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| Texas Senate Approves Strict Abortion Measure - New York Times Posted: 13 Jul 2013 09:14 AM PDT By JOHN SCHWARTZPublished: July 13, 2013AUSTIN, Tex. — The Texas Senate gave final passage on Friday to one of the strictest anti-abortion measures in the country, legislation championed by Gov. Rick Perry, who rallied the Republican-controlled Legislature late last month after a Democratic filibuster blocked the bill and intensified already passionate resistance by abortion-rights supporters. The bill would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and hold abortion clinics to the same standards as hospital-style surgical centers, among other requirements. Its supporters say that the strengthened regulations for the structures and doctors will protect women's health; opponents argue that the restrictions are actually intended to put financial pressure on the clinics that perform abortions and will force most of them to shut their doors. Mr. Perry applauded lawmakers for passing the bill, saying, "Today the Texas Legislature took its final step in our historic effort to protect life." Legislators and anti-abortion activists, he said, "tirelessly defended our smallest and most vulnerable Texans and future Texans." Debate over the bill has ignited fierce exchanges between lawmakers and tense confrontations between opponents of the bill, who have worn orange, and supporters of the bill, wearing blue. Signs and slogans have been everywhere, bearing long, impassioned arguments or the simple scrawl on a young man's orange shirt, a Twitter-esque "@TXLEGE: U R dumb." The bill had come nearly this far before: a version had been brought to the Senate in the previous session of the Legislature, in June, and was killed by State Senator Wendy Davis, a Democrat from Fort Worth, with an 11-hour filibuster that stalled the bill until after the deadline for ending the session. The filibuster became a sensation on Twitter and other forms of social media, with more than 180,000 people viewing the filibuster live online. Almost immediately, however, Mr. Perry called for another special session to reconsider the bill, resulting in Friday night's vote. The fight has been heavy with symbols. The House bill's author, Representative Jodie Laubenberg, a Republican from Parker, dangled a pair of baby shoes before her as she spoke on Tuesday; Representative Senfronia Thompson, who offered an early amendment to the bill, was flanked by colleagues holding wire hangers, representing the brutal abortion methods they said would return if legitimate clinics were run out of business. Ms. Laubenberg has said that the bill would close no abortion clinics, adding, "It is time these clinics put patients ahead of profits." Supporters of the bill in the Legislature have been angered by the language of their opponents. During floor debate on Tuesday, Representative Jason Villalba, a Republican of Dallas, said, "I shall stand with Texas women, but I shall stand here no longer and be accused of conducting a 'war on women.' " He said, "We care for and we fight for human baby lives," and showed a sonogram of his own child at 13 weeks. "I will fight, and I will fight, and I will fight to protect my baby." During the Senate debate, the dean of the Senate, John Whitmire, who is a Democrat, angrily told Senator Dan Patrick, a Republican, "I can't sit here and let you question my faith." The bill was opposed by many doctors, including leaders of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Texas Medical Association; the gynecologists' group has run advertisements locally that question the scientific underpinnings of the legislation and tell legislators to "Get out of our exam rooms." The Senate took up the bill Friday afternoon, and people had begun lining up for seats in the third-floor Senate gallery early in the morning. Department of Public Safety officers, their numbers swelled in anticipation of crowds and tumult, searched every bag and confiscated anything that could be thrown — including, for part of the day and until the practice became an object of derision online, tampons. Department officials said the searches had turned up jars "suspected to contain" urine, feces and paint, along with glitter and confetti, but offered no proof. Senators worked through the evening surrounded by commotion and ruckus. Shouts, chants and singing could be heard outside the chamber, and as the final amendment was voted down, protesters tried to chain themselves to the railing of the Senate gallery and were removed. Emotions were high within the Senate chamber as well. Senator Kirk Watson, a Democrat who represents Austin, said that Republicans who do not like the phrase "war on women" should consider the fact that "women don't understand why you keep coming after them." Mr. Patrick retorted in his own speech, "I suggest babies are thinking the same thing." The passage of the bill, by a vote of 19 to 11 just before midnight, was no surprise. Hours earlier, Senator Royce West, a Democrat who represents Dallas, asked lawmakers to add one of the 20 proposed amendments, but said: "The die is cast. We know the bill is going to pass." To explain why he and his colleagues continued to fight when the outcome was certain, Mr. Watson, the chairman of the Senate Democratic caucus, earlier in the week posted a Facebook photo showing an orange T-shirt bearing a statement: "A foregone conclusion has never stopped a group of citizens committed to ideals of democracy and liberty from taking a stand and fighting with everything they've got. This is Texas, baby. Remember the Alamo." The next step will be a court challenge to the new law almost before Mr. Perry's signature has time to dry; the many proposed amendments and discussion of them were clearly intended to build a record that could eventually be reviewed by the courts. In closing her own speech late Friday, Ms. Davis told the groggy lawmakers, those in the gallery and beyond, "The fight for the future of Texas is just beginning."  |
