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President Obama talked about “racism” at Morehouse College this weekend. The timing is interesting because the trial of George Zimmerman, the man who shot Trayvon Martin in February 2012, will begin in June. Zimmerman is Hispanic and Martin was black. President Obama stated at Morehouse, “We know that too many young men in our community continue to make bad choices. Growing up, I made quite a few myself. Sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down. I had a tendency sometimes to make excuses for me not...

State prosecutors in the case against George Zimmerman are pushing to keep Zimmerman's attorneys from bringing testimony about Trayvon Martin's past during the trial. The state said in motions filed on Friday they want to prevent Zimmerman's attorneys from bringing up Martin's personal life, including his school records, previous suspension from school, fights, text messages sent prior to his death unless related to case and his social media use. The motion also says the state wants to prevent the defense from using Martin's toxicology report, which showed the level of marijuana in Martin's blood the night he was shot and...

Many people in Seminole County are right now getting jury notices that could lead them to the huge role of deciding George Zimmerman’s fate. But are some people talking about getting a notice too much? And could that affect how fair of a trial Zimmerman could get? “They’re all excited, everybody’s watching the mailbox every day to see if they’re going to get one of those letters that come through the mail,” said Francis Oliver, the Curator of Sanford’s Goldsboro Museum.And when people do get them, some are talking about it a lot -- even on Facebook. There’s a post...

he grandson of US political activist Malcolm X has died in Mexico City following a fight in a bar, say Mexican officials. Malcolm Shabazz, 29, succumbed in hospital to multiple injuries he suffered on Thursday. Mexico's attorney general's office said an investigation into the incident was under way. The US state department said that it was in contact with the family and offering appropriate assistance. Shabazz was discovered with fatal wounds at Plaza Garibaldi, a popular tourist area packed with bars and restaurants, in the early hours of Thursday, officials said. Miguel Suarez, a union activist who was travelling with...

ORLANDO—Is it time for humans to get their own black box? That’s the provocative question behind an ambitious project by four undergraduate engineering students from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, presented at this weekend's Cornell Cup in Orlando, Fla. Over the course of a school year, the Amherst team built a prototype “black box for humans” that you could carry around wherever you went, and could be activated to record audio of your surroundings in case you ran into trouble. That audio recording—heavily encrypted, completely tamper-proof and admissible as evidence in a U.S. courtroom, per the Amherst team—would hypothetically...

When the George Zimmerman case dominates the local and national news, one of the places you'll be able to get in-depth information will be in the palm of your hand! Download the Local 6 News Zimmerman Case app now. This breakthrough app will take you inside the courtroom of one of the most captivating criminal trials in Central Florida -- The People vs. George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin. Not only will the app allow you in-depth information on the case, it will also provide unlimited access into the trial. Its features include livestreaming from inside the courtroom...

(CNN) -- A Florida police sergeant was fired for possessing several so-called Trayvon Martin shooting targets, authorities said Saturday. Sgt. Ron King of Port Canaveral Police Department was fired Friday after an internal review investigated how he offered the hoodie paper shooting targets to two fellow officers, said John Walsh, interim CEO of the Canaveral Port Authority. The officers, who saw King with the targets in his police vehicle, declined the offer, Walsh said. "Port Canaveral Police Department considers that behavior unacceptable," Walsh said of King's conduct.

PORT CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A police officer accused of bringing targets resembling Trayvon Martin to a gun range has been fired.

On the anniversary of her son’s arrest in the killing of Miami teen Trayvon Martin, Gladys Zimmerman wrote an open letter criticizing the justice system that she says failed her family. The letter from the mother of George Zimmerman, who faces trial in June in the fatal shooting of Martin, was written in Spanish and was translated and posted to the Twitter account of her older son, Robert Zimmerman Jr. on April 11th, one year after the younger Zimmerman, 29 and a former neighborhood watch volunteer, was charged with second degree murder for killing Martin. The initial decision by Sanford,...

“The reason I haven’t written about Mr. Gosnell is the same reason Philadelphia journalists don’t write about homicide trials in Detroit” The butchery of infants born alive after abortions at the Philadelphia clinic run by Kermit Gosnell is gruesome beyond description, as described in my prior post, A Culture of Death is their choice. The details are not new. The horrific Grand Jury Report (h/t Dave Weigel) was issued over two years ago. Yet this mass murder, reportedly of 100 infants although only seven cases were charged, has been met with near silence by the mainstream media.

