Zimmerman Jury Wants Inventory of Evidence
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Happening now, George Zimmerman is being judged by jurors. A verdict could happen at any time. Will it come down to the fine print of the law or will it come down to raw emotion? We're going over every key moment of this climactic day. Lawyers on both sides argued their cases one last time. Our analysts are standing by. They'll take a closer look at the critical points that the lawyers made and their clashing styles. And first on CNN, the defense attorney, Mark O'Mara, talks at length about the toughest and most controversial choices he had to make during the trial and how race has figured into this trial. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. In Florida right now, there's breaking news in the George Zimmerman trial. The court is compiling a list of evidence for the jurors. They just asked for it only moments ago, nearly two-and-a- half hours into their deliberations. The six women are trying to sort out what really happened on the night of Zimmerman's deadly confrontation with 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Jurors will decide whether Zimmerman is guilty of second degree murder or the lesser charge of manslaughter, or whether he acted in self-defense and can walk away from this trial a free man. The defense attorney, Mark O'Mara, spent more than three hours delivering his closing arguments today. He told the jurors that Zimmerman, is in his words, "completely innocent." But he stressed that they only need to have reasonable doubt about his guilt to acquit him. And he hit at the heart of the self-defense claim, suggesting that Trayvon Martin didn't have a gun, but he did have a weapon.</s>MARK O'MARA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: That's cement. That is a sidewalk. And that is not an unarmed teenager with nothing but Skittles trying to get home. That was somebody who used the availability of dangerous items, from his fist to the concrete, to cause great bodily injury. Not that it was necessary for self- defense, but great bodily injury against George Zimmerman. And the suggestion by the state that that's not a weapon, that that can't hurt somebody, that that can't cause great bodily injury, is disgusting.</s>BLITZER: The prosecutor, John Guy, had the last word, delivering the state's rebuttal. He argued that Zimmerman acted, in his words, "with ill will or hatred," the requirement for a second degree murder conviction.</s>JOHN GUY, PROSECUTOR: When a grown man, frustrated, angry, with hate in his heart, gets out of his car with a loaded gun and follows a child, a stranger, in the dark and shoots him through his heart, what is that? Is that nothing? That's not anything? Is that where we are? That's nothing? Well, that's not his call and that's not my call, that's your call.</s>BLITZER: And right now, let go into the courtroom, because the judge has reconvened the attorneys. You see them over there. They're going over a list of the inventory of all the evidence that was presented during the course of the three weeks of this trial. The jury wants that inventory. They want a list. They want a number of each item, each piece of evidence so they can review it methodically, very, very carefully. Jeffrey Toobin is with us. Martin Savidge has been covering this trial for us. He's with us, as well -- Jeffrey, what do you make of this first request, this first question from the six women of the jury?</s>JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's actually a pretty typical first question for deliberations in a pretty complicated case. I would guess that there are probably close to 100 exhibits in this case and the jury wants to be able to take a look at what's what. These are fairly common questions, as I say. Sometimes jurors ask for pens and papers, they ask for a a black board, a white board. This is how jurors get organized. And it would not be a surprise, at a later point, to have the jurors ask to see some of the exhibits on the list that they are going to get shortly.</s>BLITZER: What's surprising to me -- and let me begin Sunny Hostin and Mark NeJame into this conversation, as well -- Sunny, let me go to you. It's surprising a bit to me to see they don't have this already ready, a list, an inventory of the evidence. Wouldn't that be something that they would have ready to go? Why do they have to do it in the middle of deliberations?</s>SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean I certainly always had an inventory list of my evidence. I'm sure Jeff did, as well, perhaps Mark. Sometimes you don't think you need it. Sometimes it's just not done. But I was surprised, as well. I will say this. A lot of people around the courthouse are saying, you know, verdict tonight, verdict tonight. That has never been my impression. But the fact that they wanted the inventory list so that they could see what evidence was in there and they could sort of pick and choose by number tells me what I thought. This is a methodical jury. They're going to look at everything.