| Zimmerman jury begins 2nd day of deliberations - USA TODAY Posted: 13 Jul 2013 09:21 AM PDT The jury in the George Zimmerman trial is in deliberation. Some of the questions they have to answer include whose voice was heard on the 911 call? Who was on top during the fight, and did Zimmerman act in self defense? SANFORD, Fla. — Jurors deciding the fate of George Zimmerman returned to court and resumed deliberations Saturday morning. The jurors entered the courtroom briefly Saturday and were quickly dismissed by Judge Debra Nelson. "All of the evidence will be back there with you," Nelson said, referring to the jury room and a request Friday by jurors to see an inventory of all the evidence in the case. The six-woman jury has the option of acquitting Zimmerman or convicting him of second-degree murder or manslaughter in the death of Trayvon Martin. Jurors began weighing evidence against Zimmerman Friday and recessed after three and a half hours. Zimmerman, 29, a former neighborhood watch volunteer, said he shot Trayvon, 17, in self-defense after being attacked. State prosecutors, however, claim Zimmerman profiled, followed and murdered the teen on Feb. 26, 2012. STORY: Zimmerman trial jurors wrap first day of deliberations STORY: Five key issues for Zimmerman jury STORY: Zimmerman verdict sparks worry of riots Before the jury began weighing evidence Friday, Nelson told the panel they must find, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Zimmerman is guilty of a crime. "You must presume innocence. ... Zimmerman is not required ... to prove anything,'' she said. "The state must prove the alleged crime was committed. It's up to the state to prove his guilt." Deliberations in the high-profile case began shortly before 2:30 p.m. Friday, after Assistant State Attorney John Guy gave the state's rebuttal statements to the defense's closing statements. Guy, looking intently at jurors, said "that child had every right to be afraid of a strange man following him." Following a state tactic used throughout the trial, Guy quoted from Zimmerman's conversation by cellphone with a police dispatcher soon after spotting Trayvon. The prosecutor focused on Zimmerman saying "f--king punks" and "these a--holes always get away." Those words, Guy argued showed the frustration, hate and spite that motivated Zimmerman to shoot Trayvon. Guy also put up a split screen of pictures: Trayvon's dead body on the grass and the bloody head of George Zimmerman after the shooting. "Who lost the fight?" Guy asked. He added that if Zimmerman is acquitted it will send a message that grown men can follow and kill children. He also repeated a sentence he delivered in his opening statement in the rebuttal: "The defendant didn't shoot Trayvon Martin because he had to, he shot him because he wanted to," he said. The George Zimmerman trial was full of shocking moments including explicit language, props, and rising tempers. Mark O'Mara, one of Zimmerman's lawyers, argued in a lengthy closing statement that his client is a conscientious citizen who fired a fatal bullet into a teen while fighting for his life. O'Mara used several visuals in his closing, including a chart about reasonable doubt, self-defense and a computer animation showing Trayvon walking up to Zimmerman and punching him. Trayvon, instead of going home, likely hid, waited for Zimmerman and confronted him, O'Mara said. "That is not an unarmed teenager," O'Mara said in his closing statement, explaining with an actual concrete slab that Trayvon used his fists and a sidewalk to threaten great bodily harm. The defense attorney said that Zimmerman was not the aggressor and that the state's case arguing Zimmerman's cursing on a police call was ill will doesn't make sense. "The fact that he was willing to say it on a call with law enforcement is evidence of non-guilt," O'Mara said. About two hours into their review Friday, jurors asked Nelson for an inventory of all the evidence in the case. Some of the items include several statements Zimmerman gave to police, Trayvon's autopsy report and photos of both Zimmerman's injuries and Trayvon's body. More than 50 witnesses testified as well including forensic experts who testified about the angle in which Trayvon was shot, the position Zimmerman's gun may have been in, and where DNA and blood was found. If convicted of second-degree murder, Zimmerman could face life imprisonment. If he's found guilty on a lesser charge of manslaughter, he faces a prison sentence of up to 30 years. |
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