SNIP Read: A letter of gratitute from Gladys Zimmerman In Re: 1 Year Anniversary of George Zimmerman's arrest April 11, 2013 – Lake Mary, FL From the Desk of Robert Zimmerman Jr. "Dear Friends: Our Mother, Gladys Zimmerman, has written a letter on the occasion of the 1 year anniversary of her son George's arrest. She has asked me to publish the following letter:" "Today, April 11, 2013 is the anniversary of the most unfortunate arrest of our son George. I am writing from my heart and with incalculable gratitude to our family members, dearest friends, and those we have...

<p>Attached to a state filing in the case against George Zimmerman on Thursday was a newly public piece of evidence from the young woman who says she was on the phone with Trayvon Martin just before his death.</p> <p>Prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda's new pleading included as an exhibit a letter, apparently written by the young woman dubbed "Witness 8," to 17-year-old Trayvon's parents less than a month after he was shot Feb. 26, 2012.</p>

George Zimmerman's brother reopened old wounds yesterday by comparing Trayvon Martin to the alleged killer of a 13-month-old baby, Huffington Post reports. Robert Zimmerman tweeted photos of De'Marquis Elkins—accused of shooting a baby in its stroller last week—and Martin, each flipping the middle finger. "A picture speaks a thousand words," reads text with the photos. "Any questions?" Robert's brother George is facing murder charges for killing Martin in a murky confrontation that gripped the nation last year. Robert's tweet aroused a mix of support and antagonism. In one exchange: "Liberal media will ultimately blame whites," posted Matt. Robert replied, "And...

SANFORD – The judge in the George Zimmerman case this week signed orders, requiring the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to release to defense attorneys the biographical profiles agents did on Trayvon Martin and key witnesses in the case, including his girlfriend. It's a written version of an order she made from the bench earlier this month. The information includes some criminal background information and other pieces of information likely to be useful to attorneys wanting to challenge the character of a witness. Prosecutors and an FDLE attorney earlier this month argued that the information should not be turned over,...

The state’s chief witness in the Trayvon Martin murder case lied under oath, prosecutors say. The young woman who says she was on the phone with Martin when he encountered George Zimmerman lied about her whereabouts at another time, the prosecution told a judge Tuesday. The woman, whose name has not been released, had told prosecutors that she was in the hospital on the day of Martin’s funeral. The defense then sought her medical records. In court on Tuesday, the state said the woman, known as Civilian Witness 8, was not in the hospital, so there are no such records...

The key prosecution witness in the second-degree murder trial of George Zimmerman has allegedly been caught in a significant lie: Trayvon Martin’s girlfriend, the state’s most important witness in the George Zimmerman murder case, was caught in a lie, it was revealed Tuesday. It was not the first piece of misinformation tied to her, but it was the most damaging to date and left prosecutors in a very awkward position.They had to publicly acknowledge that their star witness had lied under oath and had to answer questions about what they intend to do about it.Reporters asked: Will you charge...

<p>“Lawyer: State’s main witness in George Zimmerman murder case lied.”</p> <p>That witness, Witness No. 8, Trayvon’s alleged 16-year-old sweetheart “Dee Dee,” captivated the media when the story surfaced on March 20, 2012.</p> <p>“She couldn’t even go to his wake she was so sick,” Crump said of Dee Dee. “Her mother had to take her to the hospital. She spent the night in the hospital. She is traumatized beyond anything you could imagine.”</p>

NBC doesn’t want to deal with George Zimmerman’s libel suit. In a Feb. 20 filing in the case, NBC Universal Media LLC asks a Florida circuit court to stay the case until the conclusion of Zimmerman’s June trial for second-degree murder of Trayvon Martin. --snip-- To recap Zimmerman’s case against NBC News: On the night that he shot Martin, Zimmerman called 911 and narrated his pursuit of the teenager in his gated community in Sanford, Fla. A March 27 edition of the “Today” show abridged the 911 tape, as follows: Zimmerman: This guy looks like he’s up to no good....

The murder case against half-Latino neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman was dealt a devastating blow Tuesday, when prosecutors acknowledged that their star witness, the 19-year old former girlfriend of the late Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, lied under oath. The woman, who also told police she was on the phone with Martin shortly before his death, falsely testified that she was in the hospital on the day of Martin’s funeral — perhaps to garner sympathy. “In fact, she lied,” defense attorney Don West said. Prosecutors also acknowledged her lie, but were reportedly vague about whether they would charge the woman with perjury....

