'Toughest episode to produce' - Orlando Sentinel

Aida Mallard @AidaMallard

Shon Smith, clinical assistant professor in the UF Counselor Education program, recently received national attention for two major achievements involving separate divisions of the American Counseling Association.

Smith is being recognized for his leadership as president of the Florida Counseling Association, following the controversial 2012 shooting of black teen Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida, and the subsequent acquittal in 2013 of Martin's shooter, George Zimmerman, according to a release from UF College of Education.

Smith facilitated the Florida Counseling Association's response to join the NAACP, local law enforcement and other community groups in a peaceful dialogue for healing, growth and empowerment and positive relationships with area police departments. The alliances and training sessions began in Sarasota and Manatee counties in 2013, and last year, expanded to Alachua and Marion counties.

Smith received the 2017 Mary Smith Arnold Anti-Oppression Award from ACA's Association of Counselors for Social Justice, which honors professional counselors and educators who have an exemplary record of challenging multiple forms of oppression in the counseling professions and in their local schools and communities.

Smith is president-elect of ACA's Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development, which strives to improve cultural, ethnic and racial empathy and understanding through programs that advance and sustain personal growth.

Smith, who has a doctorate in counselor education and supervision from Duquesne University in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, is the past chair of the ACA-Southern Region, representing 22,000 of the 56,000 ACA members. His research interests include multicultural and social justice competencies, leadership and advocacy within the counseling profession, and working with military families on adjustment and re-adjustment issues.

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Gainesville resident Henry J. Schott was named to the Rhodes College Honor Roll for the 2017 spring semester. To qualify for the honor roll, a student must be enrolled in at least 16 credit hours of academic work and must achieve a semester grade point average of 3.85 or better, according to a release from Rhodes College, a nationally ranked private liberal arts college Memphis, Tennessee.

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Gunwald named to fellowship

Sabine Grunwald, professor at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, department of water sciences, is one of 12 fellows selected to the Soil Science Society of America, a professional association.

According to UF/IFAS, Grunwald specializes in digital soil mapping and modeling of soil landscapes. One thing she measures is how well soil stores carbon and how it is changed by global climate and land-use shifts. Her research also includes soil sensing, ecosystem service assessment and developing new soil indices to optimize soil management.

Grunwald said her most recent research has found that climate change matters because it changes the total environment above ground and below ground - often impacting the whole system. She said soil is essential for a functioning environment and ultimately to preserve life on Earth.

We are all part of the environment, whether we live in cities or rural areas. Thus, how we treat and how we manage soil-ecosystems impacts all of us, she said.

Grunwald compares soil health to human health. We want to stay in the green zone to be healthy, Grunwald said. The same is true for soils. Staying in the green zone means to maintain healthy soil environments that benefit all of us. Imagine if there was no soil in your backyard, under the citrus grove, the blueberry field, the wetland, the forest or under your feet and you would likely recognize that the world is bleak, barren and inhospitable.

Her peers praised her work.

While her research program can be ranked as exemplary, her teaching program is where she shows her greatest level of creativity, said Nick Comerford, professor of soil and water sciences and director of the UF/IFAS North Florida Research and Education Center in Quincy, Florida. Comeford said Grunwalds computer and digital media skills helped to develop the first master's distance education program for the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. At the time, Grunwald served as coordinator of the new masters program in environmental science and became director of the departments distance education programs.

Ramesh Reddy, chairman of the UF/IFAS soil and water sciences department, said Grunwald is the 12th active faculty member in the department chosen fellow.

Dr. Grunwald is an outstanding scientist who developed an internationally recognized interdisciplinary program focused on soil-landscape analysis to develop a framework for sustainable holistic land-resource management, Reddy said.

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View post:
Achievers: UF counselor noted for efforts with police - Gainesville Sun

Maxine Waters comments about Ben Carson knowing nothing about and caring nothing about people in public housing had me rolling on the floor. He grew up very poor. I think he has some idea. Waters on the other hand, doesnt even live in the congressional district she represents. It has the second highest number of African Americans in California. The district she actually lives in has 6 percent, nearing the level of segregation of the 1950s.

She also lives in a 6,000-square foot, $4.3 million mansion in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in L.A. How did she manage that working for 40 years in government? How does she keep getting re-elected when she doesnt even live in her district? Maybe the blacks in her home district need to be asking themselves these questions instead of falling for the same tired rhetoric from the Democratic Party that only seems to care about them around election time.

In the 513 days between the killing of Trayvon Martin and the courts verdict on George Zimmerman, 11,106 blacks were murdered by other blacks nationwide. 2014 statistics show that more black babies were aborted just in New York City (31,328) than were born (24, 759) disregarding all claims of the Black Lives Matter movement. Killings in Chicago, mostly black on black, have risen 46 percent since a year ago.

But all Democrats like Waters can do is trash President Trump and push for his impeachment? Why, because her candidate lost the election? I have to ask myself why African Americans are almost always Democrats with the track record they have for not keeping campaign promises. Think Obama. Not that the Republicans walk on water in that area. At least Trump appointed a man like Ben Carson over HUD as someone who understands and wants to help poor blacks improve their lives like he did his own.

The Democrats are playing you for a political chump, you are a traitor to your own race. Malcolm X, one of my heroes from the 60s said.

He was killed a few days later by black Muslim Democrats. Im also not forgetting the comment from then Democratic President, Lyndon Johnson after signing the Civil Rights Act. Ill have those n***ers voting Democrat for the next 200 years.

Wake up people. Stop complaining about whitey and do something about the so-called friends within your own ranks.

And as far as Im concerned, Maxine Waters is a perfect example of why Affirmative Action is not always a good idea. She opens her mouth and dumb rolls out. She is poised to take apart Ben Carson when he comes before her committee. She has vowed to take his a** apart. I have no fear for Ben Carson as he is a brilliant man who came up the hard way and hasnt forgotten it. I only hope its televised so we can watch him put her in her place.

Maxine Waters would do well to remember that famous Mark Twain quote, It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

Instead of all the infighting between Dems and Reps, how about coming together and working for the people who put you in office?

Connie Knox

Fort Madison

Excerpt from:
Best to keep your mouth shut - Keokuk Gate City Daily