Here's an open thread for all matters except Zimmerman, for which there are plenty of other threads.

For those of you not following Zimmerman, it should be over by Friday.

Since our forums are crashing a few times a day due to server load, I'll put up a separate Zimmerman open thread.

Our forums are still touch and go due to server overload. Here's an open thread to discuss the George Zimmerman Trial.

Please remember this case is about the legal proceedings here, not your views on race. If you are new to the site, please read our comment rules for commenting on the Zimmerman case. If you want to know why our comment rules are different than other sites, you can read my answer to that question on another blogger's site.

This thread is for all topics related to the trial of George Zimmerman. Forum users, please keep checking throughout the day as they should now be staying up for hours at a time (and a permanent fix is forthcoming.)

The hearing in the George Zimmerman trial ran until 10 pm last night. It ended with the judge kicking the can down the road again, this time on the admission text messages recovered from Trayvon Martin's phone.

The hearing, like the one on computer animation that preceded it, is the best example yet of how the Judge's stubborn insistence that this case proceed to trial before the parties had even finished discovery, was a decision that will come home to bite her if it is necessary for Zimmerman to appeal.

It's not just the parties who are not prepared on the law, it's also the judge. Towards the end of the hearing, she started reading from a book she called Ehrenhart, which is a "horn book" on Florida evidence. It's a book that references Florida evidentiary decisions, kind of like Cliff Notes. She read off some case names cited in the book along with their one paragraph description of the case ruling. The book is intended as a guide to case law dealing with specific rules of evidence. It isn't a substitute for reading the opinions themselves. Had she read them, she would have known: [More...]

At 8:00 pm ET, the hearing on the admissibility of the defense animation wound down. The judge reserved ruling until tomorrow, but from her comments, the animation is in trouble.

The parties and judge agree there is one Florida case, State v. Pierce, 671 So. 2d 186 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996) on computer animations in a criminal case. The animation was admissible in that case.

The judge has problems with it going back into the jury room as opposed to being used as a demonstrative aid to assist an expert's testimony. Having listened to the full argument for a few hours, it seems the state is equating accuracy with whether the animation includes its version of the testimony. It's not intended as a recreation of the scene, but as defendant's theory of how the confrontation (not the shooting) occurred, as supported by witness testimony, including that of its experts. The exibit relied on evidence from Dr. DiMaio, John Good, Jena Lauer, and even Selma Mora. [More...]

Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune writes today about the judge's decision in the George Zimmerman trial allowing the defense to introduce Trayvon Martin's toxicology report into evidence. He agrees (for the most part) with my post from the other day in which I wrote that while "I think it is highly unlikely the defense will be able to show the results in the autopsy indicate impairment to a degree that might explain Martin’s physical attack on Zimmerman, " that the report was likely admissible for another reason. [More...]

Forensic firearms and ballistics expert Vincent Di Maio, who is also a pathologist and medical examiner, testified on direct examination this morning that the trajectory of the bullet and nature of his injuries support George Zimmerman's version of events.

Dr. Vincent Di Maio said that the trajectory of the bullet and gun powder on Martin’s body support Zimmerman’s version that Martin was on top of him when Zimmerman fired his gun into Martin’s chest. The gun’s muzzle was against Martin’s clothing and it was anywhere from two to four inches from Martin’s skin, he said.

“This is consistent with Mr. Zimmerman’s account that Mr. Martin was over him, leaning forward at the time he was shot,” said Di Maio, the former chief medical examiner in San Antonio.

Dr. Di Maio also testified that Trayvon Martin may have been conscious for 10 to 15 seconds after he was shot, during which time he could have moved his arms from the side to underneath his body. [More....]

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has his arraignment tomorrow in federal court in Boston. These aren't long hearings, he will just plead "not guilty" unless he has a deal, in which case he'll plead guilty.

I wonder how his medical condition is, and whether he will be kept at medical facility or shipped to a prison that houses detainees.I also wonder whether his lawyers have been able to forge a relationship with him. From the few accounts available, it seems like they have. No one I know is better at mastering that difficult task than Judy Clark.

Has anyone watched the new reality program Siberia? I've never seen a reality show where they show a contestant getting killed in the opening episode. Then again, maybe it's one of the illusions of the show. [Added: Thanks to those who emailed me to let me know it's a fake reality show. The "contestants" are actors playing reality show contestants and it's scripted. I think I'd rather watch a bad reality show than a good fake one. The whole point is that even though we know the show casts them by personality type and creates the drama with pre-planned story arcs, how the contestants deal with it and each other is still up to them. On the other hand, I loved the soap opera parody Mary Hartman years ago, so maybe I'll watch a few more episodes of Siberia.]

EPIC has filed a petition with the Supreme Court to stop the NSA warrantless electronic surveillance program by vacating this Order of the FISA court. Among the questions presented in the Petition is whether the FISA court exceeded its authority :

when it ordered Verizon to disclose records to the National Security Agency for all telephone communications “wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls.”

A federal judge in D.C. has ruled she is without authority to stop the force-feeding at Guantanamo due to Congress, but in her ruling, invites Obama to step up and do so.

Here's an open thread, all topics (except Zimmerman) welcome.

It was a big day for the defense at the George Zimmerman trial. Before getting to the testimony, I want to address the hearings held after the jury recessed for the day.

I wrote a long post this morning about the issue of whether the toxicology report should be introduced. After hearing from both sides, the Court ruled the report was admissible, and it would be reversible error not to admit it. She cited the Arias case which I referred to earlier, and a later case citing Arias. In argument today, the defense also referred to the lighter found on Trayvon's body and his swaying in the 711 video. [More...]

During the pre-trial proceedings in the George Zimmerman case, both sides filed motions in limine to exclude evidence at trial. Some are still pending, some were granted, and some were granted or denied provisionally, meaning the court would make a final ruling during trial.

Here is the court's ruling on June 5 on the bulk of the state's motions to exclude evidence about Trayvon Martin, which had been argued on May 28. As to what the judge ruled before trial cannot come into evidence: [More...]

I've been so immersed in covering the George Zimmerman trial, I forgot to put up an open thread for other topics yesterday. Only one more week to go, and then I'll be back to regular blogging on other topics.

This is an open thread for all topics except Zimmerman. Please put Zimmerman comments in one of the threads on the trial threads.

The defense calls Gladys Zimmerman, George Zimmerman's mother, as its first witness. She identifies George as the person screaming in the background of Jenna Lauer's 911 call. She is not asked anything else

The next witness is Orange County Deputy Sheriff Jorge Meza, who is also George's uncle. Orange County is next to Seminole County where the trial is taking place. Meza is adamant is is George's voice. [More...]