ORLANDO, Fla. – Local 6 sat down with the attorney for George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watchman who was recently acquitted of second-degree murder in the death of Trayvon Martin.
Former Local 6 legal analyst Mark O'Mara told Local 6 anchor Lauren Rowe he is surprised by the national reaction of the verdict and protests.
"I was maybe hoping it would happen because I knew it was self-defense fora year or more. I knew once we got to trial we would present it as self-defense," O'Mara said. "So I thought those people who had made up their minds ahead of time with less than the full facts would listen and would understand what happened or didn't realize that they were just. What I didn't realize is that they had their decision made, they had their belief systems set and they weren't going to change it no matter what."
Local 6 also asked O'Mara if he will go after the prosecutors who he says acted inappropriately, acting as if Zimmerman was convicted.
"It's inappropriate. It goes against the very fabric of the system that we have been sworn to protect," O'Mara said. "She denigrates the jury's verdict, she denigrates the system and she denigrates her own position as a prosecutor. I hope that one day she can answer for all of that, whether it's to a court, a bar matter or to her electorate."
O'Mara said he has never filed a grievance against another attorney but didn't say he wasn't considering filing sanctions.
"I haven't made any decision about what is going to happen. But there is a lot that happened in the 15 to 16 months I was involved in the case that I could not figure out why or how it was happening," O'Mara said. "Now that I look back and I see as apart of a system it seems intentional, it seems consistent and it seemed with purpose and the purpose denigrated the system hardly and almost got an absolutely innocent man convicted."
Local 6 also asked O'Mara about Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, who said on morning talk shows that the verdict sends a message to teenagers that you can't walk too fast or too slow to risk seeming suspicious.
"I wish the Martin family, like the prosecutors, would maybe learn some of the lessons that we all should learn from this, which is, we need to teach our children, our teenagers that you can't be violent. It's not a reset button on a video game," O'Mara said.
O'Mara said he never wanted to call Martin's father, Tracy Martin, to the stand but said that he was forced to because the state didn't call him as a witness."
"Why would I ever want to call the father of a 17-year-old that passed away to the stand?" O'Mara said. "I thought it was a cheap shot or strange maneuver by the state not to call Mr. Martin."
You can see more of Rowe's interview with O'Mara on 'Flashpoint,' which airs on Local 6 Sunday at 7:30 a.m.
Also on 'Flashpoint' will be Martin family attorney Natalie Jackson.