0 ford was born 100 years ago today as leslie lynch king jr. three years later the future president's mother married gerald rudolph ford and began calling her son gerald r. ford jr. his name wasn't officially changed until he was 22 years old. thanks to awful you for being part of my program this week. i will see you next week. stay tuned for "reliable stay tuned for "reliable sources." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com in the circuit court of the 18th judicial circuit, seminole county, florida, state of florida versus george zimmerman, verdict, we the jury find george zimmerman not guilty. so say we all, foreperson? >> good morning, everyone. i'm kate bolduan. it is 11:00 in the east. thank you for joining us this sunday. >> and i'm chris cuomo. welcome to this special edition of "cnn newsroom." from potential life imprisonment to free man, george zimmerman found not guilty. you just heard it. in the death of trayvon martin. jurors deliberated for 16 1/2 hours before clearing zimmerman of all wrongdoing, rejecting both the second-degree murder and manslaughter charges. zimmerman's reaction to last night's verdict was muted, as you saw. barely showing anything, betraying anything when he heard the words "not guilty." he then shook his attorneys' hands, smiled only after court was adjourned. defense attorneys and prosecutors reacted to the verdict during a news conference last night. take a look. >> george zimmerman was never guilty of anything except protecting himself in self-defense. i'm glad that the jury saw it that way, and i hope that everyone who thinks, particularly those who doubted george's reasons and doubted his background, now understand that the jury knew everything that they knew was enough for them to find him not guilty. >> i am disappointed, as we are, with the verdict. but we accept it. we live in a great country that has a great criminal justice system. it is not perfect, but it's the best in the world. and we respect the jury's verdict. >> we have from the beginning just prayed for the truth to come out and for peace to be the result. and that continues to be our prayers. and we believe they have been answered. >> george zimmerman's brother robert is also reacting to the verdict. he told cnn's piers morgan the feeling of freedom hasn't yet sunk in yet for his brother but a weight has been lifted, he says. >> i really can't put into words how relieved we are as a family. that's the first thing my father said. having said that, i don't think this is a time for high-fiving. i acknowledge, we all have acknowledged that mr. martin, trayvon martin, lost his life. it was not an act of murder. it was not an act of manslaughter. the jury has spoken. our judicial system has spoken. but that does not diminish the tragedy. >> now, that's robert zimmerman jr. he's going to be joining chris and i in a few minutes and we're going it talk about -- we've got a lot to talk about. we're going to talk about the trial, the verdict, and of course his brother's future from here on out. now, trayvon martin's parents, they were not in the courtroom when the verdict was announced, but they shared their thoughts on twitter. martin's father, tracy, tweeted this -- "even though i am brokenhearted, my faith is unshattered. i will always love my baby tray." now martin's mother, sybrina fulton, she tweeted this -- "lord, during my darkest hours i lean on you. you are all that i have at the end of the day. god is still in control. thank you all for your prayers," she went on to say, "and support. i will love you forever, trayvon. in the name of jesus." the martin family attorney called the verdict heartbreaking. saying it was intellectually dishonest if race in this case was not acknowledged. listen here. >> trayvon martin will forever remain in the annals of history next to medger evers and emmett till as symbols for the fight for equal justice for all. >> benjamin crump right there continued saying "it's time for the country to move forward from this tragedy and learn from it." >> the verdict has sparked emotional protests across the country. it started outside the courthouse in sanford, florida last night. take a look and listen to what was there. >> nationwide protest! nationwide protest! >> people demanding protests. people went openly. important for you to see the faces in that crowd. many of them black but not all of them. white, asian. a lot of different people came together in their mutual disappointment from this. not just in florida but coast to coast. listen to this rally in san francisco last night. >> trayvon martin! >> justice for -- >> trayvon martin! >> justice for -- >> trayvon martin! >> people shouting "justice for trayvon martin" while marching through the streets. this remained mostly peaceful so far pept for one protest in oakland, california where a public transit car was smashed. in washington people marched late into the night calling for more to join them. and in chicago protesters carried a giant sign saying "we are trayvon." they also chanted "not one more." back in florida a group of young demonstrators had an emotional moment as they sang quietly on the steps of the capitol building in tallahassee. civil rights leaders are reacting with shock and frustration. the reverend jesse jackson gave us his take earlier today. take a look and a listen. >> i remain stunned at this decision, that the grown man armed murdered the unarmed boy going home because he suspected him. the state's attorney avoided the issue of race. the defense team denied the issue of race. and yet race profile was obvious from the very beginning. you look on the jury without a black or without a man on it. it sure wasn't a jury of trayvon's peers. the department of justice must intervene and take this case frankly to another level. >> what we're seeing here is legal responsibility and moral culpability coming head to head for civil rights leaders like reverend jesse jackson. also the naacp has called on the justice department to file a civil rights lawsuit. last night the department said it is doing its own investigation into this. they're monitoring evidence as it comes out. but it did not respond directly to the naacp. this morning the white house said all questions on that issue will have to go to the justice department. naacp president ben jealous told candy crowley today he's been in touch with officials at the justice department. let's listen to that. >> they will make a choice about whether or not they will pursue criminal civil rights charges. we are calling on them to do just that because when you look at his comments and when you look at comments made by young black men who lived in that neighborhood about how they felt, especially targeted by him, there is reason to be concerned that race was a factor. >> now, reason to be concerned versus making a case. two very different standards. important to note, prosecutors had available to them a law on the florida books that is an aggravating crime for picking someone because of among other things race. they chose not to charge george zimmerman with that. we'll talk to candy crowley more about that this hour. >> many leaders called for calm after the verdict. you can imagine in churches across the country ministers, preachers, all of them will be talking about what came out of the trayvon martin case. alina machado is in florida looking at just this. what is the reaction you heard so far this morning? >> reporter: well, kate, people here are upset. they're in shock. they are visibly disappointed. this church, this alan chapel a.m.e. church-s where the first town hall meeting happened right