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anything. zimmerman lives in florida. he doesn't have to move to florida. he already lives in florida. i just put that out there. >> absolutely. >> we won't see him until then. >> i advice for people in georgia i'll tell you in the commercial break. thanks so much. this verdict, it's resonating across the country, including the nation's capital. we'll get reaction from one leading lawmaker coming up in minutes. ♪ [ mom ] for big girl jobs there's bounty select-a-size. it's the smaller powerful sheet. one select-a-size sheet of bounty is 50% more absorbent than a full size sheet of the leading ordinary brand. use less with bounty select-a-size.
welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." we have new reaction from the attorneys from trayvon martin following the not guilty verdict in the george zimmerman trial. attorney crump says the martin family is confused by this decision. spent the morning attending church services. >> we have to remember what the prosecutor said at the very end. if trayvon martin and the facts were reversed would have profiled and followed and pursued and killed an armed george zimmerman, what would have verdict have been? and i think a problem a lot of us are having with accepting this verdict is we know in our heart of hearts that trayvon martin would have been convicted. >> attorney daryl parks who also represents the martin family
both elected and then re-elected the first african-american president -- >> it's all over. we're free of biases now. >> that's right. and then our supreme court guts affirmative action. guts the voting rights action. and even inasmuch as visits around doma and prop 8, makes it more difficult for the federal government to -- so all of that happens and then we get this verdict. i don't want any community in this moment to feel shame, racial community to feel shame. what i want us to feel is motivated to say we have the right to remaining our america, remake the social contract, the social laws that keep all of us, the othersings and insiders, because we get to be others and insiders at various points. this is the moment where the coalition that's been fraying since the supreme court and disenfrance chisment can come back together because our lives are at stake and the lives of our children are at stake. >> as you say, judicially we have to accept this. socially we don't.
florida, msnbc's craig melvin has been covering it for us live. we did see the reaction from the attorney. what do we know about reaction from outside the courthouse? it did draw many court observers who were waiting patiently for that verdict. >> you know what, thomas, as the day went on yesterday, we actually saw that crowd swell, so by the time the verdict was read, there were roughly 250 people who gathered outside the courthouse behind me last night. before the verdict there was a fair amount of chanting. singing at one point. there were also praying, i observed. as word began to spread that the verdict was about to be read, there was a hush that fell over the crowd. shortly after the verdict was read, all of the -- all of that stuff started again, the praying and the singing and the chanting, although the chanting at that point changed one of the more prominent chants was no
prosecutor wendy murphy in newton, mass, and criminal defense attorney john burris, who's in san francisco. it's good to have you both here. wendy, first off to you, your reaction about this verdict based on watching the defense and the prosecution that was leveled in that courtroom. >> yeah, i thought it was entirely predictable. before the verdict i wrote a piece at my web cited, wendymurphylaw.com, the title is why george zimmerman will be found not guilty. simply under florida law, which is not the case in a lot of states, and i think that's part of the confusion, you can use what's called excessive force in self-against. in other words, if someone is beating you up and you're going to suffer about injury, you can use lethal force. that's not the law in massachusetts. it's not the law in a lot of states. that's the law in florida. under that simple analysis it was clear to me from the beginning that self-defense would be easy for the defense to prove because the prosecution
brother and it read, our whole family is relieved today. i'm proud to be an american. god bless america. thank you for your prayers. joining me, msnbc's melissa perry-harris. ladies, good to have you here. melissa, i want your reaction out of the gate on that tweet because george zimmerman's father saying he's proud to be an american. there is going toob relief from the zimmerman family because of this verdict. >> there are some people here we need not ever go after, and one is the jury. i think the jury, as difficult as it is for me to say this, as much as i think this is the wrong decision as a question of justice, it does not strike me as the wrong decision as a matter of law for the six people, given the evidence they were presented. i think this is not an unreasonable conclusion -- >> you're saying judicially acceptable but socially problematic. >> and ethically and morally in a whole variety of ways. i also think had they been presented with different evidence and argument, it may
the fact that they feel that justice wasn't delivered with this verdict, and whether or not they fault the prosecution and whether proper evidence was brought, you know, people can go over that from here to kingdom come. but what can they do? they feel there's an injustice but we use this to move the ball forward. >> we have to do just that. i think before we get to that, to melissa's point, his brother has vilified trayvon martin on another network. it's horrible. i want people to utilize their frustration, anger not just for this trayvon martin movement, but injustice with our justice system, whether it's federal, state or local, we do have to mobilize. we had a call at 4 a.m. this morning, a bunch of young folks that just said, i want to do something to make a difference. 180 people called in at 4 a.m. to say we're having marches in l.a., new york. we want to push the justice department not only just on the charges but also on reviewing
how the criminal justice system currently works. maybe stand your ground was not used as a defense in this case but it's problematic. we need to review it. we need to keep pushing. >> rob zimmerman was in place to be on another network when the verdict was read. i wanted to play that clip of what he had to say this morning about race in this case. take a look. >> i'm not angry at the media. i think the media has to do a better job when you have people injecting race into things. a red flag has to go up right away, especially in a case like this, where two very crafty attorneys got away with fabricating a completely scripted narrative and selling it to the american people through the media. >> melissa, your first reaction to that? i know you vaebt had a chance to see that yeah. the media, he's not too mad at the media, but the fact that race played a part. >> well, there were two attorneys who injected race into
spoke to msnbc today about the jury's sdilgs. >> that's their decision. we accept their decision. doesn't mean we have to agree with it, though. it's rather clear this morning in america, i don't think the country agrees with the decision, but we accept it. >> so, the comments come a day after george zimmerman's defense team thanked the jury and described how their client is feeling. >> don't know exactly how you can feel when you're in trauma and stress for 16 months and he's very, very happy with the result, obviously, as there's just a release that happens, an emotional release, endorphin release, adrenaline release. >> before the defense team spoke, prosecutors addressed the media as well and thanked the jurors in this case for their hard work but saying they disagree with the ultimate decision. >> 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. >> take you live to sanford,