zimmerman's fate is in the hands of the jury. the very latest where you tell me what you have to say about this explosive case that's tomorrow night. that's all for tonight. anderson cooper starts right now. the prosecution makes its closing pitch. good evening again. welcome to another "360" special report "self-defense or murder, the george zimmerman trial." today, the lead prosecutor tried to bring home his case. the state of florida's case to the jury, that a wannabe cop fed up with crime in his neighborhood prejudged a teenager, pursued him and shot him dead. tonight, we'll look at the merits of that case and today's closing arguments. we'll focus on closing arguments from the defense and the impact of the judge's ruling allowing jurors to consider the lesser charge than just second degree murder, the charge of manslaughter. with me, the best legal panel around. first, the highlights from closing day from the prosecution. here's our martin savidge. >> reporter: unlike his

profanity laced opening, the closing began with more rev rant tones. almost like a eulogy. >> a teenager is dead. he is dead through no fault of his own. he is dead because another man made assumptions. >> reporter: the prosecutor condensed the state's nine-day case into two hours, emphasizing the claim that george zimmerman actively profiled trayvon martin. >> he profiled him as a criminal. he assumed certain things, that trayvon martin was up to no good. and that is what led to his death. >> reporter: the state contends zimmerman is a wannabe cop who had grown increasingly frustrated by a series of break-ins by criminals who always managed to get away. his narrative paused just once for a recess and was interrupted at another point for an objection. the defense attorney mark o'hara

says the state was wrongfully interpreting the law. the state often returned to its tactic of using zimmerman's own words against him. >> he does not want to admit at all that he's following him or chasing him or profiling him. >> reporter: while the jury sat for much of the delivery, zimmerman's parents in court for the first time as spectators since the trial started, looked at times incredulous as the state concluded for the day, a rare reaction from george zimmerman himself. >> the man who is guilty of second degree murder. thank you. >> reporter: earlier the court heard arguments on lesser charges that could be presented to the jury. it was no surprise the state asked for the lesser charge of manslaughter. but the defense was stunned when it wanted to add third degree felony murder, arguing the death of 17-year-old trayvon martin at the hands of george zimmerman was, among other things, child abuse.

>> the felony alleged is child abuse. obviously, the information alleges that the defendant shot and killed the victim, that the victim was under the age of 18. and child abuse must be, according to the third degree felony murder, instruction defined. >> reporter: the defense attorney was outraged. >> oh, my god. just when i thought this case couldn't get anymore bizarre. >> reporter: the debate brought more testy exchanges between west and judge debra nelson. >> i understand. i've already ruled and you have -- you continuely disagree with this court every time i make a ruling. >> reporter: in the end, the judge ruled third degree felony murder would not be an option for the jury. >> i just don't think that the intentional part of that is there for the child abuse charge and that's not alleged in the information that way. and i just don't think that the evidence supports that.

>> reporter: the pressure, now on mark o'mara to close out the defense's case friday before it heads to the jury. martin savidge, cnn, sanford, florida. >> it will likely head to the jury tomorrow afternoon. high stakes ruling, props, a power point presentation. even the prosecutor skipping around the room at one point. just about anything that can happen in the courtroom did happen today. plenty to talk about with our panel. sunny hostin and jeffrey toobin. danny savalos and mark geragos. mark's latest book, "mistrial." danny, let's start with you this time. that lesser charge that they wanted to suddenly bring in, that the prosecution sprung that don west literally said "oh, my god" about, did that stun you? >> i think it surprised everybody. it's one of those examples that is brilliant tactically by the prosecution, but it could be viewed as kind of dirty pool. here's why. felony murder is like a legal fiction.

