While the George Zimmerman second-degree murder trial was viewed as racially charged, an anonymous juror told CNN's Anderson Cooper Monday night that the issue of race didn't come up during deliberations.
"I thought all of us did not think race played a role" in 17-year-old Trayvon Martin's death, a juror known as B37 told Cooper.
Cooper asked that juror whether she believed Zimmerman profiled the unarmed teen the night he called 911 and said Martin looked "suspicious" when he was walking around a Sanford, Fla. community in February 2012.
That juror pointed out that Martin was supposedly stopping, turning, and "cutting through the back" yards of the gated community where the teen's dad lived. She believes Zimmerman would have treated anybody who acted that way in the same manner — regardless of that person's race.
"I think he just profiled him because he was the neighborhood watch, and he profiled anybody who came in and acted strange," she told Cooper. She believes Zimmerman was "overeager to help people" stay safe in the neighborhood, and that things got out of hand the night he killed Martin.
There were no black people on the six-person jury. Following the verdict, mothers of black males have spoken out and said they feel their sons aren't safe from vigilantes who might profile them.
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