0 deliberations, you're also at liberty to refuse to speak to anyone. a request to discuss either your t spv come from those who are simply curious, from those who might seek to find fault with you, from the media, from the attorneys, or elsewhere. it will be up to you to decide whether to preserve your privacy as a juror. is there anything we need to take up with the jury before they're sent back to the jury room to be discharged? >> no, your honor. >> no, your honor. thank you. >> ladies, thank you very much. you'll be taken back to the jury room to be discharged. >> the verdict in the george zimmerman murder trial is not guilty. for all of our cable viewers on fox newschannel and our broad cast viewers on fox across the nation, this is the trial we have been watching now for weeks. mr. zimmerman. we were wondering which way this would go. you know, everyone worked really hard and it's very difficult tonight for everybody, for the family of both the defendant and the decedent, so this is not a night for anyone to be jubilant. we've now seen our justice system work, you know. everyone wanted to see justice. both sides a had an equal opportunity to present evidence, and the jury has now spoken. we should all respect the verdict. >> you know, greta, we're watching live pictures as we talk with greta van susteren by phone. a couple of things strike me. in the beginning of this, the judge said no outburst upon reading of the verdict, and there was not one, but as you look at george zimmerman, we'll go back to him for certain. as you look at george zimmerman, he smiled a bit, subdued. this has got to be exhausting for him as well, but you're right. i mean, there's not a huge amount of celebration in all this. this has been tough all along for everybody involved, and now for trayvon martin' trayvon mart had pushed so hard for authorities to get charges in this case. you mentioned justice has been done. a jury has made this decision. >> this is important for everybody no matter what a verdict is, harris, that both sides agreed this jury was the jury to decide it. >> yes. >> they both had a chance to ask all the jurors, and both sides agreed that these six people, these 6 women could be fair. they could weigh the evidence. both sides had equal opportunity. this is the way our system, you know, we don't have mob justice. this is the way it's supposed to work whether you like the verdict or not. you know, i just hope that there is calm among the community, those who may not like the verdict. in fact, you know, maybe those who don't like the verdict may not have even seen the trial, but you know, the lesson here is that we should all respect it, and this is what we with said before the verdict. we should be saying this afterwards, but very, very difficult night tonight for the family, and even very difficult for george zimmerman and his family as well, believe it or not, even though it could have been a lot worse for them. >> you know, real quickly, greta, i'm could you areius because legal critics of the case said the prosecution had an uphill battle. they didn't have a lot of evidence to work with. the defense, you know, has basically been the strongest witnesses in kind of a totality type situation. is this something that you would have prehe dicted happening? >> you know, lawyers don't pick their facts. the prosecution didn't go out and look for a lousy case. the facts are what the facts are. i mean, i don't fault -- i mean, i may have made different strategic decisions with the lawyers and they probably would disagree with me on both sides of the aisling, but these are the facts as presented. i was actually surprised that the prosecution laid out so many facts as they did. they were not very tactical, and they wanted the jury to hear all the evidence. they're the ones who put on the video tape of george zimmerman when he did the reenactment the night after the shooting. the prosecution put that tape in. the defense actually couldn't have put that tape in. the fact that the jury saw it was because of the prosecution. the defense because of evident evidentiary rules, because of the rules, they couldn't have done it. you don't pick your evidence, and you know, i hope that the prosecutors, you know, walk out of there with their heads high and the defense lawyers as well because they did their jobs, both sides. >> you know, as our viewers watched this, they're watching george zimmerman and his family, and his legal defense team walk out of that courtroom. what happens now, greta? he goes back to his life. he is a free man tonight. what is the protocol at this point legally? >> he is absolutely free. i think he's got an ankle bracelet on, and he has a curfew. well, that curfew now is gone. he's as free as you and i are, harris. he's 100% free. what happens next depends a lot on how much the community backs him. this is a very high profile case, and almost sort of a toxic case because people -- there's so much passion involved in it. the jury decided that they both agreed it was a jury that would be fair, so that's where we take our bow. >> greta, i want to get your perspective on something rieg now the. i don't know if you're where you can watch the television screen. >> i can see i it. >> you can see what we're watching? >> i saw this yesterday when it was starting to pick up a bit. it's a lot more. this is not a giant crowd, but any time you get a group of people together who are upset, they're liable to rev each other up. yesterday you could feel when the jury was deliberating. >> it was pal panel, yo palpabl. >> i spr" i was uncomfortable but i wasn't worried, you know. i love the exercise of the first amendment provided there's no violence. when you get a situation where there was a lot of passion, you're word it's more than -- you're worried its more than exercise of the first amendment. what i regret as a lawyer is that trials are decided in the courtroom. it's not a sporting event where you're supposed to pick sides, your team or not. i regret when i hear lawyers say anything or anyone, any politician saying anything before we heard the facts. i regret if anyone is critical of the jury because those are the people that were selected. it's almost insulting to them, you know. here we draft them to be jurors, we say you're the ones everybody agree will with be fair. you're the ones to do the job and afterwards when it's all over, some people trash them and say they're wrong. >> these people gave up a chunk of their period of lives to be able to render justice in this