The jurors that found George Zimmerman not guilty of a crime in the shooting that left Florida teenager Trayvon Martin dead have had such a strong emotional reaction that the court is making counseling available to them.
Seminole County Court spokeswoman Michelle Kennedy did not say how many of the jurors were taking advantage of the counseling.
Four of the jurors released a statement Tuesday appealing for privacy.
“We ask you to remember that we are not public officials and we did not invite this type of attention into our lives,” the four women, identified only by their juror number, said in the statement.
“Serving on this jury has been a highly emotional and physically draining experience for each of us. The death of a teenager weighed heavily on our hearts but in the end we did what the law required us to do.”
The jurors also distanced themselves from remarks a fellow juror has made publically following the verdict. In interviews on CNN, the Juror B-37 said Martin “played a huge role” in his own death and said “he could have walked away and gone home.”
In their statement, the four jurors said, “The opinions of Juror B-37, expressed on the Anderson Cooper show were her own, and not in any way representative of the jurors listed below.” The note was signed Juror B-51, Juror B-76, Juror E-6 and Juror E-40.
Juror B-37 had plans to pen a book about the experience, citing the isolation of being sequestered as a reason. She later scrapped those plans.
“Now that I am returned to my family and to society in general, I have realized that the best direction for me to go is away from writing any sort of book and return instead to my life as it was before I was called to sit on this jury,” Juror B-37 said in a statement.
The remarks of the jury, which was sequestered throughout the course of the high-profile trial, comes as city politicians and social justice activists across the country have urged peaceful demonstrations after the verdict incited a number of protests, including some that turned violent.
Click here to read more.