Juror: 'No doubt' Zimmerman feared for his life

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Zimmerman, Trayvon and the media's race narrative

Did the national media demonize George Zimmerman to fit a convenient - and profitable - race narrative?

One of the six jurors in the George Zimmerman trial said Monday that she was certain Zimmerman feared for his life during the confrontation with 17-year-old Trayvon Martin that ended in the teenager's fatal shooting in February 2012.

"I have no doubt that George feared for his life in the situation he was in at the time," the woman known as Juror B37 told CNN's Anderson Cooper.

"I think both were responsible for the situation they had gotten themselves into," the juror added. "I think they both could have walked away."

Martin Literary Management announced Monday that it was representing B37 and her husband, who is an attorney. The names of the jurors have not been released due to a court anonymity order, but during jury selection it was disclosed that B37 works in an unspecified management position and has two adult children.

But agency head Sharlene Martin released a statement late Monday saying she was no longer representing the juror and that the juror had dropped the book idea. It included a statement that she said was crafted in conjunction with the agency in which the juror explained that being sequestered had kept her shielded "from the depth of pain that exists among the general public over every aspect of the case." The juror said that the book was meant to show that our justice system "can get so complicated that it creates a conflict with our `spirit' of justice."

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The interview came two days after the six-woman jury acquitted Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watch activist, of second-degree murder and manslaughter in the shooting death of Martin in a gated community in Sanford, Fla. Martin was black, and Zimmerman identifies himself as Hispanic. Zimmerman was not arrested for 44 days, and the delay in charging him led to protests from those who believed race was a factor in the handling of the case.

The Justice Department said Sunday it would consider whether to bring a federal case against Zimmerman for possibly violating Martin's civil rights. However, previously filed FBI documents have showed that agents have found no evidence of racial bias on Zimmerman's part.

According to the juror, based on an initial vote, three -- including B37 -- were in favor of acquittal, two wanted to convict Zimmerman of manslaughter and one wanted to convict Zimmerman of second-degree murder. She said the jury started going through all the evidence, listening to tapes multiple times.

"That's why it took us so long," B37 said.

When they started looking at the law, the person who initially wanted second-degree murder changed her vote to manslaughter, the juror said. Then they asked for clarification from the judge and kept going over it again and again. B37 said some jurors wanted to find Zimmerman guilty of something, but there was just no place to go based on the law.

B37 said jurors cried when they gave their final vote to the bailiff.

"I want people to know that we put everything into everything to get this verdict," said the juror, who appeared to become emotional during the interview.

"We thought about it for hours and cried over it afterwards," she said. "I don't think any of us could ever do anything like that ever again."

The juror told Cooper that Sanford Police Detective Chris Serino made a big impression on her, because he would have been accustomed to dealing with murders and similar cases. He would have known how to spot a liar, and yet he testified that he believed Zimmerman, the juror said.

Legal analysts agreed that Serino's testimony was a blow to the state's case. The FBI documents show that Serino told agents that he believed Zimmerman had "a little hero complex," but was not a racist.

The juror was also not impressed by the testimony of Rachel Jeantel, who was talking with Martin by cellphone moments before he was fatally shot by Zimmerman in February, 2012.

"I didn't think it was very credible, but I felt very sorry for her," the juror said. "She didn't want to be there."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.