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Voting Rights: Feds Set to Mess With Texas
(The Root) — When Texas’ Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott gloated on Twitter just hours after the Supreme Court hobbled the Voting Rights Act (pdf) — that “Eric Holder can no longer deny Voter ID in Texas” — he had to know that the Obama administration would respond. Attorney General Holder delivered the counterpunch on…
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Zimmerman: Do the Feds Have a Case?
(The Root) — If the state of Florida’s prosecution of George Zimmerman was an uphill battle, any Department of Justice effort to prove that he violated Trayvon Martin’s civil rights would face the legal equivalent of Mount Everest. The federal government faces intensifying pressure to indict the former neighborhood-watch volunteer on civil rights charges that…
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Zimmerman Trial: State Lost From the Start
(The Root) — By the time George Zimmerman was acquitted in the killing of Trayvon Martin, the state of Florida had long since lost its case against him. Possibly several times over. Maybe it was June 28, the fourth day of testimony, when the prosecution made the risky decision to call to the stand the…
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Zimmerman Prosecutor Delivers Passionate Rebuttal
(The Root) — At last, the prosecution on Friday delivered for those demanding justice for Trayvon Martin. Before six women began to deliberate the fate of Trayvon’s killer, George Zimmerman, the state’s attorney, took them to church. “The human heart,” prosecutor John Guy began, “moves us … motivates us.” To figure out what led Zimmerman…
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Zimmerman Trial: Trayvon's Tox Report Allowed
(The Root) — Jurors on Tuesday could hear evidence that Florida teen Trayvon Martin may have been under the influence of marijuana on the night he was fatally shot by George Zimmerman, possibly making him hostile. Attorneys for Zimmerman, who is on trial for second-degree murder, are expected to call an expert to testify that…
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Zimmerman Trial: A Mother Speaks
(The Root) — After calling nearly three dozen witnesses over nine days leading up to the dramatic moment when Trayvon Martin’s mother took the stand, the prosecution on Friday rested its second-degree-murder case against George Zimmerman. Did the state prove Zimmerman’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt? That seems as improbable as parts of his account…
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Zimmerman Trial: State Running Out of Time
(The Root) — The prosecution did not meet its goal of resting the case against George Zimmerman on Wednesday. That may be a good thing for the state because prosecutors arguably have not met their burden of proving that Zimmerman murdered Florida teen Trayvon Martin. On the eighth day of testimony, the state presented the…
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Zimmerman Trial: Prosecution Scores
(The Root) — If you’re keeping score in the second-degree-murder trial of George Zimmerman, mark Tuesday’s court proceedings as a narrow victory for the prosecution. The exercise has no bearing on Zimmerman’s fate for fatally shooting Florida teen Trayvon Martin, of course. But after a few days of arguments in which defense attorneys neutralized the…
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Zimmerman Tapes: Facts Don't Add Up
(The Root) — For the first time in the second-degree-murder trial of George Zimmerman, jurors Monday heard a gripping narrative in the defendant’s own words about his fatal shooting of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin. But much of what was presented in audio and video recordings of his statements to police investigators didn’t quite add up.…
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Southern Discomfort? The Future of Voting Rights in the US
(The Root) — Like gleeful children released from detention, officials in Texas, Alabama, North Carolina and other states vowed to enact new voting restrictions just hours after the Supreme Court did their bidding and neutered the Voting Rights Act (pdf). Free at last, they might as well have said. “[Attorney General] Eric Holder can no…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
