perceived he was in danger of great bodily harm or death he s justified under law to discharge a firearm. this cuts to the quick of the trial that so many people feel must have been another option than just shooting this boy dead. right, and to your point, i mean, no one knows but trayvon and george zimmerman whether or not george sizimmerman exposed weapon prior to the encounter and whether or not the struggle may, in fact, all have been over a weapon because what the prosecution was trying to do all day today and part of yesterday was to say it is virtually impossible to retrieve the weapon while you re on the ground. so how is it that the weapon gets drawn? i think that become as crucial point. i thought the prosecution would raise that much earlier. i thought that was a crucial idea, which is how do you get the gun out behind your back, move it over his legs, up to his
bedroom and he was shaking the doorknob trying to get in. i was sitting there with rusty scissors and my son in my arm. reporter: she was not only a charter witness explaining how zimmerman counseled her but a neighborhood on alert after previous crimes and zimmerman s father who answered what is something for the defense and prosecution, whose voice was screaming for help the night martin died? absolutely, it s my son george. reporter: and in a move many court watchers anticipated, the prosecution asked the judge for lesser charges to be included, manslaughter and aggravated assault. the judge will make that decision thursday and whether stand your ground will be included in the jury instructions. closing arguments are expected tomorrow, as well. martin savidge, cnn sanford, florida. wow, fascinating day in court. let bring in the panel of legal analyst, sunny hostin, mark
he kept zimmerman off the stand and pushed for a second-degree murder charge, no lesser charges and wrestled with a dummy, anyway you slice it a big day for mark o mara who i spoke with a short time ago. mark, there seemed to be a bit of confusion when the judge asked mr. zimmerman whether he would testify or not and said he needed more time to decide. what finally made him decide not to? i assume for the last most of this trial you ve known he s not going to testify. no, actually that s not true. he was really considering testifying. he wanted to talk to his jury and tell them what he did, why he did it and what he was facing when he made that decision to fire the shot. i think the confusion was more of salmon ticks. when that decision is made it s with consultation with counsel and george wanted to include that information. what finally convinced him not to do it? i assume your advice was not to
we shouldn t have to try the case by am wish. what s the most important thing you need to convey to the jury? have you mapped out your closing argument? the most important part i think is to make sure that this jury looks at this case and decides whether or not george acted in self-defense. i think there is overwhelming evidence he acted in self-defense. there is little evidence he didn t. if the jury listens to the instructions given by the court, looks at the evidence and compares the two, not to do anything else, don t give us more than what we deserve, the facts and the law then they will conclude george acted in self-defense. my fear is because of bias or sympathy they may get from the state s closing arguments where they try to bring up the way they yelled at him and the way george yelled at him and mention these loss of the 17-year-old, that the jury may consider a compromised victim, we don t want a compromised verdict just like we don t want a jury pardon.
sit in a holding cell. come out of the cement holding cell and come up against somebody sleeping in their bed and their wife kissed them on the lips and had a starbucks on the way to court. it s an uneven situation and why would you put somebody torturing them in that situation? would be of the things the prosecution will bring up is the fact that george sizimmerman s accounts of the facts has changed. did he manipulate details or has his memory suffer because of the hysterical amnesia? one witness for the defense testified to this today. the question is, is it real. randi kaye reports. reporter: george zimmerman has a problem, consistency or lack thereof. first he told police trayvon martin jumped out of the bushes, but in this reenactment, less than 24 hours later, there was no mention of bushes. zimmerman had once said martin confronted him, using an