Another juror in the George Zimmerman murder trial has spoken out about her thoughts on the case and whether or not she agreed with the verdict.
Formerly known as juror B-29, the woman gave only her first name, Maddy. Maddy is Puerto Rican and was the only minority on the six-women jury. She is originally from Chicago, has eight children and is a nursing assistant. She sat down for an interview with Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts, and shared her thoughts and feelings of the trial.
She said she felt Zimmerman got away with murder and feels she owes Trayvon Martin’s parents an apology. She originally wanted to convict Zimmerman of second-degree murder but she had to put her emotions aside and look at the evidence. According to Florida state law that she and the other jurors had to follow, there wasn’t enough proof to convict Zimmerman of second degree murder or manslaughter.
“You can’t put the man in jail even though in our hearts we felt he was guilty,” Maddy said during the interview. “But we had to put our hearts aside and look at the evidence.”
Despite race being the central issue in the case, Maddy said she never felt Zimmerman racially profiled Martin. She also said that she feels the whole case going to trial is a publicity stunt. Regardless of her views, she stands firmly behind what she believes happened on that night.
“George Zimmerman got away with murder, but you can’t get away from God. At the end of the day, he’s going to have a lot of questions and answers he has to deal with,” Maddy said. But the law couldn’t prove it.”
Maddy feels sorry for Martin’s parents and feels like she owes them an apology because she “let them down.”
“It’s hard for me to sleep, it’s hard for me to eat because I feel I as forcefully included in Trayvon Martin’s death. And as I carry him on my back, I’m hurting as much as Trayvon’s Martin’s mother because there’s no way that any mother should feel that pain,” she said.
Maddy is the second juror to appear in an interview after the acquittal of George Zimmerman on July 13th. Juror B-37 was the first and she made an appearance on Anderson Cooper last week, but she hid her face and body. She said that she believed Zimmerman’s self-defense claim and his killing of Martin was “justified.” She also said Martin was responsible for his own death. Since then, four other jurors distanced themselves from her statements and said it didn’t reflect their own.
