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Published January 08, 2015
This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," April 11, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And this is a Fox News alert. You are looking at brand new video of George Zimmerman arriving at the Sanford Police Station in Florida. Now he can be seen exiting from a black SUV with his head and his face covered. His arrival happened just a short time ago. And these are the first images of him that we have seen since the police released surveillance video inside the station the night of Trayvon shooting.
Now, here's a look at the booking photo that was processed right after his arrival. And also, brand new tonight, 45 days after the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder. Now, the special prosecutor for the case held a press conference earlier this evening announcing the charges. Let's take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANGELA COREY, PROSECUTOR: Let me emphasize that we do not prosecute by public pressure or by petition. We prosecute based on the facts of any given case, as well as the laws of the state of Florida. Today we filed an information charging George Zimmerman with murder in the second degree. A capias has been issued for his arrest. With the filing of that information and the issuance of the capias, he will have the right to appear in front of the magistrate in Seminole County within 24 hours of his arrest and thus formal prosecution will begin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now, after he was charged, the Martin family, they responded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SYBRINA FULTON, MOTHER OF TRAYVON MARTIN: First of all, I want to say thank God.
(APPLAUSE)
We simply wanted an arrest. We wanted nothing more, nothing less. We just wanted an arrest and we got it. And I say thank you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus.
Secondly, I just want to speak from my heart to your heart because a heart has no color. It's not black, it's not white. It's red. And I want to say thank you from my heart to your heart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: Now, shortly after Zimmerman's newly-hired Attorney Mark O'Mara held a press conference where he told reporters that he was not concerned about Zimmerman's mental state, and that his client will plead not guilty to the charge.
Joining me now with the very latest, Fox 35 reporter Shannon Butler, criminal defense Attorney Rebecca Rose Woodland and also joining us prosecutor Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi. Did I get it right?
ANNA-SIGGA NICOLAZZI, PROSECUTOR: Yes.
HANNITY: Finally, I did it, amazing.
All right. Look, your heart goes out to the mother in this case. She lost her 17-year-old son. Now here we are at this point, they did the investigation. A lot of attorneys that I have spoken to say they overcharged. First reaction?
REBECCA ROSE WOODLAND, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Did they overcharge? Well, how do we know that, Sean? We don't know what the full evidence is here. We have seen some very dramatic situation happen. We have heard it in the 911 tape. We know there's an eyewitness who, from what we can tell, did not know who was screaming help. He couldn't identify.
HANNITY: Murder with a depraved mind occurs when a person is killed by an act and a depraved mind showing no regard for human life.
WOODLAND: Without premeditation.
HANNITY: Without premeditation which would be first-degree murder.
WOODLAND: Right.
HANNITY: And then if you look, you know, for example, you have manslaughter of, you know, different varying things. Look, we don't know all the facts and this is my complaint from the very beginning here. Is that, we have members of Congress that said, he was hunted down, meaning Trayvon Martin, like a rabid dog. You have people that say he was profiled, no evidence of that. People saying he was killed because he is black. You have an activist, you have a bounty on somebody's head. You've got now, you know, so much surrounding this case, the special prosecutor says, absolutely no influence whatsoever.
NICOLAZZI: And you know, what? I'm going to go with right now we don't know all the evidence. And if you take a look at this special prosecutor, she was appointed on March 22nd. That's weeks ago and it took her until today to formally file those charges. So, I would say that what it looks like to me is she took her time. If it was just political or public pressure, then why not have this information, these charges out in a few days. We don't know all the evidence, you know, there's been some tapes that we've seen. There has been some of 911 calls that we've heard. We've got to believe, and I hope that there's a lot more.
HANNITY: Let me go to Shannon, who is on the ground. And Shannon, I still go back to I think the key interview up to this point, again, not having all the facts, not rushing to judgment on this program the way other networks have. We have three networks and we will deal with this later in the program. NBC edits a tape that makes is quite incriminating towards Mr. Zimmerman. And of course, we have ABC, they get the video of Mr. Zimmerman going to the police station, they have to retract when they say, oh, no evidence of any injuries. A closer examination showed that. And then we have another network that has an audio specialist that says that a racial slur was uttered, that had to be retracted. So, you got NBC, ABC, CNN, all retracting in this case, and then irresponsible comments by members of Congress, we got a bounty on the head of George Zimmerman, a lot of things surrounding this. What are you hearing on the ground?
SHANNON BUTLER, FOX 35 REPORTER: Well, even Marco Mara (ph) told me today that he really hopes the special prosecutor made the charges because she found that in the investigation. But I think it's a little hard to ignore everything that has surrounded this case, everything that has been said, everything that has been heard. She said, she did this by the book and the attorney right now thinks that that was probably the way it went. I don't know. I think we will have to see when all this evidence comes out because there's a lot of stuff we still just don't know yet.
HANNITY: But you did have the one definitive interview. There was an eyewitness from day one, and you interviewed him, I believe it was immediately thereafter, pretty close thereafter, and your eyewitness was adamant in saying that he saw Trayvon Martin on top of George Zimmerman, beating Mr. Zimmerman, which would be consistent with, A, the broken nose, the lacerations in the back of the head and the grass stains that apparently were on the back of his shirt.
