BTD - I'll write something worthwhile again soon. I promise.

In the meantime, Open Thread.

Guilt-Monger in Chief Nancy Grace can chalk up another suicide to her disgraceful antics. Toni Medrano, age 29, dubbed "The Vodka Mom" by Grace, set herself on fire in her mother's backyard and died Saturday, weeks after watching Grace demonize her, while donning her typical hyper-ventilating, nostril-flaring faux-persona, and ask her audience why Ms. Medrano wasn't charged with Murder One instead of manslaughter, for falling asleep on her infant while inebriated, suffocating the baby.

Ms. Medrano saw Nancy Grace's show. Grace said on the show she had attempted to contact Medrano at her home (I wonder how many times the producers called -- someone should subpoena her and her staff's land line and cell phone records). According to friends, after the show, she became despondent. [More...]

Busy afternoon, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

President Obama is asking that the Bush Tax Cuts be extended for those making under $250,000 a year for one year.

Republicans want the tax cuts extended for everyone, including the wealthy.

Eric Lichtblau in the New York Times writes about a report from cell phone carriers in response to a Congressional Inquiry about law enforcement requests cell phone tracking warrants, subpoena and informal requests.

The report was received by Co-Chairs of the Congressional Bi-Partisan Privacy Committe., as a response to a letter written In March, 2012 to AT&T asking for information.

The reports notes a huge upswing in use of cell-phone surveillance.Even some members of Congress were suprised. [More...]

Here's one the reasons Mark Geragos argued to the jury in the Scott Peterson death penalty trial that it should return a verdict of life without parole instead of death. The full transcript is here.

Prison is an awful, awful place. Scott Peterson, if you vote to spare his life, will be placed into a cell that is roughly the size of a king size bed. Roughly encompasses you four jurors right here. That's the size of his cell. And he would be in that cell roughly the size of a king size bed for the rest of his life. He will die in that cell.

Scott Peterson in that cell will have a bed to lay on, and he will have a cold metal toilet, and he will share that cell with a friend. That friend will be his cellmate. That may change.

[More...]

Monday the FBI will cease re-routing internet users though a clean DNS server. Or something like that.

Approximately 64,000 Americans could lose Internet access on Monday thanks to a criminal organization that infected millions of computers around the world with malware called DNSChanger. This malware was used to direct unsuspecting users to rogue servers controlled by the cyber thieves, where they manipulated users’ web browsing activity and used it for ad hijacking, allowing them to make millions of dollars in illicit fees.

Your computer may have been one of those affected by DNS-changing malware. To find out, head over to the DNS Changer Working Group. Click on the green button and then a bunch of sites in different parts of the world come up. Click on the one that says dns-ok.us. If it comes up green, you're fine. If it's red, you have problems. Or something like that.

Better safe than sorry. This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Andre Davis, now 50 years old, left a maximum security prison in Illinois today, after serving 32 years for a rape and murder that DNA evidence has proven he didn't commit.

A federal court overturned his conviction when DNA tests not available at the time of his trial came back with a finding that the blood and semen found at the crime scene were not those of Davis.

Prosecutors earlier today said they will not recharge him. Did the DNA tests sway them? Not much.

[Prosecutor] Reitz said that while she didn't doubt the results of the DNA tests, she decided not to retry Davis because of the difficulty in taking a 32-year-old case to trial — not because of those tests.

Davis requested the DNA testing in 2004. Why did it take 8 years to free him?

More news in the George Zimmerman case. He posted the $1 million bail and was released from jail.

The next discovery round will be available to the media on Monday through the court's media website. There are very few blogs with access to the media site -- and we have to pay the same amount for access as the mainstream media. I don't know the amount yet for this batch (we'll be told Monday), but I expect it to exceed $100.00 and I've agreed to pay whatever it is.

If you'd like to contribute a few dollars to help with the cost, it would be appreciated, and you can do so via Paypal, using either your PayPal account or your credit card. Here is the the paypal link. It's very easy (and takes credit cards even if you don't have a paypal account.) Or you can use snail-mail.

[More...]

Scott Peterson was convicted 8 years ago of murdering his pregnant wife Laci. He was sentenced to death and has been incarcerated since then at Death Row on San Quentin.

Today his attorney filed his first appeal with the California Supreme Court. His brief is 423 pages.

TalkLeft has covered his case since 2003. If you want a refresher, all of our 130 posts are accessible here.

Some of the jurors held a press conference after the verdict, discussing among other things, why they ousted their jury foreman. The San Francisco Chronicle had this feature on life on death row at San Quentin in 2004. People Magazine a few weeks ago, in a feature on how several high-profile defendants over the past decades are doing in prison, reported Scott spends a lot of time doing Yoga and working on his appeal.

In 2004, the LA Times did a feature on the cost of the death penalty versus life imprisonment. One estimate was that it costs California taxpayers $90 million more a year to incarcerate death row inmates than those serving life without parole. There were 641 death row inmates in California at the time. There are now 725.[More...]

Via Mark O'Mara and the Zimmerman defense team: They need money and explain why. In order to come up with an additional fee for the bondsman of $85,000 ($100,000 less the $15,000 premium paid for the first bond the bonding company is apparently going to apply to the new bond), they won't have enough left for the costs associated with George Zimmerman's defense (let alone legal fees.)

For those who have given in the past, for those who have thought about giving, for those who feel Mr. Zimmerman was justified in his actions, for those who feel they would do the same if they were in Mr. Zimmerman's shoes, for those that think Mr. Zimmerman has been treated unfairly by the media, for those who feel Mr. Zimmerman has been falsely accused as a racist, for those who feel this case is an affront to their constitutional rights -- now is the time to show your support.

The defense fund is at GZDefenseFund.com.

Doesn't the Court accept real property bonds? I'm surprised there isn't a wealthy Zimmerman supporter in Florida who wouldn't put up real property with $1 million in equity, to avoid needing a bondsman entirely, saving the defense $85,000. The Judge's order doesn't specify it has to be a cash or surety bond. The Judge's approval might be necessary, but it doesn't seem to be prohibited by statute. Other Florida counties/districts take them: [More...]

BTD - I'm really busy today and tomorrow. Maybe something for the weekend.

Open Thread.