There's lots of news I haven't gotten to this week.

It looks like the court didn't issue its Frye ruling today on expert voice/speech testimony in the George Zimmerman trial. Opening arguments are Monday. How do you effectively prepare and deliver opening statements without knowing whether there will be expert testimony on the issue of who was crying out for help in the background of a 911 call?

The defense filed a motion this afternoon following up on this morning's hearing on statements George Zimmerman made at the scene that it says are res gestae and not covered by the court's order excluding self-serving hearsay. The motion is here.

Enough law for the week. This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The Washington Post reports Edward Snowden has been charged in a sealed complaint in the Eastern District of Virginia with espionage, theft and conversion of government property.

The U.S. is expected to seek a provisional arrest warrant for Snowden and his extradition from Hong Kong. Snowden can fight the extradition. The treaty does not allow extradition for political offenses.

The complaint was filed June 14. The U.S. has 60 days to indict Snowden. The affidavit in support of the Complaint is sealed. [More...]

A federal judge in Houston today reduced former Enron executive Jeff Skilling's sentence to 14 years. He was initially sentenced to 24 years. He was serving the sentence at the low security FCI in Englewood, CO.

Here is the sentencing agreement filed by the parties in May, and background about it.

Bloomberg News has more here. The Washington Post reports Skilling declined to make any statements in court today. He's been in prison since 2006. He could be out as early as 2017.

At a short hearing today, the Judge in the George Zimmerman trial ruled on a defense motion to preclude the use of certain words at trial. Previously, she deferred ruling on the motion when both sides said they wouldn't mention the words in opening arguments. Diwataman has the video of the hearing. Today, the Judge ruled:

• Racial profiling may not be mentioned by the state. Profiling without reference to race is allowable, such as profiling by clothing or age. (the state has previously claimed Zimmerman profiled Martin as a criminal.)
• The state may not use the term "self-appointed" to describe his role in the Neighborhood Watch. The state agreed Zimmerman was appointed to to his position on the Watch. [More...]

I have been glued to the George Zimmerman jury selection for the past 10 hours and have to take a break from the computer.

Our "recent comments" section has now been fixed thanks to our webmaster Colin. The site crashed altogether around 2 am, and even though it is 2 hours later where he is, he got my text and immediately started fixing the problems that caused it, so the site was restored by morning. (Something got corrupted and had to be rebuilt on both TalkLeft and the Forums.) Major thanks to Colin.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

The final 6 jurors in the George Zimmerman trial will be:

• B29
• B76
• B37
• B51
• E6
• E40

Alternates

• E54
• E13
• B72
• E28

Opening arguments begin Monday morning. Details of jurors, challenged jurors for whom race and gender neutral explanations had to be given by the parties, and the judges ruling on each to follow.

The hearing over voice/speaker identification is starting now, with Tom Owen as the state's rebuttal witness. He is present in court, not testifying by video conference as he did on direct examination at the earlier hearing.

James Gandolfini, forever loved as Tony Soprano, died today at age 51 while on vacation in Rome. The cause of death has not been released, but the LA Times reports he may have suffered a heart attack or a stroke. [Added: The Daily News reports he suffered a massive heart attack.)

What a shock, and how sad. Our condolences to his family and friends.

It's hard to find time to work, follow the Zimmerman trial, and read the news and blog on other topics. Since I have to choose, I'm giving up on "blogging on other topics" for the day.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Voir Dire of 40 prospective jurors is underway. The jurors, identified only by number, and whose faces are shielded from the cameras, are being questioned as a group.

In the first round, the questioning was limited to exposure to pre-trial publicity and whether sequestration would be a hardship. In this round, the juror's opinions and experiences on a variety of topics relevant to the case will be explored.

The goal during jury selection, from a defense standpoint, is to try to identify the most dangerous or biased jurors, not the best jurors. It is more a process of de-selection. [More...]

Round 1 of jury selection in the George Zimmerman case has concluded with 40 potential jurors passing for cause on the issue of pre-trial publicity.

They are: B12 B29 B76 B7 B35 B37 B51 B86 E6 E40 E44 E73 M75 B61 B72 E22 E13 E28 K80 K95 P67 G14 G29 G47 G63 G66 G81 H6 H7 H18 H29 H35 H81 H69 H86 I5 I19 I24 I33 I44

The defense accepted the group, but Mark O'Mara made it clear he had objected to some but was overruled.

Round 2 begins tomorrow. 30 jurors will be questioned in a group. This will include all other topics. Court will break tomorrow at 3:45 to get ready for the state's rebuttal witness (Tom Owen) in the Frye hearing on whether to admit the testimony of the state's voice/speaker identification experts.

Big immigration news day: The Supreme Court strikes down Arizona's law requiring additional proof of citizenship for voter registration, and ICE raids and seizes 14 East Coast 7-Eleven stores .

On the Supreme Court Case, the court held

The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 trumps Arizona’s Proposition 200. The federal law “precludes Arizona from requiring a federal form applicant to submit information beyond that required by the form itself,” Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The Guardian disclosed more information from Edward Snowden today. The U.S. and U.K. spied on their allies at the G-20 summit in 2009, by intercepting telephone lines and email.

Foreign politicians and officials who took part in two G20 summit meetings in London in 2009 had their computers monitored and their phone calls intercepted on the instructions of their British government hosts, according to documents seen by the Guardian. Some delegates were tricked into using internet cafes which had been set up by British intelligence agencies to read their email traffic.