MIAMI — George Zimmerman, who is charged with second-degree murder in the killing of Trayvon Martin, is all but certain to take his case directly to a jury on June 10 and skip a highly anticipated pretrial self-defense hearing, his lawyer said Tuesday. At a “Stand Your Ground” hearing, the judge is tasked with weighing whether to grant immunity from prosecution under a Florida law that gives people who believe they are in imminent danger of being killed or seriously hurt the benefit of the doubt to protect themselves. A defendant who claims self-defense in Florida has a right to...

George Zimmerman's "stand your ground" hearing will not begin April 22 as planned, after his lawyer Mark O'Mara told a judge this morning he will not need the court time she'd set aside... Attorneys for George Zimmerman were expected to ask his judge this morning to order the state's most important witness, the young Miami woman who was on the phone with Trayvon Martin just before he was shot, to produce medical records. However, defense lawyer Don West made a startling claim shortly after the hearing began: The state had revealed, before the hearing, that there are no medical records....

Murder defendant George Zimmerman looks startlingly different from the last time we saw him in court. He reportedly gained a whopping 100 pounds because of the stress of the upcoming trial. The former neighborhood volunteer watchman charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of teen Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26, 2012, in Sanford, Fla., reportedly always wears a bulletproof vest for fear of being killed. According to FoxNews.com, 29-year-old Zimmerman also wears a disguise when out in public, which is not very often, and lawyer Mark O’Mara claims his client is in constant fear for his life. “He never...

One year ago today, a bullet pierced 17-year-old Trayvon Martin’s heart and the pulse of our nation. When the general public initially learned of the tragic circumstances, a sense of outcry ensued as citizens struggled to reconcile the basic facts of the case with the law: George Zimmerman, 29, killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin — who was walking home from a 7-Eleven with Skittles and an iced tea, wearing a hoodie — because he looked “suspicious,” and the Sanford Police Department failed to arrest him. Throughout the past year, the controversy sparked continuous dialogue that evolved from a discussion on racial...

Demonstrators including actor Jamie Foxx gathered in New York and Florida on Tuesday to mark the anniversary of the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, reviving a national discussion on gun laws and racial profiling. Neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman shot and killed Martin, 17, in the Orlando suburb of Sanford on Feb. 26, 2012, and initially went free based on his claims of self-defense. But a national outcry forced the city's police chief to resign and the governor to appoint a special prosecutor. Zimmerman now faces second-degree murder charges. He has maintained his innocence, and supporters say...

Keeping Hope A Lie – One Year Later: The Trayvon Martin story is on Legacy Media provided Life Support The million hoodie march is now a couple hundred race-baiting fools… gathering to beat their drums and demand mo’ money under the guise of ‘In-just-us’. Laughable at best… (AP STORY) Martin’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, were joined by actor Jamie Foxx and a crowd of about 200 people on Tuesday evening in Manhattan’s Union Square Park. They lit candles and held a moment of silence at 7:17 p.m., the time Martin was fatally shot on Feb. 26, 2012. Now...

The anniversary of the killing of Trayvon Martin has led to a number of commemorative events in various cities around the country. The 17-year-old high school student was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Florida, on Feb. 26, 2012, sparking a national controversy. In the aftermath of the teenager’s death, there were a number of rallies in support of his family and denouncing racial profiling and gun violence. A candlelight vigil will be held on Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. in New York City’s Union Square Park, with a moment of silence to begin shortly after...

CNN's Piers Morgan invoked the death of Trayvon Martin to support his case for gun control, but the brother of Martin's accused shooter George Zimmerman had a retort ready on Tuesday's Piers Morgan Tonight. "You would accept, would you not, that if your brother had not gone out armed with a gun that day, Trayvon Martin would be celebrating his 18th birthday today," Morgan first pressed Zimmerman. But Zimmerman responded with his side of the story: "You know, there's no telling what would have happened. We don't know if we would have been commemorating shortly the one-year anniversary that George...

Media coverage of the George Zimmerman shooting of Trayvon Martin has been skewed for months by wild charges of racism against George. NBC News infamously edited tape of Zimmerman to make it appear that he thought Martin was suspicious thanks to his race; CNN reported that Zimmerman had used a racial slur during his 911 call. That thematic stretched all the way to the White House, with President Obama suggesting that Zimmerman was acting out of racism, since as Obama put it, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.” The truth is far different. Not only was Zimmerman...

Media coverage of the George Zimmerman shooting of Trayvon Martin has been skewed for months by wild charges of racism against George. NBC News infamously edited tape of Zimmerman to make it appear that he thought Martin was suspicious thanks to his race; CNN reported that Zimmerman had used a racial slur during his 911 call. That thematic stretched all the way to the White House, with President Obama suggesting that Zimmerman was acting out of racism, since as Obama put it, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.” The truth is far different. Not only was Zimmerman...