it's a policy crime, because all of our other forms of murders are on a continuum. they go from i meant to kill him, down to oopsy daisy. felony murder is an accidental killing that occurs during a dangerous felony like burglary. the problem here is that the prosecution technically they gave them notice under the facts a child was killed. but no one ever talked about felony murder. the felony here would be child abuse. i think that's a stretch. i think everybody was shocked and i had so much sympathy for don west. it's like when you wake up and you have that dream where you woke up late for school and you're missing the test. that has to be how he felt. oh my god, wu we're going to fight against felony murder, we didn't prepare for this at all. >> jeff, can the prosecution just come up with this third degree murder? >> you can ask. and fortunately, the judge did the right thing here, which was exclude it.

it's not part of the case. but manslaughter, which i think we've all assumed has -- would be a lesser included offense, is part of the case, and so there are only two options for the jury now. guilty or not guilty on second degree murder and the same question on manslaughter. this was, i thought, dirty pool to ask for the felony murder child abuse. but the judge saw that and excluded it. >> mark, it goes to what we were discussing last night, which was at a certain point by the prosecution coming up with these alternative, do they start to look desperate? >> well, i think we argued last night that part of the problem in our justice system is that when prosecutors ask for these lesser includes, you are here as the defense, and you're trying to defend a case based on what they told you. remember, a criminal case is a lawsuit.

the prosecutor is the plaintiff. the defense is representing the defendant. except it's not for money, it's for your liberty. and so when you file this lawsuit, and you're defending against it, you're not supposed to be ambushed. that's what this morning was. this morning was basically another of the prosecutorial ambushes. one of the reasons why it's totally unfair to have lessers, if the defendant doesn't agree to it, because the prosecution has all of the things going for it. they have unlimited budgets, and when they bring their force to bear against you, you should defend against it, but you shouldn't have to guess what they're doing. you shouldn't have to figure it out the morning you wake up before the closing arguments and say by the way, now we're going to charge child abuse. anybody in america think that's fair. if you heard this was happening in china or the old soviet union, you would get out amnesty international and say there's a human rights abuse. it happens here in america and we say it's what prosecutors do all the time.

isn't that wonderful. >> i notice both former prosecutors rolling their eyes and smiling. sunny, why? >> of course. because they do it. they like it. >> because it's a lesser included offense of what has been charged. and it's not as if, you know, the defense had no idea that the government was going to ask for lesser includeds. these are all enumerated in a book. >> but you would agree -- >> third degree murder with child abuse, sunny, you thought was coming up? you thought third degree murder -- >> it was a stretch. it was clever. but -- >> a stretch? >> but to argue that the prosecution hid the ball is ridiculous when everybody has the same information before them. >> one at a time. >> shouldn't civility mandate -- all attorneys, the rules of

civility, all counsel should relate that to each other. if you're going to charge somebody, you shouldn't argue that technically the facts support it. the attorneys should be placed on notice of it. they've had a year to prepare. felony murder is a very different kind of crime than your lesser included offense that's what felt so unfair about it. felony murder is a different kind of defense than just a lesser included offense, which is all the same elements -- >> go ahead. >> i was just going to interject one thing as to why this is a problem. when the prosecution says we're going to charge you with second degree murder and you're going to get bail at $1 million and they know or presumably they know that you're either going to have your liberty or not, and then they wait until the end of the case and say well, maybe we didn't make second degree murder but go for manslaughter or third degree felony murder with child abuse, which has in the manslaughter case a much lower

bail, so he could have been out the whole time. forget about george zimmerman for a moment. doesn't that team somewhat unethical for a prosecutor to overcharge you, to go the entire case to not be able in their own mind to have the confidence to think they're going to convict you, and then the morning before you argue say oh, by the way, here's the other one, maybe you should have defended against this. this isn't a game. it is somebody's life. >> exactly. and manslaughter is a crime, a very serious crime. and if you are guilty of it, you should be convicted of it and put in prison. and that's what the prosecution is trying to do in this case. they are also trying to do -- >> then why charge murder? >> because they think both are covered by this conduct. which happens all the time. >> if think they both are, why can't they -- and i know it happens all the time. i get the argument. >> it doesn't mean it's right.