case with their verdict. greta van sustren, thank you so very much for standing by with us tonight. we didn't know how long this would go. i mean, there were people who were saying oh, no, no, no. it will wrap up by noon. it took many more hours. we have a verdict in the george zimmerman murder trial. it's acquittal for the 29-year-old man who was accused in the case. greta, thank you very much. >> thank you, harris. standing by is shaun hannity. he's been all over the case. you're with us by phone? hey, harris, how are you. i've been watching all night like everybody else. >> yeah, just trying to digest what's going on. i want to ask you, sean. we're looking outside, very calm. i have to say that law enforcement down in florida had telegraphed that this might be a situation that they needed to get basically riot gear ready for, but that judge said not an outburst in the courtroom. everybody towards the end of the trial was recognizing and saying that, in fact, the prosecution had an incredibly weak case. there were a lot of i go regulators going into this case. there was no grand jury, a lot of politics surrounding this. i don't think the charges would have been brought. the police chief, bill lee, you know, he wasn't going to bring charges because there wasn't evidence. i'll tell you why the jury, first of all, you've got to give the jury a lot of credit here. the fact that they asked for all of the evidence, they asked for clarify if clarification on thef manslaughter. that tells me they were being extraordinarily thorough. they took a lot of time, didn't give up, they worked through dinner, but there are three factors here that this was the only and inevitable decision they had to come to. i'll tell you what they are. jury instructions said as relates to the law in florida about the justifiable use of deadly force. that was an issue here, if george zimmerman acted in self defense. a person is justified in using deadly force if he reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent not only imminent death but great bodily harm to himself. when you couple that with the testimony of the eyewitness in this case, john good, who lived right outside the area where this happened, and he was the that tha they may be looking at that. then you have to wonder. the defense, did they really make a great case for self defense? it looks like now they really did. >> well, and again, i think all of those factors, i would agree with everything you said, and again, the law is very, very clear in this. the other thing is the law goes even a little bit further and when it says that the danger facing george zimmerman not even have been actual or real but the appearance of danger must have been so real in that moment that a cautious and prudent person under the same circumstances would have believed that the danger could be avoided only through the use of force. it was a very specific instruction. it is the law in florida, and to me, and i've been saying this on the air, this was a classic case of self defense. >> sean hannity joining us by phone tonight with his perspective. you've covered this case from the beginning. sean, we're breaking away from our discussion for second because the prosecution is speaking. let's watch and literature. >> due process for george zimmerman, that we would get all of the facts thanked details of this very difficult case before a jury and that we chose to do it that way because we felt that everyone had a right to know everything about this case. that for a case like this to come out i in in bits and pieces serves no good to no one. as mr. guy told the jury yesterday, to the living we owe respect, to the dead, we 0 the e truth. we've been respectful to the living, we've done our best to assure due process to all involved, and we believe that we brought out the truth on behalf of trayvon martin. there are so many people to thank starting with sheriff eslinger and his entire sheriff's office. they've been so good to us as has michelle kennedy and all of the people here. as you know, we traveled from our own circuit to be here. that has not been easy, but it's been made so much the better by having so many people be gracious. you have respected our privacy, you the media, because we said after the press conference that we were going to try this case in the courtroom, not in the media. we appreciate your respecting our privacy in doing that. i have an amazing team of lawyers, paralegals and investigators who put their lives on hold and with me accepted the governor's assignment to take on this difficult investigation and this difficult case, and i'm so proud to stand here with them and to be part of the historical aspect of this case to show that the american justice system can and should only be done in a court of law. i don't believe it helps anyone for us to be out espousing opinions about our cases, and i think as you see, we put this case in front of a jury, and that leads me to thanking the jury for the 16 hours of deliberation that they took to go over all of the facts and circumstances. what we always believed was that this was a case of details that had to be analyzed very, very carefully. i never could quite understand people, even people with law degrees, who had not read all of the police reports, who had not read all of the witness statements, yet who came up with ans approximate onopinions one . this team of people standing with me, who stand with me every day in the fourth circuit and try tough cases like this all the time knew that we had to do the best to get the entire facts and details of this case out and before a jury. i think this jury worked very hard. which honor them for their service. judge nelson worked very hard. we want her to know we appreciate all she did to keep this case on course, and of course, our hearts as always, go out to our victim's family and to all victims of crime. but as long as they know that there will always be prosecutors fighting for truth, i think that victims will continue to rely on this justice system. i'll turn it over. bernie, would you like to say a few words? >> i want to thank you all for respecting our privacy. 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. >> john? >> i also like to thank you for your time and attention that you've given this case. both sides are deserving of your attention. 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. we believe they have been answered. >> rich? >> >> i'd just like to say to the family of the dead teenager, trayvon martin, that i appreciate the way they've handled this matter. they've been dignified. they've showed class. they've kept their pain in check when they needed to, and they've griefd when they needed to. i think they handled it like ladies and gentlemen. it can't have been easy, and it won't be easy. so i ask that i know you all have a job to do, but when you approach all of that, keep them in mind, too. thank you. >> i also want to thank the requires specific intent and sort of a design -- i'm sorry. i wasn't finished with my answer. i didn't finish my answer. and so because it's a general intent crime, you look at the way the crime is committed. it doesn't have to be between two people who know each other. [ inaudible ] >> i think one of the greatest challenges we face is taking over a case that's already being investigated for as long as it was before we stepped in and were able to start conducting our own investigation. it was a challenge, but it's one we took when the governor assigned this case to us, and we did everything we possibly could. yes, ma'am. i'm sorry. would you just let me know? >> you've been watching the prosecution's reaction to a not guilty verdict against 29-year-old george zimmerman. their case did not hold up in court, and they've lost on this. angela corey is the state's attorney in florida's fourth circuit court, and so what she's doing is she's expressing obviously her disappointment but also talking about the fact that she thought they did their duty to bring this case forward. you saw her joined there by the prosecutor. bernie spoke 30 words or fewer. he's been very vocal during the course of the case and trial, and very animated, i guess is a fair word to say about him. i want to also just let everybody know if you're just joining us here on fox news channel and our broadcast stations on fox, a verdict has been reached after about 15 or 16 hours of deliberation in sanford, florida in the george zimmerman murder trial. the death of 17-year-old trayvon martin last february 2012, was a shooting. george zimmerman said all along he shot and killed him, it was self defense. it wh would appear in the jury's verdict they agreed with that. we knew potentially earlier in the evening that second degree murder had been wiped away because they had a question for the judge about the manslaughter charge. they wanted some clarif clarifin on that. we never got to see the back and forth between the jury pool and the judge because before we knew it, they had a verdict. i want to go to some live guests on set in studio h for us, and they were with me earlier during fox report, but before we do that, we're going to ask you to stay tuned here on fox news channel and our fox station broadcast across the country for continuing coverage of the story. i'm harris faulkner in new york. we'll take a quick pause. we will return back to our programming and stick with the story here on fox newschannel. so we have judge alist and mercedes -- alex and mercedes colwin standing by. in the meantime, i'm told that the prosecution is speaking again. let's watch and listen. >> complicated concept, but it a schedule that is included which is why we requested it. the judge gives what he she believes is appropriate, and that is how we try cases. >> can you talk about florida stand your ground law and whether the changes in the law in 2005 affected the facts in this case and whether this case could have been won perhaps prethe changes in the law. >> well, justifiable use of deadly force has changed to a certain extent. stand your ground is the procedural mechanism, as we call it, where we full expected because of what we were hearing that the defense would request a stand your ground hearing, and we would have put on the same evidence. it would have been in front of just a judge instead of a jury. the duty to retreat aspect actually had sort of disappeared before stand your ground kicked in. you're talking about the castle doctrine, basically, and then how that got extended into public areas? yes, it's a very complicated and difficult area of the law. i think i did allude to that pretty specifically when we first announced the charges. justifiable youth use of deadlye is one of the most difficult areas of the law and one of the most difficult affirmative defenses to which we respond in our criminal cases. yes. >> in the beginning of this case as you know, the country felt that there was such a strong likelihood that you would prove that that voice was trayvon's and then obviously things turned around. talk about that voice tape, and also any other evidence that you thought was strong and what happened to it and how it affected you. >> what was convincing to us when we listened to the tape is that the screams stopped the moment the shot is fired. that's the kind of common sense evidence that prosecutors rely on every day. that scream stopped when the shot is fired. we always believed after hearing that tape that it was trayvon martin. >> piggy backing off that, was that the argument or one of the key ones you thought you had to win with, who was screaming for help? maybe it was the severity of george zimmerman's injuries? did you feel you had to win those and you didn't? >> you know, that's another interesting point. people said why didn't we produce the photograph of george zimmerman's injuries, the blood on the back of his head? one of the reasons is because we didn't also produce the picture of his physician's assistant who said the cut was this big. when you put together a case, you have to an lose all of it, not just what was going on at the time of the crime. so those injuries we believe did not rise to great bodily harm. children across this country, athlete get injuries like that every day and go right back into the game or their parents kiss them after they've fallen off their bikes and though go right back in. i'm not trying to minimalize this, but we did not believe that com what the statements wee that were made by george zimmerman comported with injuries of great bodily harm, and one of the other key pieces of evidence as kristi asked earlier was we don't believe that he could have been straddled and had the gun on that inside back hollister and gotten it out a if he was truly being beaten at the time the shot was fired. that's another key element in our decision to file charges. yes, ma'am. >> hi. lisa lucas, new york daily news. >> let's talk about rachel's testimony. were you disappointed in the testimony and do you think that damaged the case. >> lisa, we deal with witnes