The bail hearing for Oscar Pistorius resumes at 9:00 am South Africa Time. (Midnight, MT). (Updates will be at the top instead of the bottom.) The journalists I am following today on Twitter who are the source of my updates: @BarryBateman (Eyewitness News);@BBCAndrewH; David Smith (The Guardian); @AlexCrawford (Sky News); @KarenMaughan (legal journalist).

Final Update 12:45 pm SAT: Court breaks for lunch unitl 1:30 pm. "We're in terrible trouble" a junior prosecution official says when leaving court. [More...]

Frontline is airing a special on Adam Lanza. Reading the advance press releases, I didn't see anything that hasn't been published elsewhere, but for those who haven't followed much about him and his family, it could be interesting. Also, the CT state police say yesterday's CBS report that Lanza was copying the Norway killer is non-factual and inaccurate.

Showtime has added the 3 hour documentary on the History of the Eagles to On Demand. I've seen it twice now, and it is really good, especially the second part.

Oscar Pistorius' bail hearing continues at 9:00 a.m. South Africa time, which is midnight here. I'll probably post live updates again of the first few hours.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Pot tourism may be coming to Colorado. The state's Marijuana Task Force today approved purchases at retail stores by out of state visitors. The quantity will be limited to reduce incentive for "smurfing" and resale on the black market.

The task force hearing minutes are here. [More...]

Judge Debra Nelson has issued this order setting final deadlines for the immunity hearing and trial of George Zimmerman.

Zimmerman's legal team released this statement saying that it raised $28,000. in the past three weeks and can now retain some experts. It needs much more, and soon, as the deadline for disclosing experts is March 27.

Also today, the judge in the Shellie Zimmerman perjury case denied a motion to dismiss alleging that State's Attorney Angela Corey lacked authority to prosecute the case: [More...]

The Supreme Court today issued its opinion in Florida v. Harris, ruling that extensive reliability evidence is not necessary for probable cause for a dog search. The opinion is here.

Justice Elena Kagan said the Florida court had gone too far, and suggested that proper training and certification of the dog — rather than how it has performed in the field — might be enough for law enforcement’s purposes.

[More...]

Update: The bail hearing is continued until tomorrow at 9:00 am (South Africa time). It will be live-streamed to an overflow courtroom for reporters. Prosecutors will provide the defense additional discovery. Both sides want to present more evidence.

Details: After the prosecution finished its argument and the parties debated premeditation, the judge stated he cannot rule out premediation and the bail hearing would proceed as a class six offense of premeditated murder, making the test for bail a showing of exceptional circumstances. But he also said he may change his mind after all the evidence is in and reduce it to a class five offense, which requires a lesser showing that bail is in the interests of justice.

The defense then presented its case. [More...]

Update: New thread with reports from hearing here.)

Oscar Pistorius will have a bail hearing Tuesday (shortly after midnight tonight ET. ) The controlling law is the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA).

Murder can be a class 5 or 6 offense. Premeditated Murder is a Class 6 offense.

Where an accused is been charged with an "extremely serious" schedule six offence, he may be released only if he produces evidence to satisfy the court that exceptional circumstances exist which, in the interests of justice, permit his release

His lawyers will argue he should be charged with the class 5 murder offense, which would make bail easier to obtain. [More....]

In a piece in Mother Jones, Adam Serwer argues:

[W]hy didn't Obama just say, "no, the president cannot deploy drone strikes against US citizens on American soil"? Because the answer is probably "yes." That may not be as apocalyptically sinister as it sounds.

I disagree that the answer is yes and I disagree that it does not sound apocalyptically sinister. Serwer relies on law professor Steven Vladeck:

Watching TV tonight: Shameless, the Good Wife and the finale of Downton Abbey.

There are new details in the Pistorius murder case.

Adam Lanza is back in the news, PBS's Frontline will run a show on Tuesday, Raising Adam Lanza.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

USA Today has obtained a draft of President Obama's proposed immigration reform bill. It reports there is a path to lawful residency included in the bill, which will take 8 years. During this time, those working towards citizenship will receive a Lawful Prospective Immigrant Visa.

The bill sounds similar to the unsuccessful 2011 Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act (S.1258)and the 2009 and 2007 bills before that. [More...]

The Denver Post has a moving article about Colorado's inmate Hospice program and inmates serving as caregivers.

In a prison where executioners once administered a poison cocktail to condemned men, nurses now feed morphine into the arms of the dying for their comfort. Men convicted of brutal crimes minister to the physical needs of the ill and elderly, and sometimes find redemption in the role of caretaker.

Our elderly prison population, with its increased medical costs, keeps growing exponentially. [More...]

"Child's Pose" has won the Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival.

Calin Peter Netzer's film is a tale of corruption and guilt in modern Romania. It follows a rich and controlling mother, played by Luminita Gheorghiu, as she bribes witnesses into giving false statements to save her son from jail after he accidentally runs down and kills a boy.

The film sounds like it's more about the unhealthy relationship between the mother and son than about the legal case or corruption. [More...]