>> right. so why, if you believe -- and wouldn't you agree with me that a prosecutor's duty is to only seek convictions on charges that you ethically can prove beyond a reasonable doubt? >> totally agree. >> if that is the case, and you thought you could prove the second degree, why should you be allowed, absent the defendant agreeing to it, why should you be allowed at the last minute to ask for something less? >> because the law provides for it. >> there's no silence here. are you kidding? on this program, there's no silence. >> the silence is deafening. >> the law provides for it. >> it's the right thing to do. if you are guilty of manslaughter, you should be convicted of it. >> that presupposes the whole trial process. you can't say if you are guilty, that's why we have the trial process to determine if you are guilty. so to say it justifies if you are guilty of a crime, to charge you with it, we don't know that yet. >> let's move on.

we have talked about this one. sunny, you were in the court today for the closing arguments. you admit the prosecution had a lot to prove coming into the closing. how do you think they did? >> i think that they put the pieces of the puzzle together for this jury extremely well, anderson. it was passionate. it was convincing. the jury was watching everything he was doing. what was terrific, i think, about this closing argument is that they brought the focus back to trayvon martin, the victim here. they brought the common sense argument to this jury. how is it that a young boy, a teenager who was simply on a snack run did not get back home where he was lawfully allowed to be safely? how is that? because george zimmerman profiled him. he profiled him as a criminal. he made all these assumptions about trayvon martin that were

wrong and he acted on those and in doing so, he killed him. i thought that was such a wonderful common sense argument that distilled what this case is about. this case is about whether or not someone who is not doing anything, who is acting completely unlawfully, should be able to be gunned down on a dark, rainy night. i think that came across. >> i want to play a clip from the closing argument t. prosecutor pulled out the gun that george zimmerman actually used. >> he's got this gun and this holster. you'll see in a few minutes -- more than a few minutes, one of the things he does, he demonstrates to the police where he had the gun. it wasn't right here in the front, it was towards the back and it was hidden. he'll demonstrate to the police

out there where it was. look at the gun. look at the size of this gun. how did the victim see that in the darkness? where was it? it wasn't outside. it was tucked in behind. >> mark, sunny said he did a good job of bringing it back to the reality of the death of trayvon martin, what did you think? >> at your 7:00 show, she characterized this as masterful. it brought it all together. it was passionate. >> it still is. >> god forbid when we come back tomorrow after mcdreamy's rebuttal. i thought this was dismal. i did. when you have the law you pound the law. when you have the facts you pound the facts. when you don't have either, you

pound the table. he was yelling the entire time. i don't know why he was yelling. >> he was not. he was not yelling the entire time. >> who are you going to believe? sunny or the tape? i watched the tape. it looked and sounded to me like he was yelling. >> the entire time, mark? the entire time? >> yes. he was screaming, yelling and doing all these antics. at a certain point, that's great. at a certain point jurors are going to get the jury instructions and want to know what the law is and what their job is. my experience has been generally jurors appreciate it when you walk them through the law and how the facts apply to the law. the argument that was made, it might have been great for tv and the can cheer leading squad. for the jurors, it falls flat. >> the judge is going to instruct them on the law. the judge is going to instruct them on the law.

this prosecution went over the law and went with the facts and their theory of the case. it was very effective. prosecutors do it all the time and do it successfully and effectively like this prosecutor did. >> i want to play another clip where they brought out the dummy. >> i might as well agree with everybody else. whau whatever you want to call this. if you see what he is saying now, he's saying that armpit -- how does he get the gun out? armpits. how does he get the gun out?

