That's because there is no 'peers' wording in U.S. law.
Defense lawyers want the defendant's peers. Prosecutors want the defendant's enemies.
The LAW requires that the jury members NOT BE PEERS. They cannot be friends, or relatives, or even know much about the case. What jury members are supposed to be is American Citizens who have no knowledge of the case and no bias.
I don’t care about this Zimmerman stuff which is a distraction and except for the mind melders MAKING it important, and our tendency to follow their lead, it would be another case amongst so many others. I regret I read about it and took time to write a line as well. I wasn’t intending to express any view on legality since I am not in that profession. For me this topic has moved into the category of all other celebrity trials.