I am still focused on the George Zimmerman trial.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Lawyers for the Martin family now say the case is not about racial profiling or race.

An attorney for Martin’s family, meanwhile, suddenly declared Thursday that the high-profile case was not about race.

“It’s not about racial profiling,” Daryl Parks told reporters. “He was profiled (criminally). George Zimmerman profiled him.”

....Asked why he changed his take on the matter, Parks replied: “We never claimed this was about race.”

Really? Then why did Benjamin Crump say race was "the elephant in the room." Racial injustice was the core of their argument. It was always about race to them. Race was what they used to transform this local shooting into a case of national importance. [More...]

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Massachusetts. Among the charges are use of weapons of mass destruction. He is also charged in the killing of four people.

There will be a press conference at 3 pm ET.

The 74 page indictment is here.

Rachel Jeantel was grilled again today on the witness stand by George Zimmerman attorney Don West. The above is a five minute clip about her reference yesterday to Trayvon Martin calling Zimmerman a creepy as* cracker. West asked her whether she thought that was a racial comment and whether it wasn't really Trayvon Martin who profiled George Zimmerman rather than the other way around. (she answered no.)

There was some disagreement between lawyers at the end of her testimony, the judge sent out the jury and the judge dismissed her, telling her she could be recalled and was still under subpoena.

I will watch her entire testimony before posting an update and analysis. You can also read the comments on her testimony today on our forums. They begin here.

President Obama addressed Edward Snowden at a news conference in Senegal today. Shorter version: He's a 29 year old garden variety hacker.

“This is something that routinely is dealt with....“This is not exceptional from a legal perspective. I’m not going to have one case suddenly being elevated to the point where I have to do wheeling and dealing and trading.”

He rejected the suggestion that he might order the military to intercept any plane that might be carrying Mr. Snowden. “I’m not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker,” Mr. Obama said.

It was thought Snowden might fly to Cuba today. Reports from Ecuador as to whether he will be welcome there are conflicting, but Ecuador today renounced its trade pact with the U.S. saying it would not be blackmailed.

If you are following the Aaron Hernandez case, he is now under investigation for two murders committed in 2012. Also, a second person, Carlos Ortiz, was arrested in CT and charged in MA in connection with the Odin Lloyd murder.

There is an order in place restricting the extra-judicial comments of lawyers.

The ACLU has published a handy resource guide, After DOMA: What it Means for You.

Implementation of federal rights, benefits, and protections will vary from state to state and on an individual basis.

The Supreme Court's decision in Windsor v United States is here. The ACLU says: [More...]

The Senate is expected to pass the immigration reform bill today. There will be a vote at 4:00 p.m.

In addition to providing a 13-year pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, the bipartisan bill would double to 40,000 the number of federal agents on the U.S.-Mexican border and help provide American businesses with needed low- and high-skilled workers.

(Added: the use of the word "illegal" to describe immigrants is not allowed here, it was a quote in a Reuters news article. (another version here.) I just noticed it and struck the word. Newer Reuters articles aren't using the word.

The bill will then move to the House. Republicans in the House want their own bill. They oppose the path to citizenship in the Senate version.

Rachel Jeantel was a train wreck as a witness. She did not help the state's case. She exposed the manipulations of Team Crump. She was impeached on a few significant matters (see below the fold.) And she admitted multiple lies. It was cringe-worthy but you couldn't take your eyes off it.

Most strikingly, she made Trayvon Martin out to be the profiler of Zimmerman. She said (on direct exam no less by the prosecutor) that shortly after first spotting Zimmerman, Martin described Zimmerman to her as a "Creepy-A*s Cracker" and later, described Zimmerman a few times as "this ni*ga" (as in this ni*ga following him.) The two minute clip above is of Rachel and the prosecutor repeating creepy a*s cracker over and over as the court reporter struggles to make out what she's saying; Rachel explaining that creepy as* cracker means a white person; and then expressing concern the creepy guy might be a rapist.

At her deposition, she couldn't identify Trayvon as the person crying out for help. Today, she tried to deny it, but when impeached with the transcript, admitted she told the defense, "It could be, like I said, I don't know. He has a baby voice some days, you know it's not." (Added: This friend of Trayvon Martin says he had a deep voice. " I remember those nights where I use to wait for him to call. I loved his deep voice."

Her answer to why she didn't tell the police about her being the last one to speak with Trayvon was laugh-out loud funny: "They said they got the guy, I thought they were supposed to call me." [More...]

The court is about to resume testimony with Witness 8, aka "Dee Dee" aka Rachel Jeantel now on the stand.

I'll update with notes later, for now I'm just watching. Her direct was quite a show to watch. It's too fascinating to blog during it.

Cross is starting. You can watch here or at these links.

Our threads close at 200 comments. This one is full (although I haven't weeded out the inappropriate comments yet.) A new thread with analysis of Ms. Jeantel's testimony is here.

Obviously, I'm mostly following the George Zimmerman trial this week, which along with work, leaves little time for anything else.

I'll be offline most of the day. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Rachel Jeantel, identified by the State and defense in opening statements as the young woman who was on the phone with Trayvon Martin minutes before the shooting, is ready to take the stand. (She tweeted the photo above this weekend, with the caption "court nails.") Apparently, the state intends to call her as a witness after all.

So who is Rachel Jeantel? Smoking Gun reviews her twitter account, but only tells half the story. [More...]