after the shooting. this is where the movement to get george zimmerman arrested and charged and have him go through this judicial process started. the pastor of this church, vallie houston, she is very emotional. she is very upset. she will be addressing her congregation this morning. she's going to be talking about that verdict and urging people to stay calm. now, this community, the goldsboro community is a historic community in the african-american community here in sanford, florida. we were out here yesterday right after the verdict was read. and again, people were walking around. they seemed dazed. they seemed shocked. some of them were very angry. and the anger in the community was palpable but things were very peaceful. we spoke with with an activist, a community activist who was very involved in this entire process. his name is james davis. and here's what he had to say last night about this verdict. >> i don't blame every white person in seminole county for this. >> you seem angry. >> well, i'm not -- the system didn't work for us. it just didn't work. the system was broken initially, and i think the system continues to be broken tonight is what i'm suggesting to you. >> and that's what we've been hearing. there's questions about the system, about the process, about the initial stages of this investigation and how that may have played into the final verdict. now, the service here is k37d to go for a little while longer. we will be talking to the pastor. she is going to announce to her community, to the congregation here that there will be a rally. there's a rally planned this afternoon in front of the courthouse. it's a rally calling for justice for trayvon martin. chris -- kate? >> all right. alina machado, thank you so much. a lot of those conversations happening in churches all over the country today. >> and there will be a lot of talk today in places of worship about spiritual and moral responsibility and about what the responsibilities of this community is. and i mean community as the country and how you move forward after something like this. and we'll be following that part. and there's no question that this is a very emotional verdict for many people of different perspectives. even the lawyers, who have lived and breathed every moment of this trial, had heated responses to this. >> and they spoke to the media last night after a long, exhausting day and after three weeks of trial and then 16-plus hours of deliberation by that six-person jury. and george howell has been there through it all and he's joining us now. george, you asked a question of both the state's -- the prosecution and the defense. they're very passionate in their responses last night. >> reporter: hey, chris. good morning. absolutely. because when you think about this, this is a situation, it's a case that really people dug in on either side. it was very emotional. it was very divisive. and you could even see that playing out with the defense, the prosecution, and with ben crump and his team of attorneys. let's start first of all with the prosecution. last night we saw something when prosecutor john guy walked over to defense attorney don west to try to shake his hand. west refused to shake his hand. and i did ask don west about what it was like to work in that courtroom with that judge. you'll remember, there was a lot of back and forth. you saw some heated moments. take a listen to what he had to say. >> since testifying in that pretrial hearing about discovery evidence, we understand that he was terminated. can you talk to us about why he was terminated from your office? >> i believe that we have released a letter that details why he was terminated. and again, we want to keep the focus on what we promised 15 months ago, which was to get all of the facts of this case in front of a jury or in front of a judge if it had been a stand your ground hearing. and i believe that's what we've done. >> as far as the relationship with the judge, the back and forth, can you talk to us just a bit about that? do you feel that you were getting fair treatment? >> i'd like to keep my bar license for a couple more years. and the second part of the question? >> the second part of the question was what do you tell people this has become -- you know, people have watched around the country and have dug in on either side of this. what do you tell people just given the tension that could follow this verdict? >> you know, that's been such a challenge for me. obviously, while i've tried a number of cases over the last 33 years or so, a number of them with extremely high stakes, death penalty cases, nothing of course like this with the media attention. nothing that had the case tried over and over and over again in the media. nothing where the media was accused of such irresponsibility early on, frankly, being swept along with this narrative that's simply been shown not to be true. >> reporter: chris, kate, want to back just a little bit, give a little context to the first sound bite, that first thing you heard from prosecutor angela corey. i asked her about this i.t. technician, ben kreidboss who was fired from her office, put on administrative leave on may 28th, fired on the day the jury started deliberating. i asked her about that because that's the person who hired an attorney who was concerned about legal exposure because he was worried that certain information was not getting over to the defense team in a timely manner. that's why they raised this issue of possible discovery violations. but when i asked her that question, you can see that she dodged the answer. >> there will be more questions on that. that's for sure. george howl, great to see you. great work on all of this. thanks so much, george. we're going to give you some other headlines we've been watching while we don't go far away from the george zimmerman verdict. actor core aye monteith, star of the tv show "glee," has been found dead in a vancouver hotel room. police say monteith's body was found by hotel staff yesterday after he missed his check-out time. the cause of the death was not immediately known, but they have ruled out foul play. an autopsy will be conducted tomorrow, we're told. monteith, while they're not making a connection between the two, people are noting because of his young age, that monteith has spent time in rehab earlier this year and had been public about his struggles with drug abuse. he was just 31 years old. and the asiana airlines says it is considering legal action now against a san francisco tv station as well as the national transportation security board. that's the ntsb that's investigating the cause of the crash. the airline is upset over ktvu, a local station, using racially offensive names in a report on air about the pilots on board flight 214, which made a crash landing in san francisco obviously last weekend. the ntsb says the tv station called looking for information on the pilots and a summer intern working there gave the tv station fake names for the pilots. it was not immediately clear who generated the fake names, but the ntsb said it was not their intern. >> almost too bizarre to believe when that happens. >> we are not showing those names on our air, that's for sure. >> no. that mistake only gets made once. >> yeah. >> we're going to take a break now. as we told you, george zimmerman is a free man. his brother robert, though, says george will spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder. we're going to talk to robert zimmerman just ahead and find out the latest with his brother. ♪ (announcer) flavors this delicious are worth searching for. friskies. feed the senses.