Posted by Andrew Branca
on July 11, 201364 Comments
Breaking: Charge on Murder 3/Child Abuse is denied by Judge Nelson
This morning the Court in Florida v. Zimmerman conducted a hearing to finalize the instructions that will guide the jury on arriving at a verdict. While some of the instructions were long-expected and raised little...
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on July 11, 201319 Comments
I have long predicted that the central, yet in some ways least debated, issue in the Gang of 8 bill was the pathway to citizenship.
There was unanimity on the Democratic side, but not on the Republican side. Democrats repeatedly threw down the gauntlet that no...
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on July 11, 2013211 Comments
As expected, the Judge in the George Zimmerman case ruled that in addition to Second Degree Murder, she will instruct the jury on the lesser included offense of Manslaughter, as required by Florida case law.
In a surprise move this morning, the prosecution asked the Judge...
Posted by Andrew Branca
on July 11, 2013591 Comments
Today we will again be covering the Zimmerman Trial live, all day, with streaming video. Continuing commentary will be posted in the Twitter feed of selected contributors below the first video feed, below.
This morning is the charging conference, in which the State and defense will argue about the specific charges on which the jury is to be instructed. The options are second degree murder, manslaughter, and aggravated assault. The defense wishes a charge only on second degree murder, the State prefers the latter two charges also be considered.
The State is scheduled to begin its closing argument at 1:00PM today, and the defense tomorrow morning. By tomorrow afternoon the jury should have been charged and begun their deliberations.
We also have brief summaries of the previous day's events Zimmerman Defense Rests, Closing Statements Start Tomorrow along links to detailed more posts below the second video feed at the bottom of this post.
[caption id="attachment_58318" align="alignnone" width="500"] Defense attorney Don West and George Zimmerman[/caption]
In addition, last night Professor Jacobson posted an analysis of the racial politics driving the Zimmerman prosecution, here:
Also, a quick note, in thanks to the Professor and all of you I've put in place a 10% discount/free shipping coupon for Legal Insurrection followers interested in "The Law of Self Defense, 2nd Edition"--use code LOSD2-LI at checkout.
Live Stream Video
WITH COMMENTARY FROM CHANNEL 9 IN SANFORD
[For live-stream video without commentary, see NBC live feed at bottom of this post.]
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on July 11, 201327 Comments
I urged Liz Cheney to run for Senate against Mike Enzi the other night because I didn't like the sense of entitlement exhibited by his supporters, Run, Liz Cheney, Run.
I noted that I had nothing against Enzi, and that I didn't know much about him.
In...
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on July 10, 2013201 Comments
I have a really bad feeling about the Zimmerman verdict.
Logically, it should be a slam dunk of "Not Guilty" on all charges, since the evidence clearly shows Zimmerman was acting in justifiable self-defense as he was being beaten by Trayvon Martin. Or at least there...
Posted by Andrew Branca
on July 10, 2013355 Comments
The defense team continued on what is expected to be the last day of their presentation of their case. The day began and ended with a bang. This morning Judge Nelson denied the defense's request to introduce their animated movie as evidence, although they will...
A Harvard law professor testified Wednesday in the court martial of Bradley Manning that the Army private’s leak of hundreds of thousands of classified materials changed how Wikileaks was viewed by government and media outlets.
From the Albany Times Union:
An Army private's leak of classified information...
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on July 10, 201337 Comments
On university campuses, in Great Britain, at the United Nations, and in much of the world he would be called "Islamophobic" if his words were spoken by someone else. But clearly he is not that.
I call him hope for the future of Egypt.
...
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on July 10, 201315 Comments
Elizabeth Warren's student loan proposal to utilize the overnight rate the Fed loans money to banks has been widely criticized even by some liberal commentators as a "cheap political gimmick." [Note - link is to LI and is safe, some people are getting warnings]
There seems to be...
Posted by Andrew Branca
on July 10, 2013745 Comments
Today we will again be covering the Zimmerman Trial live, all day, with streaming video. Continuing commentary will be posted in the Twitter feed of selected contributors below the first video feed. We have brief summaries of the previous day's events (including last night's fireworks!) along links to detailed more posts below the second video feed at the bottom of this post.
Also, a quick note, in thanks to the Professor and all of you I've put in place a 10% discount/free shipping coupon for Legal Insurrection followers interested in "The Law of Self Defense, 2nd Edition"--use code LOSD2-LI at checkout.
Live Stream Video
WITH COMMENTARY FROM CHANNEL 9 IN SANFORD
[For live-stream video without commentary, see NBC live feed at bottom of this post.]
There is a term known as “newsjacking,” and it refers to the takeover of a news story or narrative and using it for other purposes. See the example in that link about when Oreo took over the power outage during the Super Bowl 2013, and...
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on July 10, 201377 Comments
In my post last night I noted a near shouting match between defense attorney Don West and Judge Debra Nelson over whether text messages on Trayvon Martin's phone regarding fighting were "authenticated."
Judge Nelson stated that there was no evidence that Trayvon typed the texts even...
Posted by William A. Jacobson
on July 09, 2013267 Comments
A hearing was held this evening, concluding just before 10 p.m., on the attempt of the defense to introduce expert testimony as to text messages regarding fighting found on Trayvon Martin's cell phone. The judge previously had ruled that such social media evidence could not be mentioned in jury selection or opening statements.
A large group of texts and photos were released in late May, but only some of them are at issue now.
The judge expressed concern (full embed below) about admissibility on ground of authentication, that the defense could prove that the texts were to and from Trayvon's phone, but could not prove that Trayvon was using the phone at the time. "I don't have any identifying marks that these text messages" were sent by or from Martin. "Another person may know that password."
The hearing was highly contentious, with defense lawyer Don West vigorously asserting that failure to allow the evidence would violate Zimmerman's constitutional rights, and blaming the prosecution for withholding evidence until early June as to the texts. West argued that it was unfair to hold the defense to strict authentication standards given the prosecution's tactics.
https://twitter.com/renestutzman/status/354782441132654592
The fireworks started about mid-way through this clip:
