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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