Zimmerman Juror B37 Book Plan Canceled After Public Outcry
Even for the land of endless capitalistic greed and morality-filled social media wars, this was fast. Just as quickly as the anonymous Trayvon Martin murder trial juror known simply as "Juror B37" announced that she would write a tell-all book on her experience, she has now backpedaled on those plans.
Speaking through agent Sharlene Martin, Juror B37 stated after the trial that she would write a book about her experiences, incensing many who believed that she was profiting from Martin's death. Today she offered her renewed outlook on how best to move forward with her life after the trial.
"That isolation shielded me from the depth of pain that exists among the general public over every aspect of this case," Juror B37 said in a statement. "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."
After hearing that Martin was planning to represent one of the jurors in a new book deal, many people immediately took to Twitter and Change.org to voice their displeasure. A petition on Change.org to stop the book deal garnered over 1,000 signatures.
Juror B37 first came into the public eye after fielding an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper. Though her identity was concealed, she spoke at length about her feelings on the trial and how everything was presented to the jury. It was clear that she had a fair amount of sympathy for Zimmerman.
"I think George Zimmerman is a man whose heart was in the right place, but just got displaced by the vandalism in the neighborhoods, and wanting to catch these people so badly that he went above and beyond what he really should have done," she said.
Whether or not Zimmerman's heart was in the right place, however, was not the subject of the trial. When speaking on how the fight that led to Trayvon Martin's murder went down, Juror B37 continued her defense of Zimmerman, noting that it was Martin's fault for attacking Zimmerman.
"I think George got in a little bit too deep, which he shouldn't have been there. But Trayvon decided that he wasn't going to let him scare him ... and I think Trayvon got mad and attacked him," said the juror.
Since the Trayvon Martin trial ended, there has been a great deal of outrage over the verdict. Many people believe that Zimmerman should have at least been convicted on a manslaughter charge due to the fact that he pursued Martin. There have been numerous protests this week in response.