the truth does not lie. >> jeff, sunny says she was in the courtroom, didn't sound like he was yelling that much. how did it sound to you? >> i thought he was louder than he should be. i don't think george zimmerman is going to get acquitted because of the volume of his voice. there is a good example of, i was not entirely clear on whether that was persuasive. i guess the idea is if trayvon martin was on top of him that way, there was no way he could have reached the gun in his back. >> it goes to something he said several days ago. george zimmerman said he was up to his armpits. >> the other thing is, he's not -- he is putting his finger on a weakness in the defense case here. i think the weakest argument the defense has in this case is that

trayvon martin was reaching for the gun. >> getting reclaim to the video tape. >> that's pretty implausible to me. when you look at where the gun was and the nature of their struggle, it's a weak claim. it may be something zimmerman came up with after the fact to justify the shooting. doesn't mean he's guilty. i think there were several good moments in the summation today where that claim was well -- >> do you think that is the weakest claim? >> i think that's tough. i think the weakest part, i think the prosecution made it into his strength today. that is george zimmerman's past. you can look at it one way, he's a wanna be cop. you can take a step back and the same facts are complimentary. somebody wants to be a police officer. somebody starts their own neighborhood watch. i haven't done that. these are facts to be admired. >> they had the testimony

yesterday of the woman whose house was burglarized, he went over, gave her a lock. you can say it's creepy, the level he's involved or he's a concerned neighbor. >> i can see both sides. each side argued both positions. this is a guy involved in the community. on the other hand, he was too interested. i thought it was interesting how the prosecutor took that and addressed it. he took it home. make george zimmerman sound creepy. >> everyone stick around. tonight, we are playing the key moments, the best moments, the worst moments chosen by jeff, sunny, danny and mark. you can follow me on twitter. we'll be right back.

hey, thanks for stopping by. you know, i've followed your character since the first episode. i'm a big fan, big, big fan... thank you. listen, your storyline makes for incredible tv drama. thing is, your drug use is very adult content.

too adult for the kids. so, i'm gonna have to block you. aw, man. yeahh... well. have a good one. you're a nice lady. anyone writing a book on the zimmerman trial could probably fill a few hundred pages. there were countless highlights

or low lights, depending on who you ask. we asked the panel to pick the best and worst moments of the day. here's the best moments according to jeff toobin. >> a teenager is dead. he is dead through no fault of his own. he is dead because another man made assumptions. that man assumed certain things. he is dead not just because the man made those assumptions, because he acted upon those assumptions. and unfortunately, unfortunately, because his assumptions were wrong, trayvon benjamin martin no longer walks on this earth. >> so that was the moment jeff toobin picked as the most effective. back with our panel, all of whom

have their own picks. you thought that was the best because, what, because the prosecutor really kind of brought it back home to what this case is all about. >> exactly. it a reminder of why this case captured the nation's attention a year and a half ago when it happened. how can we live in a country where a 17-year-old boy goes to buy skittles and an iced tea, comes home to watch the nba all-star game and somehow is killed. how could this happen? someone who was doing nothing wrong, who wasn't carrying a weapon, who wasn't drunk, who wasn't bothering anybody and obviously the question is was he bothering somebody, that's what the defense is going to say but i thought capturing that rather than getting in the weeds where we've spent so much of the last three weeks was a very good move. >> later on you thought they did get into the weeds where they talked about witnesses from last week. we'll talk about that ahead. mark, you've been critical of the witness from day one. you could not come up with one best moment in the prosecution's

closing argument. really? >> not one. not one. i thought it was abysmal. like i say, i can hardly wait to watch sunny's mcdreamy tomorrow. i'm sure it will be the greatest closing argument since clarence darrow was revived and resuscitated. i'm watching this and i have no idea what trial i'm watching. apparently that last tape he played, he wasn't yelling. not jeff's favorite. the one before was not yelling so i'm get to get me hearing checked. everything else i watch is not what i'm watching. i'm going to start believing what sunny tells me and ignore everything on tv. >> that clip we just showed, i didn't hear yelling, did you? >> wasn't that the very beginning? >> you said he yelled throughout. >> give him 45 seconds and then he started going. you're right, sunny. whatever you say.

