The Constitution is not a rough draft. You don't get to edit or erase parts of it to delete rights for an unpopular or hated defendant.

The Bill of Rights was designed to protect the rights of the citizen accused from the awesome powers of the Government. It was not enacted to protect the rights of crime victims.

The presumption of innocence is a bedrock of our criminal justice system that applies to the person charged with a crime, not the victim of a crime.

Self-defense is an affirmative defense that may be raised by a defendant in court in response to a criminal charge. [More...]

A weekend with no work, I'm contemplating the possibilities. Farmers Market, Pilates, and some non-Zimmerman writing.

If you have any suggestions for crime or politics stories, please let me know.

I also may do none of these and watch for the arrival of Princess Kate's baby. (not really.)

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome besides Zimmerman. When his last threads get full, I'll put up a Zimmerman thread and try to keep out of it.

Hope you have a great weekend planned. Whats best at the farmer's market this time of year?

Stephen Rakes, a potential witness against Whitey Bulger, has been found dead. The Government says it was not going to call Rakes due to contradictions in his versions of events. I haven't been following the Bulger trial, so I don't know the significance of this, but it's making major headlines.

The full Rolling Stone article on Dzokhar Tsarnaev, Jahar's World, is available to read online.

I have a few more hours of work to do before I get to read Jahar's World, but I'll put up a post for it now, as well as one for Zimmerman.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome (Except Zimmerman).

To gradually wean myself away from the Zimmerman case, I have moved my laptop from the room I blog in during the evenings, and am switching to the iMac desktop I got several months ago but still haven't learned how to use. The keyboard is very small and the mouse quite different, so you may see more typos until I get accustomed to it. My laptop has all the GZ case documents and research and I'm not transferring it to the Mac. If this experiment lasts more than a few hours, I'll be surprised, but I thought I'd try it.

Here is an open thread for all topics except the George Zimmerman case.

Here's an open thread for all topics except George Zimmerman. Please use a Zimmerman thread to comment on his case.

Thanks again to everyone who donated to TalkLeft this past week. It has been a huge help, and I will send thank you emails soon. I like to respond to every contributor, and this week there were a lot of them, almost all in response to our Zimmerman coverage.

I'll be back tonight.

HLN is promoting an interview with Angela Corey and Bernie de la Rionda tonight in which the preview has Corey describing George Zimmerman as a "murderer." Poor choice of words. Not every killing is a murder. Some are excusable, some are justifiable, some are murder.

The jury instructions say:

A killing that is excusable or was committed by the use of justifiable deadly force is lawful. If you find Trayvon Martin was killed by George Zimmerman, you will then consider the circumstances surrounding the killing in deciding if the killing was Murder in the Second Degree or was Manslaughter, or whether the killing was excusable or resulted from justifiable use of deadly force.

[More...]

Here's an open thread for all topics. except George Zimmerman, who has his own threads.

Bump and Update: Today is the final day of our TalkLeft Appreciation Week. Thank you to all who contributed so far, I'll be sending out thank you emails over the weekend.

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If you have appreciated TalkLeft's s intensive coverage of the George Zimmerman case and trial over the past 16 months, here or at our forums, I hope you will consider making a donation to TalkLeft.

Debunking the myths, reviewing the discovery and pleadings, watching the hearings and trial, researching Florida law, writing extensive posts on the case and moderating comments to maintain a civil level of discourse and remove false information on the case, has consumed a huge amount of my time. It has been my pleasure to share my analysis and opinions with readers, and provide a place to comment, in an ad-free environment.

Here is the the paypal link. It's very easy (and takes credit cards even if you don't have a paypal account.)[More...]

As I remain glued to the Verdict Watch in the George Zimmerman trial, here's an open thread for all topics except Zimmerman.

Thanks to all who donated during TalkLeft Appreciation Week. I especially enjoyed reading the notes some readers sent with their contributions. I didn't realize Paypal now has little yellow pop-up notes that automatically open when you mouse over the contribution. I'll be sending thank you emails this weekend.

I'd really like to cover Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's case but dozens of pleadings are missing from the docket which means they are filed under seal and never noted on the docket. (In my District and almost every other I can think of, the docket at least shows the fact that something was filed with and its docket number. )Not in this case. Last I checked there were more than 30 pleadings filed secretly (no number, no description.) [More...]

Here's an open thread for all topics, except the George Zimmerman trial. Please comment on Zimmerman in one of the threads about his case.

I'm pretty drained from the time and energy expended on the Zimmerman case but I'm looking forward to returning to blogging about larger and more important issues, which should be by early next week. Thanks to our readers who don't care about the Zimmerman case, don't get why I have so singularly focused on it, or disagree with my views on the case, who have stuck around anyway.

Here's a thread to discuss all topics except the George Zimmerman trial. Please comment on Zimmerman in a Zimmerman thread.

Here's an open thread for all matters except Zimmerman, for which there are plenty of other threads.

For those of you not following Zimmerman, it should be over by Friday.

Since our forums are crashing a few times a day due to server load, I'll put up a separate Zimmerman open thread.