WASHINGTON – A Florida congresswoman on Tuesday introduced a resolution honoring Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen whose slaying a year ago this month stirred national controversy. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a South Florida Democrat, introduced a resolution “honoring the life of Trayvon Martin, urging the repeal of Stand Your Ground laws, and calling on the United States government to address the crisis of racial profiling,” according to a statement from her office. “Today, Trayvon Martin would have celebrated his 18th birthday,” the statement read. “We all know the tragic circumstances surrounding his murder: Trayvon was racially profiled, chased, made to fight...

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would have been 84 years old on Jan. 15 if he hadn’t been killed in Memphis, Tenn., at 6:01 p.m. on April 4, 1968, at age 39 by an assassin’s bullet. Trayvon Martin would have turned 18 years old this coming Feb. 5 had he not been shot and killed Feb. 26, 2012 in Sanford at 7:17 p.m. while walking from a store to an apartment in a gated community. How both deaths galvanized a nation was explored on Jan. 17 during a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. banquet in Daytona Beach. Derrick Henry, Daytona’s...

One of the most important defense witnesses in the George Zimmerman murder case – the one who told police he saw Trayvon Martin straddling Zimmerman and "throwing down blows on the guy kinda MMA-style," was quietly brought to the Seminole County Courthouse Dec. 11 and deposed, according to new court paperwork. The man, identified in court records only as "witness 6," was a neighbor who told authorities he heard and saw the fight. By identifying the clothes they wore, he told police that Zimmerman was on the bottom, was being beat up and was crying for help. Zimmerman is the...

George Zimmerman, the man charged with second-degree murder in the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, on Thursday sued NBCUniversal Media over the station's coverage of the fatal shooting in Sanford.

Remember when ABC obtained a police station surveillance tape which supposedly showed no injuries to George Zimmerman, thereby allegedly disproving his claim that he was being beaten when he shot Trayvon Martin? The Martin family lawyer along with plenty of left-wing blogs (including a once-famous photo analyst) used that video to proclaim Zimmerman’s guilt. Among those leading the charge against Zimmermanw as a totally out of control Lawrence O’Donnell, furious that Zimmerman’s lawyer at the time refused to sit for an abuse session with O’Donnell: (VIDEO AT LINK) Subsequent to that, additional photos and medical evidence were released showing that...

The George Zimmerman defense team has filed a motion to compel Benjamin Crump, the Trayvon Martin family attorney, to produce the original recording of his telephone interview with Trayvon's girlfriend "Dee Dee". Summary in Comments.

George Zimmerman's legal team has asked a judge to force an attorney for Trayvon Martin's family to turn over to the defense a recorded interview with the witness described as the teen's girlfriend. According to Benjamin Crump, an attorney representing Trayvon's family, the girlfriend was on the phone with 17-year-old Trayvon moments before he was shot by Zimmerman on Feb. 26. At issue is a recorded interview Crump conducted with the girl, identified in prosecution documents as Witness 8. Crump played a portion of his talk with Witness 8 at a press conference in late March. Crump has said that...

<p>The parents of Trayvon Martin have been saluted by Ebony magazine.</p> <p>Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton were named Ebony Power 100 honorees. So was Benjamin Crump, their attorney, at a celebration last week in New York.</p>

A judge ruled on Friday that attorneys for George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch leader charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, can have access to the dead teen's school records and social media accounts. Circuit Judge Debra Nelson, who is the new presiding judge in this highly publicized and emotional case, said that Zimmerman's attorneys can subpoena Trayvon Martin's schools for his discipline records but must keep anything they obtain private. "I think that you're entitled to those records," Nelson said during the hearing at the Seminole County Courthouse in Sanford, Fla. The judge also granted...

SANFORD – Hours before George Zimmerman will return to court for a hearing on his request for Trayvon Martin's school records, the teen's parents accused Zimmerman of needlessly attacking their slain son's character. "I feel that Trayvon's school records are not relevant in this case," Trayvon's father Tracy Martin said this morning, adding that Zimmerman's medical records, also a pending issue for today's hearing, "are very relevant in the case." "It is wrong to subpoena his records on so many levels," said Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump, who called the defense request "the old classic method of attacking the victim."

