Today marked the last day of the George Zimmerman murder trial.
Defense attorney Mark O’Mara presented his closing statements to the jury for more than three hours on Friday morning, working to convince the six jurors and four alternates that Zimmerman acted in self-defense, not ill-will and hatred.
But what was supposed to be a closing statement about Zimmerman’s innocence ended up being a drawn-out lesson on law.
“You don’t know how to apply a standard of reasonable doubt. Lawyers do, but jurors do not,” O’Mara said.
After telling the jurors to be careful with their common sense, he told them not to make assumptions about the case. Then he quoted Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, telling the jurors that they were now living the constitution.
“This is a solemn matter…this is a serious serious matter for Mr. Zimmerman,” he said, explaining to the jurors that the defendant’s life was in their hands.
But, as is his job, O’Mara did pull evidence for the jurors to use in their deliberation and ended with:
“If you have a reasonable doubt as to whether George Zimmerman was justified in the use of deadly force, he’s not guilty,” O’Mara said.
However, that seemingly sane comment didn’t come without some WTF moments during his statement. Here are the other comments that made us scratch our heads.
– After presenting the jury with a huge slab of concrete: “That is not an unarmed teenager with a bag of Skittles trying to get home.”
– On Zimmerman’s “asshole” comment: “He cursed towards those people” who burglarized the neighborhood.
– On Zimmerman running after Trayvon during the non-emergency 911 call: “The wind was up…” which caused the sounds in the phone.
– “I want to address some assumptions,” O’Mara says about the crime scene computer animation. He said this just moments after he told the jury not to make any assumptions.
– “The only one that was injured at all, except for the gunshot was George Zimmerman.”
– “Why didn’t Trayvon Martin just go home?”
– On Trayvon Martin: “The guy who didn’t go home when he had the chance” was the person who decided to make the encounter violent.
– When discussing the four minute gap of time, O’Mara says, “It was the guy who decided to lie in wait, I guess plan his move…it seems.”
– On killing the teenager: “What other options did George Zimmerman have? None.”
– After showing jurors a photograph of how dark it was on the night of the shooting, O’Mara tells jurors that Trayvon Martin stalked and planned to pounce on Zimmerman.
To see more of O’Mara’s closing statement, watch the video below:
SOURCE: YouTube
