4 Other Jurors Distance Themselves from B-37 and Her Pro-Zimmerman Comments

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Juror B37 has had quite a ride in the days following the verdict she and five other jurors reached in the Zimmerman case. Signing a book deal and losing a book deal, To top it all off Anderson Cooper interviewed her.

Four of the other jurors responded to the interview with a statement via the Eighteenth Circuit Court in which they distanced themselves from Juror B 37.

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STATE vs. ZIMMERMAN JURORS’ REQUEST FOR PRIVACY

We, the undersigned jurors, understand there is a great deal of interest in this case. But we ask you to remember that we are not public officials and we did not invite this type of attention into our lives. We also wish to point out that the opinions of Juror B-37, expressed on the Anderson Cooper show were her own, and not in any way representative of the jurors listed below.

Serving on this jury has been a highly emotional and physically draining experience for each of us. The death of a teenager weighed heavily on our hearts but in the end we did what the law required us to do.

We appeal to the highest standards of your profession and ask the media to respect our privacy and give us time to process what we have been through.

Thank you,

The statement was signed by Jurors B-51, B-76, E-6 and E-40

Her comments to Cooper had many wondering how on earth did she end up seated on the jury. As noted by Dalia Lithwick (referring to tape of Juror B37’s voire dire ) :

“But the tape raises another question that should be debated in every trial advocacy class in America: What were the lawyers, especially the prosecutors, thinking when they seated her? Why didn’t prosecutors use one of their peremptory challenges to nix her? She’s contrarian, she raised serious ontological doubts about the nature of truth-seeking, and she was only ever truly animated on the subject of rescue birds.”

We have no way of knowing whether it was the fact that Juror B-37 was all too happy to engage with the media she expressed disdain for during voire dire , or if one or more of her more controversial comments during the Anderson Cooper interview l inspired four of the five remaining jurors to publically distance themselves from Juror B-37.

We don’t know if perhaps they detected the opportunism inherent in Juror B-37’s decision to sign a now defunct book deal on her experience as a juror, or her desire to gain attention from the very media she had no use for during voire dire.

We do know that this statement is far from an endorsement of Juror B-37’s obvious bias in favor of “George” and against Trayvon Martin, or as Juror B-37 referred to him during voire dire the “boy of color.”

Image Orlando Sentinel