<p>The man accused of killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin is attacking media giant NBC for its damning edit of his 911 calls.</p> <p>Back in April, the "Today" Show aired a segment featuring a selectively edited version of the calls that made it seem like Zimmerman targeted Martin solely because the teen was black.</p>

The lawyer for Trayvon Martin’s parents harshly criticized efforts by George Zimmerman’s attorneys to obtain the school records and Facebook information for the deceased 17-year-old high school student, saying they were irrelevant to the case. “Zimmerman’s lawyers are attempting to assassinate Trayvon Martin’s character,” said Benjamin Crump, in an interview with BET.com. “Whatever Trayvon had on his Facebook page or whatever was in his school records have nothing to do with why Zimmerman shot him.” Crump said he is seeking to obtain Zimmerman’s medical records. “The medical condition and medical history of George Zimmerman is far more relevant to the...

On Friday, Sept. 14, the Orlando Sentinel stated that in response to the defense seeking Trayvon Martin's social media records and school records, which could show behavioral issues and more about the deceased, that the prosecution will release additional records on the accused next week. The family of the deceased has called the defense's request for personal records as "character assassination" and a "witch hunt," but any criminal defense attorney worth their salt calls it putting on a complete defense for their accused client. And since George Zimmerman's own life hangs in the balance in a court of law, it...

Dr. Phil McGraw offers counseling to the parents of Trayvon Martin in a “Dr. Phil” episode to air nationally Friday. Tracy Martin, Trayvon’s father, says to lose his child in such a harsh way tears him up. Trayvon Martin, 17, was fatally shot by George Zimmerman on Feb. 26 in Sanford. Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder. “He didn’t deserve to die,” Tracy Martin says. He also says that he wishes he could have taken the bullet for his son. In another clip, McGraw tells Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon’s mother, that she needs to give voice to her feelings and...

Lawyers defending the neighborhood watch volunteer charged in the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin have launched a "witch hunt" by seeking Martin's school and social media records, the family's lawyer said on Monday. "I think certainly it is a witch hunt to try to find something to attack the character of a dead child and it's completely irrelevant because his school records had nothing to do with him (George Zimmerman) shooting Trayvon Martin in the heart on February 26," said Martin family attorney Ben Crump. Zimmerman lawyer Mark O'Mara announced on his website last week that he...

George Zimmerman Is Getting A New Judge After He Alleges Flagrant Bias Abby Rogers Aug. 29, 2012, 5:24 PM They said it was a "close call," but three judges for Florida's Fifth District Court of Appeals ruled George Zimmerman deserves a new judge. Zimmerman's lawyer requested a new judge last month, saying Judge Kenneth Lester is blatantly biased against his client. Lester has steadfastly refused to step down, claiming attorney Mark O'Mara's request was "legally insufficient." But now, it looks like Lester doesn't get a choice. The Fifth Circuit ruled Lester should "enter an order of disqualification which requests the...

The Fifth District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach today ruled that second-degree murder suspect George Zimmerman should get a new judge. A three-judge panel of that court concluded that Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. in Sanford went too far when he wrote that Zimmerman is a manipulator and made a veiled threat to hold him in contempt of court in the future. Ads by Google "Although many of the allegations in Zimmerman's motion [for a new judge], standing alone, do not meet the legal sufficiency test, and while this is admittedly a close call, upon careful review we find...

Newt Gingrich Asks Chris Matthews if Chris is a racist. Must watch video.

LONDON -- The fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin has raised fundamental questions about what is the right and the wrong thing to do in violent situations. The circumstances of Martin’s death are still unclear, but his killer George Zimmerman’s argument is essentially that he was defending himself after the teenager attacked him. Authorities in Florida initially seemed to believe this, freeing Zimmerman without charge. Under Florida's controversial "stand your ground" law, Zimmerman was not required to flee before using force. But, after widespread uproar, a fresh investigation saw him charged with second-degree murder. Florida will eventually come to its own...

In spite of a Washington Post poll showing 74 percent of Americans favor government-issued photo ID mandates at polling places, CNN skipped those numbers this past week in six separate segments on voter ID laws. As a Mediaite study noted, MSNBC aired 19 segments on voter ID laws from Monday through Thursday without mentioning the poll. While CNN's coverage was largely balanced, the poll numbers still should have been reported in their discussions on voter ID laws. In one instance of liberal bias, anchor Fredricka Whitfield teed up liberal guest Professor Jonathan Turley on Thursday by asking if ID laws...

Has Barack Obama, the first black president of the United States, failed to live up to the dream of civil rights icon Martin Luther King? That’s one of several startling claims made in a new ad accusing Obama of “tacitly defending black racism before and since being elected.” “The Obama administration has injected race into the presidential campaign,” the narrator intones at the beginning. “Obama Attorney General Eric Holder recently said, with no argument from the president, that their white critics are motivated by race.” The voice in the commercial then turns Holder’s charge on its head: “Implying whites are...