Defense: Zimmerman 'not guilty of anything but protecting his own life'

(AP) - The defense in the George Zimmerman trial urged jurors Friday to acquit him in the death of Trayvon Martin...

Jul 12, 2013

The defense in the George Zimmerman trial urged jurors Friday to acquit him in the death of Trayvon Martin, declaring in closing arguments that “he’s not guilty of anything but protecting his own life.”

The six-woman Florida jury will begin deliberating after a short rebuttal from the prosecution and instructions from the judge on the two charges they can consider: second-degree murder and manslaughter.

In closing argument, Defense attorney Mark O’Mara picks up a piece of concrete and placed it on the floor courtroom, saying the cement on the sidewalk was Trayvon Martin’s weapon.

Zimmerman, 29, who pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, says he shot an unarmed Martin, 17, in self-defense after they crossed paths Feb. 26, 2012, in a gated community of Sanford, Fla.

Defense lawyer Mark O’Mara told jurors that the prosecution failed to prove otherwise and offered no evidence of the “ill will” or “hatred” needed for a murder conviction.

Zimmerman was “the victim,” whose head was slammed into concrete, he said after hauling a piece of concrete to the front of the courtroom.

“That’s cement. That is a sidewalk. And that is not an unarmed teenager with nothing but Skittles trying to get home,” O’Mara said.

“The suggestion by the state that that’s not a weapon, that that can’t hurt somebody, that that can’t cause great bodily injury … is disgusting.”

Although witnesses have testified that Zimmerman’s injuries from the altercation were minor, O’Mara said they were severe enough that if Martin had survived, he would have been charged with a crime.

Click here to read more.