there's reality and then there's sunniville. >> your best moment, sunny, is when the prosecution narrowed in on assumptions about trayvon martin. let's play that. >> the defendant assumed that the victim was somewhere where he didn't belong, that the victim was commit organize about to commit a burglary and he assumed and profiled the victim as a criminal. he assumed that the victim was one of those that always got away. he assumed also that he was an f'ing punk and that the victim was going to get away before the police arrived. >> sunny, for you that was a key moment because, again, it brought it back to the core of this case? >> exactly. you have six women on the jury,

five of them are mothers and it shakes, i think, your very core as a person that someone could see your child walking down the street and make all these false assumptions just because of the way that he looks. i think it was really important for the prosecution to hone in on that because that is what is wrong fundamentally about this case. trayvon martin was doing nothing wrong. yet he was profiled, he was followed, he was targeted. and i think it really resonated in the courtroom. >> danny, for yothe moment was when the prosecutor brought out the skittles and the drink. let's play that. >> trayvon martin, he was staying -- he was there legally. he hadn't broken in or sneaked in or trespassed. he was there legally. he bought skittles or some kind of watermelon or iced tea or whatever it's called. that was his crime. >> why was it so effective for you?

>> i've said it before and it backs up mark's theory, if you don't have the facts of the law you pound your fist. i said it for the skittles and the iced tea, i think we associate those with kids. they're things that mostly kids eat for fun. if he bought something a little more innocent or something less interesting, windshield wiper fluid, we may not be talking about it at all and the prosecutor wouldn't be showing it. it's an example of the prosecution using something that really isn't relevant to the case or any of the charges and using that as a prop and a really effective one. the mothers on that panel are going to think about their own kids who like skittles, who eat skittles. if he had been walking out with a bottle of windex and paper towels -- >> it's a gun versus skittles and a soda. >> absolutely. >> the worst moments for the prosecution when we come back. big plans. so when i found out

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welcome back. we're talking about the high points and low points about the prosecution's closing arguments today. before the break we talked about what our panel thought were the best moments for the prosecution. now it's time for the worst moments. here is bernie de la rionda's worst misstep in the closing as chosen by jeff toobin. >> my point is that there was a fight there. there was a struggle and at some points it appears based on the evidence that the defendant was on top and at some points the victim was on top. it's wrestling, struggling, whatever you want to call it. but why'd it occur? >> because it's important who's on top. and it's important --

>> it sounds like he's trying to fudge it. >> this is a critical issue in the case. it's over. the evidence is all in. and he can't say who was on top when, who started things? that i thought was indicative of a real weakness in the prosecution's case. >> sunny, it does kind of remind us of what we were talking about yesterday, the idea that the prosecution sort of changed their story about who was on top. they started off the trial saying one thing, that george zimmerman was on top and then just yesterday they said, well, maybe it was trayvon martin was on top but he was pulling away. >> well, the prosecution wasn't saying that, the witnesses were saying that, anderson. you have two witnesses that are saying i saw who i believed to be george zimmerman on top and you've got one other witness, john good, who is saying i believe it was trayvon martin. >> but they knew that going into the trial so why start off by saying definitively it was george zimmerman on top? >> because at points george zimmerman was on top and at points trayvon martin was on

top. this is a fluid altercation. i think what's most important, which is prosecution pointed out is how did it start? it started because of the false assumptions that george zimmerman made. and what i think what's wonderful about the prosecution is it's being very transparent about the fact that there was clearly an altercation but that different people saw different things and it was a fluid situation. i think that's a good thing for the prosecution. >> so, mark, why wouldn't you, if you're the prosecution then and you know it's going to be described as a fluid situation, why wouldn't you start off the trial saying, you know what, it's a fluid situation, not saying george zimmerman is on top? >> itd it's a fluid situation. >> because i think as i've said all along they didn't want this case initially, the police didn't want this case initially. i think contrary to what everybody else says, i think the reason this thing gained traction was because in any

