Page 706 - Instruction News Today

Every six months. she gave the instructions, now i think what i would do. i would seek a clarification of their question if possible. and if theyre able to give a better question, maybe the question will be we dont understand the manslaughter instruction, welcome to our world. a lot of people dont. >> the question that they add, may we please have clarification for the instruction on manslaughter. and speaking with you, if we can infer whats going on inside of the deliberation room, it appears t...

A clarification on the manslaughter charge against zimmerman. they have been deliberating for a little more than 11 hours before taking this break. if we pop it up, you will see the seal in the court. no one is in the courtroom. we dont know where they are having the conversation, but they are talking and trying to figure out at this point if the judge will go back to the jury and hear what their question has to do with. what is the detail they need instruction on and the attorneys will make the...

Defense? >> yes, your honor. >> ill rewrite it so its one handwriting instead of two. >> at that point do you intend to bring them into the courtroom? >> i was just going to give it to them. that way they can reread it over and offver again instead of me just reading it once. >> so obviously what they want them to do, lisa bloom, is lets get a question back from you that is very focused, very specific. >> right. all this boils down to the jury saying we have a question about manslaughter and eve...

Because what happens is the judge wont give the standard instruction, theyll bring them all in and just reread the same instruction which already gotten, which just irritates them and they get frustrated and it ends up being a problem and you get reversed on appeal. they may come back and say what is the definition of intent? what is the definition of negligence? >> because it is the top of the hour, its just one minute after 7:00, i want to sort of set the stage for where weve been. welling goi...

Instruction. i thought why are we talking about negligence? intentional killing is manslaughter except excusable homicide or just final homicide. justifiable homicide is self-defense. we know thats a big part of the case. excusable homicide is essentially an accident. a third of this page is about excusable homicide and the word negligence is in there. this has not been defined to the jury. i think it is confusing and so perhaps thats going to -- what is negligence exactly? when i read it, i cro...

Of view, youve got to the shoot high especially on something with as much reasonable doubt and confusion as this one here. i think they did the right thing. >> do you agree with what tad had to say? >> i think it was in the search for justice. and i think that that issue of figuring out the depraved mind of zimmerman is more clear to me as a prosecutor from the surrounding circumstances that i heard from that case. so im optimistic. i dont think thank regardless of how you slice what the prosecu...

You might have an impression of him because hes sitting at the defense table, and that may be as we talked about, hes not just a citizen accused, but maybe he is a defendant or he has something to defend. >> reporter: omara asked the jury not to judge zimmerman by their first impression but to use common sense. >> if it hasnt been proven, as the instruction tells you, its just not there. you cant connect the dots for the state attorneys office. >> reporter: it may have taken three hours for omar...

Means. manslaughter, ive read the charge and its pretty vague in my line of thinking. it not surprising they would have a question on the specific instruction on that charge. >> john, let me bring you in. its not uncommon, is it, especially if there are one or two people who may have a different opinion that the rest of the group or the foreman will say what is it, what is it thats keeping you from coming to the same conclusion? that can also precipitate a question. >> that happens routinely bec...

>> and who knows whether they might just be doodling, actually. >> yeah, true. true. true. >> the jurys day, the day actually started behind me here, the seminole county courthouse at 8:30 this morning. george zimmermans attorney mark omara presented the defenses closing argument and he had this message for the jury. very simple message. do not connect the dots for the prosecution. >> assumptions presume a lack of evidence. if you have to presume something, you dont know it. and if you dont know...

"may we please have clarification on the instructions regarding manslaughter"? they came back into the courtroom, they agreed to send a note back to the jury to say what more specifically is your question and then well see what they bring back. in the meantime dinner is being brought in. just bringing folks up to date to may just be tuning in. john? >> all the instructions dont necessarily apply. do you have excusablablablable r negligence. the instruction itself is confusing to me and in that s...