As we type, Lamar Odom is in court, battling Liza Morales over important issues such as child support, visitation right and whether the ex-couple’s children can appear on their reality TV shows. But the Clippers power forward doesn’t appear too stressed out by the potential outcome. Considering he fell asleep on a bench in the courthouse hallway! Sources tell TMZ that authorities had to actually nudge Odom awake because he was so zonked out. Why was Lamar so sleepy? Perhaps because his team played in Oklahoma City on Sunday. But it may also be because Kim Kardashian was talking to him. Her personality has that effect on people.
George Zimmerman’s attorneys stunned court observers Tuesday when they waived their client’s right to a “Stand Your Ground” pretrial hearing. That hearing, scheduled for April, could have led to a dismissal of the charges in the shooting death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012. Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watch captain in his Sanford, Fla., subdivision, shot and killed the teen, who was visiting a house in the area. He claimed self-defense but faces second-degree murder charges. The move allows the defense more time to prepare for the trial this summer. It also raises the stakes for the defendant. Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” law entitles a person to use deadly force if he believes his life is threatened, and absolves them of “an obligation to retreat.” This applies even if retreat is possible. Given that “Stand Your Ground” is seen by many observers as the linchpin defense, waiving a chance to have the case thrown out on that basis was shocking. However, he likely calculated that a judge would not dismiss this high-profile and remarkably complex case before a jury even had a chance to hear it. In recent weeks, Zimmerman’s defense has suffered multiple several legal setbacks involving his bail and the deposition of a key witness in the case. Another unfavorable ruling could’ve been interpreted by as a sign of guilt, while a pretrial hearing would’ve also given prosecutors a preview of Zimmerman’s testimony. Before the April hearing was waived, Zimmerman’s defense set out to attack the credibility of Witness 8, arguably the key witness in the upcoming trial. Defense attorney Donald West asked the court for more information about the allegedly false account she gave attorneys regarding crucial events. According to records obtained by ABC News, she was on the phone with Trayvon Martin as his fatal confrontation with George Zimmerman began. She claims he told her that he was scared of a strange man following him. The state admitted that Witness 8 lied when she stated that she did not attend Martin’s funeral because of a medical issue; no medical records supported that claim. The defense wanted Judge Debra Nelson to question prosecutors about how they first learned that this claim was not true, but Nelson refused. The defense also asked for law enforcement biographies of both George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin , in particular Martin’s social media history. “It’s time and money to get some of the information here and we are running out of both,” said West, lamenting his client’s tenuous financial situation.
‘I don’t know any other world where we would have the opportunity to collaborate like that,’ he says of the song they recorded for the Coen brothers latest. By Gil Kaufman Justin Timberlake Photo: Matt Kent/ Getty Images
‘The obvious point is that this young man lost his life from an unjust situation, and it needs to be hammered home,’ Chuck D tells CNN. By Rob Markman Trayvon Martin Photo: AP
The trial has been set for George Zimmerman who has been charged for murdering Florida teenager Trayvon Martin. And just like the mark @ss buster he is, of course Zimmerman tried to delay the trial, fortunately the judge was not trying to hear it…. According to ABC News: On what would have been Trayvon Martin’s 18th birthday, lawyers for his accused killer George Zimmerman were denied a request to delay this summer’s murder trial. Zimmerman’s attorney Mark O’Mara claimed during an often heated one-hour hearing that he needed more time to prepare, and that the state was not being cooperative with key evidence. “Its February and the trial’s set for June,” countered prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda. He argued that O’Mara did not deserve more time to prepare and that many of the delays were his own fault. The state has argued that the Zimmerman legal team is moving slowly because of a dwindling defense fund. Zimmerman’s attorneys have acknowledged that the fund is just about empty. “The spirit of Trayvon Martin was definitely in the courtroom today on what would have been his 18th birthday. The judge ruled that the trial would not be delayed,” Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump said today. Martin, 17, was shot and killed while walking home unarmed on Feb. 26, 2012, from a deli near his father’s fiancee’s house. Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain, has claimed the unarmed teen was acting suspicious and that he shot the teenager during a fight when the boy tried to get Zimmerman’s gun. We hope this shady b@stard gets life in prison. R.I.P. Trayvon Martin.
Black Communities Not Getting Same Reaction To Gun Violence As Whites Gun violence isn’t that big of a deal when black people are the victims/shooters? According to Washington Post Blog: Young black men kill each other every day. The problem is particularly acute in cities like Chicago, President Barack Obama’s hometown. Yet, I haven’t seen the president or the mainstream media shed a tear over the fact more than 50 percent of America’s murder victims are black and nearly all of those blacks killed – 85 percent- are young men. Nor do we see media or presidential outrage or calls for more rigid gun control laws when young black kids are heinously murdered like we do when the victims are mostly white. Neither words nor God can explain the horrific mass slayings that occurred at Sandy Brook Elementary, Columbine, Virginia Tech University, Aurora and those to come in our future. But why don’t we hear the same pain or calls for tougher gun laws from the mainstream press when Trayvon Martin was killed? Instead, the media immediately turned it into a racially motivated killing of a black boy by a white man. Yet there is often little horror over the alarming rate of young black men who are both perpetrators and victims of these homicides. For years the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that the homicide rate among blacks is beyond epidemic proportions. The CDC found as of 2007, “black males age 15-34 were at the greatest risk of death by homicide.” Where’s the societal outrage over the reality that 55 percent of all federal prisoners are black though blacks only account for 12 percent of the population, as Shelby Steele noted here. The double standard the mainstream media shows toward its coverage of black vs. white homicides is beyond irresponsible and dishonest. When black Kansas City Chiefs football player Javon Belcher shot his wife Kassandra Perkins and then killed himself with the same gun, I don’t remember the news media calling for tougher gun laws. Why? Is it okay for blacks to kill? Discuss and read article in its entirety HERE Shutterstock
When he saw that George Zimmerman, the man charged with killing unarmed teen Trayvon Martin in Florida, wasn’t being arrested, the Rev. Al Sharpton got…