other situation without a cop who is doing the shooting and killing somebody, they arrest first and ask questions later. i think that the prosecution has been on their heels the entire time because they didn't know what to make of this case because it was foisted upon them. i also think that there's a certain prosecutorial schizophrenia. they say on one hand that the 17-year-old, they keep calling him a boy and talk about the skittles and everything else and i agree with that except these are the same prosecutors in the same state's attorneys office who until the u.s. supreme court got involved used to call 17-year-olds and 16-year-olds and 15-year-olds adults and tried to murder them by way of the death penalty. so they weren't boys when they were committing a crime but when they're involved now, they are boys. so there is a certain amount of inversion of the usual roles in this case. and we've talked about that for a while. the prosecutors, i think, are in unfamiliar territory and that's

why in my opinion they've been so abysmal. it's almost as if they are desperate defense lawyers trying to defend a position. >> danny, you thought one of the worst moments was when the prosecutors focused on zimmerman forming the neighborhood watch. let's play that. >> those actions weren't anything sinister or terrible or evil or of ill will. those are actions that occur throughout the united states in many cities unfortunately. where crimes occur in the neighborhood and people get together and form neighborhood watches or other associations to deal with it. there's nothing sinister or wrong with that. >> but now isn't part of the prosecution's case, aren't they kind of arguing there is something sinister about -- his reasons for doing it? he didn't want to be caught. >> if they're arguing creepy guy

forming neighborhood watches, there's nothing wrong with forming a neighborhood watch. everything up until now, you can hear him saying here's when he did and that's okay. if it's okay, with why is it even part of your argument? the gist of your argument is this case began months ago when george zimmerman formed this hatred for people in his neighborhood breaking into places. why was he apologizing? if felt like he was saying not that there's anything wrong with neighborhood watches, just this guy's neighborhood watch. i thought it was a little inconsistent with their theory of the case. >> mark, your moment is a series of moments where the prosecutor used a shrill voice, your words, not mine. >> he was sick and tired of it. but the law doesn't say take the law into your own hands. i'm sorry, i got the wrong guy.

oh, i'm sorry, i thought he was a criminal. mr. martin, tracy martin, i am so sorry, i made a mistake. i didn't realize that trayvon martin was minding his on business. i am terribly sorry. the law doesn't say that. >> so you didn't see a dramatic effect helpful for the prosecutor. >> seriously, you're asking -- >> it was just kind of a throw away to allow you to opine. we don't even need to go there. >> right, we really don't need to go there. >> we got 22 more minutes, i'm doing the best can i here. >> his moment was the entire two hours. >> i get the fact -- i get the fact that, you know -- i don't know. sometimes it's obvious -- >> wait a second. why was that moment so terrible?

i didn't think it was so great but why was it so terrible? >> what the prosecutor did in that moment. >> would you do that? would you do that in a closing argument? >> do what? >> do an imitation of phyllis diller without her wig on? and i thought it was disrespectful to the victim's family. i don't understand what trials people are watching. >> why didn't the rest of us see that was a phyllis diller imitation? >> because she wasn't wearing her wig. >> to mark's point about yelling, if you were yelling at someone repeatedly, people tend to shut you out. >> absolutely. >> unless there's a great modulation and differenceation in your voice and it's up and it's down, if you were just at a steady stream of yelling --

