your ground law, myself included, for the idea that somebody can just stand there and fight back instead of retreats, which would avert a lot of violence. then there was a chance for the defense before this trial to have a stand your ground hearing, have a hearing without a jury, just in front of the judge. if they could establish facts sufficient to prove stand your ground, this trial would never have happened. mark o mara said, we re not going to do that. we re going to waive george zimmerman s stand your ground right. bottom line, they decided to go to a jury. george zimmerman s story is really not a stand your ground kind of story. he says he s pinned down with trayvon martin on top of him, ground and pay mma style. obviously, he wouldn t have an opportunity to retreat if that s what were going on. now we re back to having stand your ground back in the trial in those jury instructions. yeah, it is incredible. lisa, i hope you can stick around. we ve got ten more minutes in the sh
realtime george zimmerman, thinner, leaner, acting calm and giving his version. what the state is forced to do is lay all of zimmerman s prior statements each atop of one another and try to point out the inconsistencie inconsistencies. that s a difficult road for them to travel because they don t have the ability to trip him up on the stand. i think this shows one reason why the defense did not have a stand your ground hearing. they knew they would have to put george zimmerman on the stand and they opted not to. there was no way to consider winning that. it would have been a hard way if he didn t take the stand. i think we re seeing some of this play out. let s listen back in. you interviewed the defendant for about five or so minutes. i learned that later but at the time i didn t know that. you didn t participate in that at all? no. i asked you about that you
just on one legal point, i ll ask you both. the question over jeantel s story is who started the confrontation. she stuck to the fact trayvon martin was being followed, he didn t pursue george zimmerman. isn t that important? stand your ground sort of kicks in for trayvon martin, too, no? this is no longer a stand your ground case because the defense opted to not have a stand your ground hearing. this is their argument and they have to stick to it been zimmerman was down, trayvon martin was straddling him. had he no opportunity to run so stand your ground is no longer a part of this case anymore. they have to win that argument. but also i think in that laernlg cultural piece, how significant do you think now going in because we talked about the racial makeup of the jury. how significant is that at this point? i think it is significant. going back to yesterday, who initiated the fight. we go back to these different forms of communication. when the defense attorney said could h
his right hand and went under oath to answer a dozen yes or no questions. is it your decision not to have a pretrial immunity hearing? reporter: after a couple break and strategy sessions, it became official. after consultation reporter: zimmerman waived his right for a pretrial immunity hearing where a judge could have dropped the charges if she felt stand your ground defense applies. o meara explained the reasoning the reality is we have made a tactical decision how to handle this case. george wants this case before a jury of his peers. the decision does not change the overall strategy at the defense table. they still claim zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, shot unarmed trayvon martin in self defense. the most talked about trial since casey anthony is now less than six weeks away. reporting from sanford florida. once the trial begins his attorneys may ask for a stand your ground hearing. a jury would have the final say, not just a single judge. zimmerman by
questions. is it your decision not to have a pretrial immunity hearing? reporter: after a couple breaks and strategy session, it became official. reporter: zimmerman waived his right for a pretrial immunity hearing where a judge could have dropped the charges if she felt stand your ground defense applies. o meara explained the reasoning the reality is we have made a tactical decision how to handle this case. george wants this case before a jury of his peers. the decision does not change the overall strategy at the defense table. they still claim zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, shot unarmed trayvon martin in self defense. the most talked about trial since casey anthony is now less than six weeks away. reporting from sanford florida. once the trial begins his attorneys may ask for a stand your ground hearing. a jury would have the final say, not just a single judge. zimmerman by the way has gained