Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton are the parents of Trayvon Martin, and the not guilty verdict of George Zimmerman for murdering their unarmed son left many shocked and saddened. But would they have felt better if the trial resulted in a hung jury?
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Listen to what Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton had to say about a hung jury outcome, their expectations from the trial, the troubling comments from the second juror to come forward and much more in the interview below.
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Listen to this interview in its entirety here
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RICKEY SMILEY: Hey, we got on the phone the parents of Trayvon Martin; Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin. Hey, good morning.
TRACEY MARTIN: Good morning, Rickey.
SYBRINA FULTON: Good morning.
RS: How y’all doing?
TM: Oh, we’re blessed, man. Blessed.
RS: Hey, Sybrina, I got to ask you real quick before we get real deep, them hamburgers in that little spot in the hotel were good or wasn’t it?
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TM: (Laugh)
SF: (Laugh) Yes, it was.
RS: (Laugh)
SF: Yes, they were. They was awesome.
RS: (Laugh) We was up in New York last week standing at the Adria, the hotel. It’s all right in there, and they got a little hole in the wall hamburger joint, I swear, the line be ‘round the building. I said what is going on behind that curtain? Them damn hamburgers was good as hell.
TM: (Laugh)
SF: (Laugh)
RS: What the hell kinda hamburgers was that? (Laugh) Y’all doing good?
SF: Yes.
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TM: Yes.
SF: We’re doing well.
TM: Definitely.
RS: I am so excited that y’all are out and getting the word out, and trying to help change some of the Florida laws, or whatever, and this is the first time having y’all on the show, since the verdict and whatever, so. You know, and since the not guilty verdict. What – how did it make you feel and did you expect, what did you expect?
SF: We expected for him to go to jail and being held accountable for, for murder. We actually thought that he was going to jail. We believed it.
ES: Wow, okay, so once again we are talking to the parents of Trayvon Martin; Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, and I think Attorney Crump is on the phone as well, good morning to you.
BENJAMIN CRUMP: Good morning.
ES: So, from you guys, do you all think the prosecution did a good job presenting the case?
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BC: Well, I will say this, Rickey; we applaud her for taking the case. Florida has 67 counties, 66 prosecutors in the state would not have taken the case to prosecute against George Zimmerman, no matter what the evidence is, so we applaud her for that. Whether she employed the strategies I would’ve employed, all lawyers have different styles, but I think at the heart of the matter they said at the end of the roles were reversed what would your verdict be? And I think that is the heart of this case, it has always been the heart of this case, can a little black boy, anywhere in America, get equal justice just as a little white boy. And, you know, that question was answered in some ways.
HEADKRACK: Now, just as important as like the persecution, Mr. Martin, the body language of the jurors; do you feel like the jurors were at any, were at any, in any way sympathetic or understanding of the severity of what was going on? Or do you think they kind of walked in there and kind of had their mind made up as to what they were going to do before the case even started?
TM: Well, certainly you know, you would hope that they didn’t have their minds made up from the get go. We just, I just as a parent, as an African-American male, I just felt as though the jurors didn’t look at the case through African-American eyes. And they couldn’t, I mean as mothers you know that they were, they had to be somewhat sympathetic, but could they see Trayvon for who Trayvon really was? And that’s my biggest thing is that I just thought as though they didn’t see it from my perspective.
RS: So I know that you y’all met the National Action Network and some of the, some of our prominent African-American pastors met with the United States Justice Department. Do you think that they’ll be bringing federal charges? And this is for the attorney; do you think they’ll be bringing federal charges? And the second part of that question is; do you think George Zimmerman violated Trayvon Martin’s civil rights? And I think that’s what the crust of that case would be, correct?
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BC: Correct. And I know Sybrina and Tracy and our legal team will be meeting with the Justice Department tomorrow. And so what we’re trying to frame the issues, it’s real simple, because it effects more than just Trayvon, and that’s what is so commendable about Tracy and Sybrina. They understand the fight is not just for them, it’s much bigger, because they can’t bring Trayvon back. They’re fighting to protect other children. The issue can our children be profiled, followed and confronted by any private citizen with a nine millimeter gun because the United States Supreme Court can’t even, won’t allow police to profile just on race alone. So with that being the issue is the neighborhood watch private citizens of the world going to have more rights than the police? And if so, we need to know, because we need to know what to tell our children. And if not then the killer of Trayvon Benjamin Martin should be held accountable for violating his civil rights. Whether the Justice Department would do that, Rick, is going to be on us as a community to keep them vocal and be vigilant. If we shut up I can guarantee you they won’t do it.
RS: Wow.
ES: Wow. And that’s Attorney Crumb, of course the attorney for Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, who worked the case with George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin. So I’m going to go back to the jurors one more time, and I’ll ask this to you the parents of Trayvon Martin; what do you think about the jurors who have spoken out after the trial? Did you feel any compassion for them? Did you – were you angry? What did you feel about the comments that they made after the trial?
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TM: I think that, you know, any time, beginning with the first juror, obviously she had a hidden agenda. With the second juror coming out, it just goes to show, you know, that how far have we come for equal justice? This lady openly admitted that George Zimmerman got away with murder.
ES: Right.
SF: And then …
TM: I mean that is troubling, that is real troubling.
SF: And then when I think about the jury and I think about myself sitting there, I think about things like would I have fought harder for somebody else’s child? I think I would fight harder for somebody else’s child, especially if they were a teenager, especially if they was walking home and they wasn’t committing any crime. I, I would’ve fought harder for her children, or somebody else’s children.
ES: Would you all have felt better about a hung jury? Or would that, I mean, how would that have…
EC: We would’ve gave it another trial.
TM: We …
EC: Go ahead.
TM: Personally I would’ve felt better with a conviction.