>> i tweeted that. >> i stopped following on twitter so long ago. no, i'm kidding. >> oh, that's cold. so cold. >> i do think he was at too high of a pitch for too long. but, you know, that's better than being boring and uninterested and business-like. >> but you look at mark o'mara. >> isn't he middle ground? >> obviously, there should be a middle ground. >> we'll see what his final thing is tomorrow. he has been sort of -- he's very steady but seems pretty precise. you called him masterful. >> terrific. he has a wonderful courtroom demeanor. let's see. i have to say -- he said to you last night in your interview he doesn't write things down, he just sort of goes in the moment. it's tough to talk for three hours just being in the moment and, you know, if he's sitting there leafing through yellow pads, which is something lawyers do which i hate, i don't think that will be very effective but we'll see. >> but mark o'mara was saying

he's lived with this case for a year and a half and doesn't need to write it down at this point. he knows what he wants to say. >> i will tell you something, a very small circle of friends that are almost all trial lawyers and great trial lawyers. and the great -- the guys who are the greatest at it can get up -- and having lived the case, they can emote, modulate, they can talk from the heart and they get up there and they will connect with the jury. that's what they do. they're having a conversation, albeit one sided and they're going to explain and walk the jury through why it is that the jury should listen to them, number one, should walk in their clients shoes and if they are good at it, never, ever look at a note or teleprompter. they have lived with the case, they know it and they have to convey that to the jury. >> we have to take another quick

break. i want to get your take on how the judge has done in this trial. we'll take a closer look at how she lays down the law and her background coming up.

throughout the zimmerman trial judge debra nelson has been tough, a no-nonsense judge who has repeatedly called out both lawyers in the courtroom. i want to take a closer look at how the judge laid down the law in the courtroom. randi kaye reports. >> reporter: judge debra nelson hardly seems to notice the cameras in her courtroom. she's too busy keeping the lawyers in their place. >> i would like to make a speaking objection. >> you can't make an objection to your own question.

i have told counsel before, first of all, no one talks over the other. please don't go off focus here. >> no -- >> don't "no, no" me either. >> here style may be a turnoff to some, but to attorney nejame, who has presented cases before judge nelson, it's a breath of fresh air. >> this case could easily have unravelled. it could have easily imploded. she's going to let everybody who was in charge and it's going to be her. >> reporter: she wasn't originally chosen for the case. she replaced another judge who the defense claim had a bias against zimmerman. she's been serving since 1999. before that she practiced in orlando. nejame says judge nelson tends to agree with the state, something not uncommon with the judge. on display today, she clashed

with the defense on instructions. >> you continually disagree with this court every time i make a ruling. if i have made a mistake in this case, you will appeal. this is my ruling on this issue. >> reporter: but it was this moment after a hearing late into the night that will forever be cemented in trial watcher's mind. >> i'm not physically able to keep up this pace much longer. it's 10:00 at night. we started this morning. we've had full days every day. weekends, depositions at night. >> reporter: she simply decided it was time to go. she may not be warm and fuzzy, but judge debra nelson is always on her game. >> when there was a difficult argument, she said i'm going to study it. that night she did or that weekend she did and she came to court prepared.

>> reporter: prepared and ready rule as she thought the law dictated. randi kay, cnn, new york. >> joining me once again, our panel. last night jeffrey you mumbled something under your breath. danny was talking about something about good guy judges and often their courtrooms are a mess and you mumbled something like they're the worst. you like judges who kind of lay down the law? >> i couldn't agree more. and when i talk about good guy, can you run -- you can control your courtroom without having to be a curmudgeon. i don't mind a curmudgeon as long as they're equal opportunity. but if a judge knows how to control the courtroom, cuts the lawyers off when they talk too much and they do it both with the defense and the prosecution, i've got no problem with it. it's the only way to operate a courtroom. can you not just let lawyers take control of the courtroom. it's the judge's court, they

should step up and nothing drives me more insane than to be in a trial, have a judge make a ruling and it always happens with prosecutors, they're like little kids when you take their toys away, but your honor, your honor, your honor, and the judge will listen to them while they keep whining. i love that. i do, surprise, surprise, disagree with sunny -- >> what? wait a minute! what? you disagree with sunny? i'm stunned. >> stop it, stop it. i thought that was great! >> i thought it was great, too. and it was 10:00 at night. >> i didn't like that. >> right. >> it was 10:00 at night. she was working so hard. the key thing about this case as far as the judge is concerned is she has a sequestered jury. this jury is away from their families, they're stuck in a hotel and she is working all the time including till 10:00 at night so the jury can work a full day every day and get this trial over. >> when she closed at 10:00 at night she said we're starting at

