He said reasonable doubt boils down to percentages.

“If you think it’s 60 percent likely or 70 percent or even 80 percent likely that Zimmerman is guilty and doesn’t deserve self-defense, you have to acquit,” Dershowitz said.

“It has to be much higher than that. It has to be certainly like 90 percent likely before you can say there’s no reasonable doubt. So, if I were on the jury, I would find reasonable doubt.”

But that doesn’t mean Zimmerman is a choirboy, according to Dershowitz.

“I might not want to be friendly with George Zimmerman at the end of the case … I certainly would not declare him innocent. There’s a big difference between declaring him innocent and declaring him not guilty,” he said.

As to the possibility of violence in the streets should Zimmerman walk free, Dershowitz believes calm will prevail.