Free Republic

Once again, it was simply not a very good day at all for the prosecution. The primary State witnesses today were Rachel Jeantel, Jenna Lauer, and Selma Mora. The first had her credibility substantively destroyed, the second was powerfully–almost humiliatingly–co-opted by the defense, and the third provided testimony entirely consistent with the defense’s theory of lawful self-defense. There was also some (I expect temporary) hubbub that O’Mara may have inadvertently opened the door to allow the State to introduce evidence of specific prior bad acts by George Zimmerman, and I address that in detail, as well, below.

An Indiana teenager is accused of stabbing his father in the chest because he told him to pull up his pants. Cody Burns, from New Albany, faces a charge of battery by means of a deadly weapon after the Tuesday incident. According to a probably cause affidavit, Burns became enraged after his father, who hasn't been named, suggested he pull up his pants, which he was presumably wearing low in a fashion that revealed his underpants. The 18-year-old then walked into the kitchen and returned to the living room with a knife in his hand, police said. According to his...

Meet Corey Curtis. The Wisconsin man, who has fathered nine children with six women, was ordered yesterday to cease procreating until he can support his numerous offspring. At Curtis’s sentencing yesterday for bail jumping and failure to pay child support, Circuit Court Judge Tim Boyle told the 44-year-old Racine man that his frequent breeding was to be curbed as a condition of his three-year probation term.

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - A color photograph of George Zimmerman with a bloody, swollen nose taken on the night he shot and killed unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin last February was posted on the Internet on Monday by Zimmerman's legal defense team. As the photo began to be circulated widely by the news media, lawyers on both sides disagreed about its significance to the second-degree murder case against Zimmerman. "It's not a game changer," Zimmerman lawyer Mark O'Mara told Reuters. But O'Mara said the photo was significant in that it shows vividly the injuries Zimmerman incurred during his confrontation with...

Cops shot a knife-wielding maniac dead on a packed Midtown street yesterday after several officers drew their weapons and chased him at gunpoint through Times Square. “Shoot me! Shoot me!” the armed madman shouted at a crowd of more than 20 cops, who had followed him for several blocks and blasted him with pepper spray before cornering him on Seventh Avenue near West 38th Street, according to witness Robert James. The furious 51-year-old finally lunged at the officers with his 11-inch butcher knife, leading two cops to blast him in the torso, groin and arms at about 3 p.m., police...

El Chico workers held in killing 2 robbed LR eatery, 2 helped plan, police say; co-worker shot LITTLE ROCK — Four restaurant employees face capital murder charges after they were arrested Monday in connection with a robbery the night before of a west Little Rock El Chico in which another employee was shot and killed.Kiywuan Perry, 23, of Little Rock; his brother Zeckeya Perry, 19, of North Little Rock; Quantez Dobbins, 19, of Little Rock; [and his girlfriend] Kenya Smith, 19, of Little Rock also face charges of aggravated robbery and theft in the holdup of the restaurant on Breckenridge...

A tip to Crimeline has led to the arrests of two men in a brutal beating that occurred a week ago in the Midway community east of Sanford. Julius Ricardo Bender, 18, and Yahaziel Isaac Israel, 19, face charges of attempted first-degree murder, burglary with assault or battery and armed burglary. The victim, a 50-year-old Winter Springs man whose name has not been released, is on life-support at Orlando Regional Medical Center.

The grieving parents of two British teenagers who were killed while on holiday in Sarasota, Florida in April, 2011, received justice this week; their murderer, Sean Tyson, was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder and awaits sentencing. But the pleas from the friends and families of the murdered teens for public acknowledgement of the tragedy from the President of the United States have gone unanswered. Before the Obama presidency, it would have been considered ludicrous for the White House to weigh into every politically relevant criminal act – but the president has invited this criticism by elevating several local...