Fox News host Gregg Jarrett suggested on Monday that George Zimmerman might have been justified in killing Trayvon Martin because the teen "may have been violent" from smoking marijuana.
During a break in jury selection for Zimmerman's trial, Jarrett told viewers of Fox News' live Internet broadcast that the judge had tried to restrict the evidence to facts related to the day of the shooting.
"She's said we're not going to have any of this stuff introduced as evidence about the history of Trayvon Martin, whether he had a history of getting involved in fights, making threats, marijuana use, gun use, being suspended from school and so on and so forth," he observed.
Former federal prosecutor Doug Burns pointed out that the judge may allow evidence that Martin had marijuana in his system at the time of his death.
"If an M.E. -- a medical examiner -- takes the witness stand and says he was high on marijuana based on toxicology, how does that play?" Jarrett wondered.
"That's a very good question," Burns agreed.
"If he is high, he may have acted irrationally and may have been violent," Jarrett opined.
Burns noted that the prosecution could argue "the reverse spin, which is the effect of marijuana making you more mellow."
"If it's in his system, that's a fact that the jury is entitled to know," Burns added. "But again to repeat our point, it can cut both ways. You could call an expert to say that marijuana doesn't make you violent."
Speaking on the online Internet video broadcast last week, Jarrett offered the opinion that Zimmerman “has already been punished” for killing Martin because he “looks like he’s put on a hundred pounds.”