ES: Right.
TM: If Trayvon had, had pulled the trigger, Trayvon would’ve got convicted. So I mean a hung jury if they’re not sure enough, we got a chance for another trial, but at the same with the State of Florida, there was, this was an expensive trial. Would the State of Florida had prosecuted it again?
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RS: One of the things, and back to the attorney again, because I try to tackle the legal part. First of all, why was there only six jurors, in most states they have twelve jurors. And then the second part of the question is; do you think it’s fair for somebody to stand trial and there’s not an equally mix of races sitting in the jury pool? And when they said that this is a jury of your peers.
BC: Yeah. And those are some very, very profound questions, brother Rickey. The first question you asked is the six member panel. The United States Supreme Court allowed some 40 years ago that if it was a non-capital felony, that is a felony that you can be given the death penalty, then did not have to have twelve members. You could reduce it down to six, and about half the states in the country allow six member panels on non-felony murders, uh, felonies.
RS: Wow.
BC: Now the bigger issue is about a jury of your peers. And I think it’s very tough in small rural counties where it’s a majority Caucasian population for African-Americans to get equal justice. And we were clearly trying to answer that question with Trayvon because we felt there was so much overwhelming evidence, I mean just overwhelming evidence, where you really think about Trayvon was running away and then this neighborhood watch got out of his car with a gun and a few minutes later he has a bullet lodged in his heart. So the question then becomes how do we get equal justice if we can’t get African-Americans on the jury. I think a big part of it is we now, as a community, have to register to vote, and we have to not try to get out of jury duty. And that is a systematic problem that we have as a community where African-Americans don’t want, we come up with any excuse in the world not to serve on a jury.
RS: Yep.
BC: We got to change that. Maybe Trayvon in a lot of ways can change that system. The other last thing on that, Rick, and I think we do have to ask, answer these tough, legal questions. In bigger cities where their jury pool is more diverse, we have a much greater chance of getting equal justice. But when we are out in rural suburbia America it is very tough. And I tell you I tried cases all over the country, and if Trayvon can’t get justice with all this evidence in this case then how can black people get justice in America? That’s something we have to talk to the Justice Department about, and go to the Board of Registration because this midterm election we are trying to create the Trayvon voter, especially since President Obama isn’t going to be on the ballot. We got to have everybody come out to change these Stand Your Ground laws. It’s not just in Florida, it’s in 28 states around America.
RS: That’s right.
BC: Tracy and Sybrina are going to be going around the country trying to get these laws changed. We need your help, Rickey. We cannot do it without you all.
RS: Well, that’s what I said on the radio before. I know you all was, I think y’all was doing a TV show, when we had you on the show, we talked about it, and talking about people not voting during the midterm election. And that’s when you’re voting for judges and legislators that do all the redistricting. See, people don’t understand this. And I just want everybody to do really do some research and look at how they, you know, they do redistricting and redrawing the district lines, and stuff like that that is so important: county elections, mayoral elections, city council elections. All those people that had that, that changed some of the laws that has a direct effect on you and stuff like this. And it’s so important. And when they ask you to serve on jury, and you don’t know what kind of case you’re going to get or what kind of trial you’re going to be sitting on, please serve on jury duty. And please vote during the midterm election. You know, because here you got, if I’m not mistaken, 37 – I might be wrong – 37 governors. You got 37 governors that sit in governor houses and most of the Congress and State senators are Republicans and Democrats are having a hard time fighting and stuff like that. So you get these kinds of laws and stuff and these Republicans with these crazy rather, and shut up don’t tweet me talking about shut up and tell jokes. I’m more than just a comedian. I’m well educated when it comes to politics or whatever, because if I’m going to be doing standup comedy I’d probably be somewhere playing in Oregon in somebody’s church, or probably be uh, running for political office somewhere. You know, I was doing this before I started doing comedy. So I ain’t got to shut up and make you laugh because I’m not a joke. Comedy is what I do. But this is where my heart is when it comes to civil rights, ever since Bonita Carter was shot in the back by a police officer, George Sands, right there on Tenth Avenue. I’ve been a member of the NAACP, the SCLC since. And everybody needs to join some of these organizations. They protect you. It take money. It take money to take people to court and to fight these laws and stuff like this. You can’t do it broke. George Zimmerman had over a quarter of a million dollars for his defense fund.
BC: Half a million.
RS: How much? Half a million?
BC: Half a million.
RS: Half a million? You know …
BC: For killing an unarmed child.
RS: Yeah. And folks, these folks out here sending money to protect him and to protect their own? What are we going to do? Have we sent a dime to the NAACP? Or the SCLC, or 100 Black Men? Or the National Action Network? What are we doing? Send money. We go out here and buy all this stuff that we don’t need, or whatever. You know, buy what you want to buy, do what you want to do with your money, but let’s keep our priorities intact and let’s go out and where our organizations can stay strong and have money to fight for us. For us. That’s all, that’s all we saying. So …
SF: One of the things, Rickey is too, is the reason we want to take something negative and turn it into a positive, and that’s why we created the Trayvon Martin Foundation. So we think that that will help other families. That will help the other victims of senseless gun violence that will help us to support trying to change the laws, especially the Stand Your Ground law because it does not work for us.
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RS: That’s right. Go out and see Fruitvale Station. You want to get moving to do something? You want to get moving to action? Go out and see Fruitvale Station, stuff like that. You, and Tracy, Sybrina, thank you all so much. Dog team, appreciate you bro.
TM: Hey, thank you Rickey.
BC: Thank you.
RS: Hey, thank …
BC: We appreciate you. Thank you so much.
RS: Yes, sir. Give them a round of applause. Show some love. (Applause) Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton. God bless you, it’s “The Rickey Smiley Morning Show.”
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