The state will begin the first of its two closing arguments at 1:40 ET.

The judge has rejected the state's request to include the lesser offense of third degree murder resulting from child abuse and the portion of the self-defense statute on aggressor/provocation. Update: I live-blogged most of the closing without commentary here. (Don't everyone go at once because the server will crash again.)[More...]

This thread is for a discussion of the jury instructions and lesser included offenses the judge will provide the jury.

I'll update as soon as I find out what the final decision was. If you've been watching, please fill us in.

Update: There will be no third degree murder from child abuse instruction. There will be no instruction on provoking the use of force (aggressor.) The judge rejected the defense request for a circumstantial evidence instruction. Thanks to Cylinder, here are the links to video of the charge conference.

Unbelievable flip-flop. Benjamin Crump, the lawyer for the Martin family, was on CNN's Piers Morgan Live last night. When asked about the state's concession today that Trayvon Martin was probably on top of George Zimmerman during the struggle that ended in Martin's death, and how that impacts his and his clients' insistence that Martin was the one who was crying out for help, Crump said who screamed doesn't matter.

The cries for help, all of that is inconsequential when you think about who started this.

Inconsequential? (Start at the 3 minute mark)

The defense has rested in the George Zimmerman trial. It did not introduce any evidence of Tryavon Martin's marijuana use or fighting.

Its final two witnesses were Olivia Beltaran, a former resident at Retreat at Twin Lakes whose home was burglarized in August, 2011, and Robert Zimmerman, George's father. Mr.Zimmerman was only asked about the voice screaming for help in Jenna Lauer's 911 call, and his identification of George as the person screaming when he was interviewed by FDLE early on in the case, before Zimmerman was charged.

There was a very contentious exchange between Defense Counsel Don West and Judge Nelson as she placed Zimmerman under oath to ask him whether he wanted to testify. West said the case isn't over and he is not ready to answer. She overruled his objections and kept grilling Zimmerman about whether he needed more time to decide.

Defense expert Dennis Root is back on the witness stand. Mark O'Mara will call two more witnesses whose testimony will be brief, and then rest.

This morning, the judge granted the state's motion to exclude text messages to and from Trayvon Martin about his engaging in fights. She ruled the computer animation could be shown to the jury as a demonstrative aid, but not admitted into evidence.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is making his first federal court appearance today for his arraignment in the Boston Marathon bombing case.

He is already at the courthouse. The hearing is set for 3:30 pm. The appearance will be a short one. The courtroom is packed. His supporters are also at the courthouse. Here's a picture of them. A live feed outside the courthouse is here.

Our forums are still touch and go due to server overload. Here's an open thread to discuss the George Zimmerman Trial.

Please remember this case is about the legal proceedings here, not your views on race. If you are new to the site, please read our comment rules for commenting on the Zimmerman case. If you want to know why our comment rules are different than other sites, you can read my answer to that question on another blogger's site.

This thread is for all topics related to the trial of George Zimmerman. Forum users, please keep checking throughout the day as they should now be staying up for hours at a time (and a permanent fix is forthcoming.)

The hearing in the George Zimmerman trial ran until 10 pm last night. It ended with the judge kicking the can down the road again, this time on the admission text messages recovered from Trayvon Martin's phone.

The hearing, like the one on computer animation that preceded it, is the best example yet of how the Judge's stubborn insistence that this case proceed to trial before the parties had even finished discovery, was a decision that will come home to bite her if it is necessary for Zimmerman to appeal.

It's not just the parties who are not prepared on the law, it's also the judge. Towards the end of the hearing, she started reading from a book she called Ehrenhart, which is a "horn book" on Florida evidence. It's a book that references Florida evidentiary decisions, kind of like Cliff Notes. She read off some case names cited in the book along with their one paragraph description of the case ruling. The book is intended as a guide to case law dealing with specific rules of evidence. It isn't a substitute for reading the opinions themselves. Had she read them, she would have known: [More...]

At 8:00 pm ET, the hearing on the admissibility of the defense animation wound down. The judge reserved ruling until tomorrow, but from her comments, the animation is in trouble.

The parties and judge agree there is one Florida case, State v. Pierce, 671 So. 2d 186 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996) on computer animations in a criminal case. The animation was admissible in that case.

The judge has problems with it going back into the jury room as opposed to being used as a demonstrative aid to assist an expert's testimony. Having listened to the full argument for a few hours, it seems the state is equating accuracy with whether the animation includes its version of the testimony. It's not intended as a recreation of the scene, but as defendant's theory of how the confrontation (not the shooting) occurred, as supported by witness testimony, including that of its experts. The exibit relied on evidence from Dr. DiMaio, John Good, Jena Lauer, and even Selma Mora. [More...]

Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune writes today about the judge's decision in the George Zimmerman trial allowing the defense to introduce Trayvon Martin's toxicology report into evidence. He agrees (for the most part) with my post from the other day in which I wrote that while "I think it is highly unlikely the defense will be able to show the results in the autopsy indicate impairment to a degree that might explain Martin’s physical attack on Zimmerman, " that the report was likely admissible for another reason. [More...]

Forensic firearms and ballistics expert Vincent Di Maio, who is also a pathologist and medical examiner, testified on direct examination this morning that the trajectory of the bullet and nature of his injuries support George Zimmerman's version of events.

Dr. Vincent Di Maio said that the trajectory of the bullet and gun powder on Martin’s body support Zimmerman’s version that Martin was on top of him when Zimmerman fired his gun into Martin’s chest. The gun’s muzzle was against Martin’s clothing and it was anywhere from two to four inches from Martin’s skin, he said.

“This is consistent with Mr. Zimmerman’s account that Mr. Martin was over him, leaning forward at the time he was shot,” said Di Maio, the former chief medical examiner in San Antonio.

Dr. Di Maio also testified that Trayvon Martin may have been conscious for 10 to 15 seconds after he was shot, during which time he could have moved his arms from the side to underneath his body. [More....]

It was a big day for the defense at the George Zimmerman trial. Before getting to the testimony, I want to address the hearings held after the jury recessed for the day.

I wrote a long post this morning about the issue of whether the toxicology report should be introduced. After hearing from both sides, the Court ruled the report was admissible, and it would be reversible error not to admit it. She cited the Arias case which I referred to earlier, and a later case citing Arias. In argument today, the defense also referred to the lighter found on Trayvon's body and his swaying in the 711 video. [More...]