Rachel Jeantel was a train wreck as a witness. She did not help the state's case. She exposed the manipulations of Team Crump. She was impeached on a few significant matters (see below the fold.) And she admitted multiple lies. It was cringe-worthy but you couldn't take your eyes off it.

Most strikingly, she made Trayvon Martin out to be the profiler of Zimmerman. She said (on direct exam no less by the prosecutor) that shortly after first spotting Zimmerman, Martin described Zimmerman to her as a "Creepy-A*s Cracker" and later, described Zimmerman a few times as "this ni*ga" (as in this ni*ga following him.) The two minute clip above is of Rachel and the prosecutor repeating creepy a*s cracker over and over as the court reporter struggles to make out what she's saying; Rachel explaining that creepy as* cracker means a white person; and then expressing concern the creepy guy might be a rapist.

At her deposition, she couldn't identify Trayvon as the person crying out for help. Today, she tried to deny it, but when impeached with the transcript, admitted she told the defense, "It could be, like I said, I don't know. He has a baby voice some days, you know it's not." (Added: This friend of Trayvon Martin says he had a deep voice. " I remember those nights where I use to wait for him to call. I loved his deep voice."

Her answer to why she didn't tell the police about her being the last one to speak with Trayvon was laugh-out loud funny: "They said they got the guy, I thought they were supposed to call me." [More...]

The court is about to resume testimony with Witness 8, aka "Dee Dee" aka Rachel Jeantel now on the stand.

I'll update with notes later, for now I'm just watching. Her direct was quite a show to watch. It's too fascinating to blog during it.

Cross is starting. You can watch here or at these links.

Our threads close at 200 comments. This one is full (although I haven't weeded out the inappropriate comments yet.) A new thread with analysis of Ms. Jeantel's testimony is here.

Rachel Jeantel, identified by the State and defense in opening statements as the young woman who was on the phone with Trayvon Martin minutes before the shooting, is ready to take the stand. (She tweeted the photo above this weekend, with the caption "court nails.") Apparently, the state intends to call her as a witness after all.

So who is Rachel Jeantel? Smoking Gun reviews her twitter account, but only tells half the story. [More...]

Selene Bahaddor testified today in the George Zimmerman trial. She has previously been known as witness 1 while her sister, who lives with her, has been known as Witness 2. Sister/Witness 2 has previously said in interviews that that she saw shadows running from left to right . Today, for the first time, Selene Bahadoor said she heard figures moving from left to right. She never mentioned movement before.

On March 1, when she gave her first statement to Detective Chris Serino, Selene Bahadoor didn't see anything moving from left to right or moving in any direction. She said she only saw flailing arms. Even after Serino told her that her sister saw someone chasing someone else, she said she didn't see that.

On March 20, when Selene Bahadoor was interviewed by FDLE Agent John Batchelor, she didn't mention a direction of movement, either one she heard or one she saw. Nor did she mention it when deposed by the defense. Why? [More...]

After 15 months of following the George Zimmerman case here and at our forums, the time for trial has arrived. Opening arguments begin at 9 am ET, 7 am MT. Virtually every station in mid Florida is carrying a live feed online. I recommend skipping the shows with commentary.

Don West will open for the defense. I'll be covering significant developments here, and there will be much more detailed coverage at our forums. I doubt I'll have time to follow the trial, work and blog, so you may see a lot of open threads until evening during the trial.

I'm sending good thoughts to Mark O'Mara and Don West. I think they are ready, and I hope they win. [More...]

The U.S. has asked Russia to detain Edward Snowden and send him back to the U.S. This is rich (as in disingenuous):

"We now understand Mr. Snowden is on Russian soil. Given our intensified cooperation after the Boston marathon bombings and our history of working with Russia on law enforcement matters -- including returning numerous high level criminals back to Russia at the request of the Russian government -- we expect the Russian Government to look at all options available to expel Mr. Snowden back to the U.S. to face justice for the crimes with which he is charged."

Really? Let's take a look at the Bureau of Prisons website today:[More...]

Update: Ecuador announces it has received an asylum request for Snowden.

Update: There are reports that Snowden, whose plane arrived in Moscow, will spend the night at the Venezuelan embassy in Moscow or at the Sheremetyevo airport and then fly to Cuba, and then to Caracas. (Source article here.) Wikileaks says it is assisting with his travel arrangements.

The U.S. got a bit of a kick in the pants Sunday as Hong Kong said the paperwork it submitted for Edward Snowden's detention pending extradition did not comply with Hong Kong law. To rub it in, Hong Kong said it asked for more information but didn't receive it. So, Hong Kong said, it had no legal reason to insist Snowden stay in Hong Kong or arrest him.

Snowden left Hong Kong on a commercial flight to Russia, just like any other traveler. But Russia's just a place to change planes to a third country. The South China post surmises Iceland or Ecquador will be his final destination. [More..]

Judge Debra Nelson has issued her order on the admissibility of the testimony of the state's proposed voice/speaker identification experts: They will not be allowed to testify. The experts, Tom Owen and Alan Reich, had claimed to be able to analyze the cries for help in the background of a witness' 911 call.

The order is here. It is very easy to read and understand. Shorter version: The techniques and methodologies used by Owen and Reich to determine who was or was not crying out in the background of the call are new and novel, are not generally accepted in the scientific community, and are unreliable and backed only by Owen and Reich, each of whom have a personal stake in the acceptance of their opinions. In addition, Reich's testimony is likely to confuse the issues and mislead the jury. [More...]

The Washington Post reports Edward Snowden has been charged in a sealed complaint in the Eastern District of Virginia with espionage, theft and conversion of government property.

The U.S. is expected to seek a provisional arrest warrant for Snowden and his extradition from Hong Kong. Snowden can fight the extradition. The treaty does not allow extradition for political offenses.

The complaint was filed June 14. The U.S. has 60 days to indict Snowden. The affidavit in support of the Complaint is sealed. [More...]

A federal judge in Houston today reduced former Enron executive Jeff Skilling's sentence to 14 years. He was initially sentenced to 24 years. He was serving the sentence at the low security FCI in Englewood, CO.

Here is the sentencing agreement filed by the parties in May, and background about it.

Bloomberg News has more here. The Washington Post reports Skilling declined to make any statements in court today. He's been in prison since 2006. He could be out as early as 2017.

At a short hearing today, the Judge in the George Zimmerman trial ruled on a defense motion to preclude the use of certain words at trial. Previously, she deferred ruling on the motion when both sides said they wouldn't mention the words in opening arguments. Diwataman has the video of the hearing. Today, the Judge ruled:

• Racial profiling may not be mentioned by the state. Profiling without reference to race is allowable, such as profiling by clothing or age. (the state has previously claimed Zimmerman profiled Martin as a criminal.)
• The state may not use the term "self-appointed" to describe his role in the Neighborhood Watch. The state agreed Zimmerman was appointed to to his position on the Watch. [More...]

The final 6 jurors in the George Zimmerman trial will be:

• B29
• B76
• B37
• B51
• E6
• E40

Alternates

• E54
• E13
• B72
• E28

Opening arguments begin Monday morning. Details of jurors, challenged jurors for whom race and gender neutral explanations had to be given by the parties, and the judges ruling on each to follow.

The hearing over voice/speaker identification is starting now, with Tom Owen as the state's rebuttal witness. He is present in court, not testifying by video conference as he did on direct examination at the earlier hearing.