8:00 in the morning. don west was like we can't do 8:00, we have to do 9:00. she said, look, we have a sequestered jury, we can't have them -- so she always has them in the back of her mind. >> respect for the jury is so important. >> we have to take a break and be right back. the sleep number bed conforms to you. i wake up in the morning with no back pain. i can adjust it if i need to...if my back's a little more sore. and by the time i get up in the morning, i feel great! if you have back pain, toss and turn at night or wake up tired with no energy, the sleep number bed could be your solution. the sleep number bed's secret is it's air chambers which provide ideal support and put you in control of the firmness. and the bed is perfect for couples because each side adjusts independently to their unique sleep number. here's what clinical research has found: 93% of participants experienced back-pain relief 90% reported reduced aches and pains 87% fell asleep faster and enjoyed more deep sleep.

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let's get some final thoughts as we await mark o'mara's closing argument tomorrow. and we're going to wait all night long here. jeff, what are you expecting tomorrow in terms of what the defense has to do? >> i think one very important fact, he's got to say to this jury that self-defense is a defense both to murder and to manslaughter. he's got to fight the compromised verdict. i bet he's fairly confident they're not going to find zimmerman guilty of murder but he's got to be very worried

about manslaughter and will have to fight that a lot. >> he's got the watch the manslaughter. it's bad news for george zimmerman. the jury has to know that. if they split the baby, if they give him a lesser charge, that ain't going to work. that ain't going to work for zimmerman. mark o'mara has that in hi mind tonight, you have to believe it. he's going to hammer home self-defense. >> in florida, just for brandishing a gun, showing a gun is an automatic ten years. sunny, what do you think the defense has to do tomorrow? >> they have to change the narrative to what the jury went to sleep with. so they've got to change the focus, change the narrative to self-defense. i think that's going to be a difficult thing to do but that is what they need to do. >> mark? >> remember, because they're the

defense, this is hair their only time to argument. so not only do they have to go through and lay out self-defense and lay out who self-defense negates the two counts that he's facing, but they have to anticipate what the prosecution is going to do. supposedly in theory the prosecution is supposed to rebut. everybody knows most prosecutors lie in wait to sandbag you in the rebuttal. he has to anticipate whatever arguments they're going to make in the rebuttal by sunny as boyfriend mcdreamy. >> i'm going to start call you you mcdreamy, mark. i'm going to start calling you you that because i think you're jealous. i'm going start calling you that. >> i'm not jealous. >> let's get caught up with the other stories. randi is here with the 360 bulletin. >> investigators have released a horrifying photo of part of the interior of the asiana flight that crashed in san francisco on saturday. this area of the cabin destroyed

by flames. they report the voice recorder show that is the crew called for a go around twice in the final seconds before impact. and we have voices of those in the plane crash called for help. >> we just got in a plane crash and there are a lot of people that need help. we have a lot of people that weren't found and they're burned very badly here. we're almost losing a woman here. we're trying to keep her alive. >> and edward snowden is waiting for a response from venezuela on his request for asylum. he has yet to receive a response on the offer for asylum made last week. >> and the dow broke the former record set back in may and the s&p also reach its all-time high today. >> thanks very much. that's it for us. we'll be back at 10:00 eastern.

"early start" begins. have a great day. çñ

just when i thought this case couldn't get anymore bizarre. >> in hours, lawyers for george zimmerman deliver their last line of defense after trying to dog a last minute legal curveball. [ bleep ]. >> oh, my god. my car is totalled. >> a massive mud slide wiping out a colorado highway. we have a view from the driver's seat. >>