Martin friend 'upset, angry' by verdict
Rachel Jeantel called the verdict "BS" and said Martin, 17, was never aggressive.
"He was a calm, chill,
loving person who loved his family, definitely his mother, and a good
friend," Jeantel told CNN's "Piers Morgan Live."
Zimmerman, a neighborhood
watch volunteer in Sanford, Florida, was acquitted Saturday of
second-degree murder charges in Martin's death. The killing sparked
protests when police declined to bring charges against Zimmerman,
leading to the appointment of a special prosecutor who eventually took
the case to court.
Prosecutors had argued that Zimmerman, who is Hispanic, had profiled and pursued the African-American teen.
As the last person to
speak to Martin, Jeantel was one of the prosecution's key witnesses. On
the witness stand, she described how Martin told her over the phone that
some "creepy-ass cracker" was following him and how he turned toward
Zimmerman and asked, "Why are you following me for?"
Zimmerman had called
police to report Martin as a suspicious person in his neighborhood. The
unarmed Martin was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and was staying with his
father at the nearby home of his father's girlfriend.
Jeantel dismissed arguments that the case had no racial dimension.
"It was racial. Let's be honest, racial. If Trayvon was white and he had a hoodie on, would that happen?" she asked.
Zimmerman told
detectives Martin began pummeling him when he approached him, against
the advice of a police dispatcher, and that he had to shoot to save his
own life. He didn't testify during the trial, however -- and Jeantel
said his defense was "acting like a punk" by attempting to paint Martin
as a mortal threat.
"If you were a real man
you would have stand on that stage and tell what happened," she said,
calling Zimmerman "weak" and "scary."
Zimmerman's lawyers
successfully argued for the right to present evidence that Martin had
marijuana traces in his system, but never brought that before a jury or
presented any testimony about whether the drug could have affected
Martin's behavior.
Jeantel acknowledged that Martin smoked marijuana, but added, "Weed don't make him go crazy, it just makes him go hungry."
The 19-year-old found
herself in the unforgiving spotlight of a nationally televised trial, in
which viewers criticized her for her dress, her weight and her speech
and her combative manner on the stand. She admitted to lying about her
age and her reasons for skipping Martin's funeral.
She later explained she
is of Haitian descent and grew up speaking Spanish and Creole, and she
said Monday that her speech was also affected by an underbite that will
require surgery to correct.
A juror who spoke to
CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" on Monday said she had difficulty
understanding Jeantel and didn't consider her a credible witness, "but I
felt very sorry for her."
"She didn't ask to be in
this place ... She wanted to go. She wanted to leave. She didn't want
to be any part of this jury. I think she felt inadequate toward everyone
because of her education and her communications skills. I just felt
sadness for her."

Comments
Post a Comment