The only minority on the jury that found
George Zimmerman not guilty for fatally shooting 17-year-old Trayvon Martin sat for an
exclusive interview with Robin Roberts for Friday's "Good Morning America" and revealed very strong feelings about
how the 29-year-old fared in his trial.
"George Zimmerman got away with murder," she said. "But you can't get
away from God. And at the end of the day, he's going to have a lot of
questions and answers he has to deal with. [But] the law couldn't prove
it."
Although formerly only known as juror B29, she allowed her face to be
shown and chose to withhold her last name, only using her first name
Maddy.
A 36-year-old Puerto Rican nursing assistant, Maddy was the only
minority on the six-person jury. She admitted she was the juror who
originally wanted to convict Zimmerman of second-degree murder, but
eventually realized that the evidence didn't support a guilty verdict
with respect to his claim of self-defense.
"I was the juror that was going to give them the hung jury. I fought
to the end," she said. "That's where I felt confused, where if a person
kills someone, then you get charged for it. But as the law was read to
me, if you have no proof that he killed him intentionally, you can't say
he's guilty."
She continued, "as much as we were trying to find this man
guilty…they give you a booklet that basically tells you the truth, and
the truth is that there was nothing that we could do about it. I feel
the verdict was already told."
However, as a mother of eight children, Maddy said she wonders if she
made the right decision and feels like she owes Martin's parents an
apology.
"It's hard for me to sleep, it's hard for me to eat because I feel I
was forcefully included in Trayvon Martin's death. And as I carry him
on my back, I'm hurting as much Trayvon's Martin's mother because
there's no way that any mother should feel that pain," she said.
Maddy is the second juror to speak out since the trial ended. Juror B37 first
spoke with CNN's Anderson Cooper,
saying Zimmerman was "justified" in shooting the teen. Shortly after
the interview, four jurors released a statement saying juror B37's
opinions were not representative of their own.
Zimmerman was acquitted on July 13 after several weeks of his
second-degree murder trial for shooting and killing Martin in February
2012. Although jurors were allowed to consider a lesser charge of
manslaughter, he was found not guilty on all counts and maintains he
shot the teen in self-defense.
Portions of Roberts' interview with Maddy will air on Thursday
evening's "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" and "Nightline." The
interview will air in its entirety Friday morning.