BUTLER: All I can figure is he didn't see what happened right before that, and that's maybe how this prosecutor made that decision. We don't know if she interviewed this eyewitness. We assume that she did, but we haven't been able to talk to him since that day. So we don't know what he told her or what they found or even if Sanford police or FDLE ever talked to him. We know there's one other witness too that says that same exact thing. So yes, there are questions.
HANNITY: That would then be two witnesses that corroborate, at least the story that Trayvon was beating up Mr. Zimmerman, and I would argue, and you are a prosecutor, that you know, barring any new information we get, and we say that sincerely because I think we are going to learn new facts in the case, that at least on the surface seems to corroborate Mr. Zimmerman's story at the time.
NICOLAZZI: Which is again, this is a man who was not arrested right away, and then --
HANNITY: No. He had handcuffs on and he was brought into the police station.
NICOLAZZI: But they let him go, right?
HANNITY: Right. Wasn't charged.
NICOLAZZI: In Florida they have the decision-making power. And ultimately the prosecutor to file charges in the state of Florida in a case like this they have to find there was probable cause, there was no justification. So, yes we have that. But you know, we don't know things like the forensics. Is the autopsy of Trayvon Martin going to corroborate, did it corroborate or does it disprove some on the things he said. What happen before? In the state of Florida, you can't use this defense if you are the attacker. Who initially started the physical altercation?
HANNITY: Well, I spoke to Mr. Zimmerman's father and I did speak to Mr. Zimmerman. I will keep that conversation private, I will talk about the conversation with the father that was right here on this program. And his story was that in fact Trayvon Martin confronted him as he was making his way back to the car. We don't know. And I want to emphasize that that we don't know. I want justice in this case. If this was some type of racially motivated killing, and George Zimmerman does not seem to fit the profile of somebody who mentored minority children, was involved in the case to defend an African-American homeless man that was beaten by the son of one of the local police officer, he doesn't seem to fit that profile. But there's been this rush to judgment by so many. Do the injuries, the forensics, do you think that can make a difference in this case? Because you will going to have competing forensic experts in the trial.
WOODLAND: You will going to have competing forensic experts, but you know, what? He has the excuse to second-degree murder in Florida is sudden combat, that will absolutely make the jury declare a not guilty. So if they can prove sudden combat or --
HANNITY: I see a grin on the prosecutor -- not a grin but a grimace perhaps.
WOODLAND: That's Florida's law and Florida's stand your ground law. The prosecution is going to have to prove --
HANNITY: That Zimmerman confronted Trayvon.
WOODLAND: And aggressive on him.
HANNITY: Aggressively.
WOODLAND: And that Trayvon was completely aggressive...
HANNITY: This is where we get into the issue. On the surface stand in, your analysis of the law, it seems like there might be some overcharging here. Now this is a prosecutor that charged a 13-year-old with first-degree murder, which, you know --
WOODLAND: Yes, there is a bit of concern that she's a very aggressive prosecutor in general. But the issue is here sometimes when you overcharge, you see what happens in Florida, the jury then acquits.
HANNITY: Well, look at the Casey Anthony case.
WOODLAND: That's exactly where we are going with this. Exactly.
NICOLAZZI: I actually don't think they overcharged in the Casey Anthony case, but getting back to this case, as long as a prosecutor is a good prosecutor, they are seeking justice, not just convictions, then I actually hope the prosecutor is vigorous.
HANNITY: So do I. I want justice. I want to know the truth.
NICOLAZZI: That's what they're supposed to be. She is the prosecutor charged in conducting this investigation. You know, there's so many different ways that this case can go. Even if it is not racially motivated, that doesn't mean it doesn't equal a crime. And I say it again, absolutely not having all the facts that I don't think any of us have. Was George Zimmerman the first aggressor or was that Trayvon Martin? And if it was Mr. Zimmerman, what was it that happened then.
HANNITY: His father is very adamant in saying that he was confronted, we don't know. But that's what they are saying.
NICOLAZZI: Right. That's what they're saying. He wasn't there. Mr. Zimmerman obviously has self interest.
HANNITY: But the one I witness that Shannon interviewed -- doesn't that seem pretty compelling? That's the one person that saw a lot of what went on that night.
NICOLAZZI: But what they saw doesn't necessarily, one, are they accurate or are they mistaken? If they are accurate, what happened before? What happened to Trayvon Martin that caused him to do that?
HANNITY: There's a one minute time gap.
(TALKING OVER EACH OTHER)
NICOLAZZI: And a lot can happen in that one minute.
HANNITY: I agree. I totally agree but you. And by the way, you never lost a case.
WOODLAND: She never lost a case.
NICOLAZZI: I have been fortunate.
HANNITY: I have been fortunate. I would say talented might be a better word. So, all right, guys, thank you both for being with us.
WOODLAND: Thank you very much.
NICOLAZZI: Thank you.
HANNITY: And as always, Shannon Butler, thank you for being with us.
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