George Zimmerman's defense team had its closing arguments today stating to the jury that the Neighborhood Watch volunteer is "innocent" of murder in the shooting death of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin.
Mark O'Mara began his argument hoping to convince the jury that Zimmerman's shooting of Trayvon was an act of self-defense and not murder by quoting John Adams. "It's more important that innocence be protected than that the guilty be punished," O'Mara said.
In the closing arguments the defense pushed most heavily one fact, that none of the witness called to the stand during the high-profile trial have attested to Zimmerman being an overzealous "cop wannabe." O'Mara then recounted the night of the shooting, Feb. 26, 2012. "Zimmerman was on his way to Target when he spotted 'someone suspicious,' and did what he was supposed to: He called the police non-emergency line."
He then cautioned the jury to not connect the dots in this case, and to not "fill in any gaps" for Trayvon Martin. "Do not give anyone the benefit of the doubt, except for George Zimmerman," O'Mara said.
O'Mara has asked for three hours to present his closings. Then, Circuit Judge Debra Nelson will read legal instructions, and the jury will begin deliberating its verdict.
The prosecution also presented its closing statement with a blunt and rather forceful strategy. "A teenager is dead," Florida state prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda told the jury in closing arguments of Zimmerman's second-degree murder trial. "He is dead through no fault of his own. He is dead because another man made assumptions. Because his assumptions were wrong, Trayvon Benjamin Martin will no longer walk on this Earth."
The Chicago Tribune described his closing arguments as sounding rather "indignant." de la Rionda continued to berate Zimmerman as a "predator, not the good citizen who, as portrayed by the defense."
In closing de la Rionda paraphrased Martin Luther King Jr. to defend witness Rachael Jeantel, the friend of Tryavon Martin's who was on the phone with him at the time of his encounter with Zimmerman. Jeantel had used what de la Rionda called "colorful language," such as when she quoted Martin as referring to Zimmerman as a "creepy ass cracker."
"I had a dream that a witness was judged not by the color of her personality but by the content of her testimony," de la Rionda said.
Watch the Live Stream of the George Zimmerman Trial below:
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