</s>BLITZER: And what does it say to you -- Mark?</s>MARK NEJAME, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I agree with that. I think they can look at whatever they want to look at and don't have to</s>BLITZER: Hold on a second, Mark.</s>BLITZER: Hold on a second. The judge, Debra Nelson, is speaking.</s>JUDGE DEBRA NELSON: -- a copy is being provided to them from Deputy Jarvis or do you want them to bring them in the courtroom and give it to them?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're fine with it being delivered, Your Honor.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We agree, your Honor.</s>NELSON: OK. Thank you. We'll go ahead and have those six copies delivered and we'll be in recess.</s>NELSON: Yes?</s>O'MEARA: -- for our purposes, so we can get a couple of copies? And we'll probably want one of what was sent to them.</s>NELSON: Um-hmm.</s>NELSON: OK, thank you. Court will be in recess.</s>BLITZER: There she is, Debra Nelson, the judge in this case. She's been doing a very, very significant job as the judge in this case. But let me go back to Mark NeJame. So the jurors, the six members of the jury, they're going to get a list of the inventory. The attorneys for both sides, the prosecution and the defense, they'll get the same list. You were saying to us what, if anything, this request from the jury for an inventory, does it give us a tip, a signal, a hint of what's going on behind closed doors?</s>NEJAME: I really agree with Sunny on this. I think it's just an efficient way for them to hunt and peck for those items that they, in fact, want to go through. I do think it's a very steady jury. I think most of them were taking -- in fact, I don't think -- most of them were taking notes throughout. One, in particular, took -- probably is as accurate as any court reporter in there. She was writing nonstop throughout this whole thing. I think what the jurors are going to do is try to align themselves and see if they all can, at some point, agree with the evidence. If there's areas of dispute, they'll go through their individual notes. They'll go ahead and figure out where the disagreements are and then they'll reach a consensus. That way, they're at least dealing with common facts and common evidence -- or common agreement on the evidence -- so that then they can start working toward, you know, through their deliberations, toward a resolution. I think if there's a general consensus, we will have a quicker verdict. I think if there's a disagreement, somebody wants an acquittal, somebody wants manslaughter, that's where the back and forth will go, as they work through everything. If there's a general consensus, I think we could get an earlier one. But if we don't see a general consensus, I think we're -- we could be here for a bit longer, because there is a lot issues, a lot of passion and a lot of disagreements over how these facts unfolded for them to consider and then to have to agree to, because remember, it's got to be a unanimous jury.</s>BLITZER: It's got to be 6-0, either guilty or not guilty -- Martin Savidge, you've been watching this from the beginning. There's a game plan, assuming, an hour from now or three hours from now or tomorrow or Sunday, they've got a verdict, they've got a game plan how they announce it, what they go through. It's pretty specific.</s>MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is. I mean we are told that we'll get at least, you know, a one hour heads-up. Now, that is a little bit different when it comes to today. The heads-up could be a little bit shorter because, you know, we've just started and the fact that everybody is right here and present. But the idea is that there would be a notification and that at least a one hour heads-up would be granted. And then, of course, everyone, including the media, would be back in the courtroom there waiting to hear the jury's verdict. I'd be interested to know from those that are, you know, the expert analysis here, is I would have assumed that once that jury went back there, they would have taken some sort of initial, so what do you think, how about a quick vote, are we all in agreement? And that if that has happened and we find out they're not all in agreement -- and there's only six of them, so it appears now they're going to have to go over everything. But I'll leave it to the analysts on that.</s>BLITZER: Yes. A lot of times the jurors, if there's eight or 12 jurors or whatever, it takes them a little bit longer than six jurors. It may or may not. You never know. There could be a 6-0 decision one way or another. There could be 3-3, 5-1. They've got to be unanimous either way, guilty or not guilty. Everyone, stand by. A big gesture, strong emotions today -- how the prosecution played on jurors' sympathies and the defense tried to play them down. Also, first on CNN, the defense attorney, Mark O'Mara, answers a driving question during this trial, is George Zimmerman a racist? Martin Savidge's interview with Mark O'Mara -- that's coming up, as well.