Robert Dewey, a Colorado inmate sentenced to life without parole for murder, left jail today a free man after serving 18 years of his sentence. DNA testing, using a technology not available at the time of his conviction, proved he was innocent.

Dewey is the 290th person to be exonerated nationwide on the basis of DNA evidence proving factual innocence -- meaning someone else committed the crime.

"I find that Mr. Dewey is factually innocent of the crimes of which he was accused of in this case," the judge said, noting Dewey had spent more the 6,000 days behind bars. "Mr. Dewey is now again a free man."

[More...]

Speaking at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, White House counterterrorism official John Brennan today defended the use of drones against al Qaeda.

“Yes, in order to prevent terrorist attacks on the United States and to save American lives, the United States government conducts targeted strikes against specific al-Qaida terrorists, sometimes using remotely piloted aircraft, often referred to publicly as drones,” Brennan said.

He defended targeted strikes and the use of drones as "ethical." You can watch some of his statement here.

Here is the state's motion for a gag order in the George Zimmerman case. The Court's minutes from April 29 state the motion was not "entertained." [More...]

Week 2 is underway in the trial of John Edwards. Andrew Young's wife, Cheri Young, continued her testimony this morning.

“I heard Mr. John Edwards tell me on the phone that he checked with the campaign lawyers and that this was legal,” said Cheri Young, who was on the witness stand for a second day of questioning by prosecutors.

More on her testimony here. Her husband, Andrew Young, testified similarly last week when he said Edwards told him he thought the contributions were legal. [More...]

Today, ManU v. Man City for control of the Premier League race. It's at 3 EST on ESPN. Sadly, I won't get to watch it live. If you want to give soccer a try, this is not a bad one to start with. It should be bedlam.

Open Thread.

Amazing Race is in India tonight. I haven't watched this season before tonight. I'm glad to see that Brendon and Rachel from Big Brother are still competing. One of competing pairs are Border Patrol Agents. I hope they go home before Brendon and Rachel. Has anyone been watching?

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

A lawyer for the media is claiming States Attorney Angela Corey missed the 15 day deadline for providing discovery to George Zimmerman. The media wants access to the documents under Florida open records laws, which the media maintains must be made available to it 15 days after the defendant files his request.

When denying requests from the public for the Zimmerman discovery records Friday, Corey's office told Local 6 Florida law allowed her to keep the records secret using a criminal investigative exemption because "no records have been provided to the defendant." But Ponce, who specializes in public record law, believes that Corey can no longer use that reason to withhold records from the public, now that the 15 day discovery deadline has passed.

The problem with the media's argument, according to O'Mara, is that he told Corey to delay giving him the documents and hasn't yet received them. O'Mara issued this statement on the website he established for the case, in which he defends Corey. [More...]

Who watched President Obama at the White House Correspondents Dinner? I'm watching the tail end now. He ended with saying he had more material prepared, but had to get the Secret Service home in time for their new curfew. They didn't look too amused.

Jimmy Kimmel is on now. You can watch live here. [ more}

I'm still participating at a Yale Law School conference on Constitutional Interpretation on Jack Balkin's book "Living Originalism. I wrote about it last week. Some previous posts on the subject: Constitutional Interpretation, Originalism and a Living Constitution and Dred Scott, Originalism and a Living Constitution..

You can watch a live stream of the conference. It should be fascinating.

I'll be part of the panel asking the author questions. Our segment begins at 1 pm:

I know a lot of people want to continue dissecting the facts (as opposed to law) in the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case. I cleaned several comments from an earlier thread about today's hearing, after asking commenters to copy and save them for an open thread, or a new thread about the evidence in the case. My post today was about the court hearing.

If anyone wants to continue the discussion of Zimmerman, on any facet of the case, you can do so here.

Comments on other topics are also welcome.

From Fox News: Sex tape at Edwards trial? Defense, prosecution wrangle over its admission. The article falsely states:

Opposing lawyers in the John Edwards trial wrangled Friday over whether to allow into evidence a sex tape of the former presidential candidate and allegations of an extramarital affair involving an ex-aide who is the prosecution's chief witness.

No one is trying to admit the tape. The battle is over testimony about the tape. Team Edwards wanted to question Andrew Young about statements he had made about the tape. [More]

A Peru Court will hold a hearing May 8 on a request by the U.S. for the extradition of Joran van der Sloot, who is serving a 28 year sentence for the murder of Stephany Flores. Van der Sloot is charged in federal court in Alabama with extortion of money from Natalee Holloway's mother and wire fraud, following a sting operation by the FBI and Holloway's lawyer. The Indictment is here. Joran has never been charged anywhere with the murder of Natalee Holloway, thus he is presumed innocent of that crime.

The media reports if granted, Van der Sloot will be tried in the U.S., then returned to Peru to finish serving his sentence, and then, assuming he has been convicted in the U.S., returned to the U.S. to serve the sentence imposed here.

Here is the extradition treaty. It provides: