ITN News: Stephen Lawrence Murder Trial Verdict Two White Men Convicted Of Murdering Black British Teenager.
I am not sure if people outside of the United Kingdom have heard about the Stephen Lawrence murder case? In the year 1993, an unarmed seventeen year old black British teenager Stephen Lawrence was brutally murdered by white male youths.
Stephen was waiting at a bus stop with a friend when he was stabbed to death. The Stephen Lawrence murder case shocked England and forced the British people to examine racism in British society. The Stephen Lawrence case forced the British police force to admit to racism within their ranks.
Finally in January 2012, due to the persistence of Stephen’s parents after eighteen long years they obtained justice. Two white men Gary Dobson and David Norris were convicted of murdering Stephen. When I think of Stephen Lawrence if he were alive today he would still be a young man only in his thirties. Maybe Stephen would be married, have a wife and kids. A young life was extinguished due to bigotry and prejudice.
However, even though two white men were convicted of Stephen’s murder the other murderers are still at large. The British newspaper the Daily Mail published the photographs of all the white male suspects. The British public knows the identities of the other killers. Sadly, Stephen Lawrence parents divorced due to the grief and strain of the murder case. I commend Stephen’s parents for fighting so hard and courageously and challenging the racist British police force and justice system. Even though, Gary Dobson and David Norris were convicted Stephen is still dead he’s never going to come back.
The Stephen Lawrence case is very similar to the Trayvon Martin tragedy taking place right now in America. Both Stephen and Travyon were unarmed black male teenagers, both were only seventeen when they were killed. I am disgusted by Fox News and numerous media outlets attempting to paint Travyon as a bad kid. Trayvon made mistakes in his young life but he did not deserve to die in cold blood. It is not surprising but still depressing how truly racist this world still is despite the progress of the civil rights movement.
George Zimmerman and his wife both lied to the judge about their finances which certainly hurts their credibility. I sincerely hope and pray it doesn’t take eighteen years for Trayvon Martin’s family to get justice for the murder of their son. I can’t imagine the grief, the pain, and feelings of despair that Travyon Martin’s parents are going through right now.
Breaking News: George Zimmerman’s Wife Is Charged With Perjury For Lying About Their Finances!
PUBLISHED: 20:40 GMT, 12 June 2012 | UPDATED: 22:22 GMT, 12 June 2012
The wife of George Zimmerman, who is currently imprisoned for murder charges relating to the death of Trayvon Martin in February, is now on the wrong side of the law herself.
Shellie Zimmerman was arrested today in Seminole County, Florida, on charges that she committed perjury during her husband’s bond hearing.
An order issued Tuesday by assistant state attorney John Guy charged her with knowingly making false statements during the April hearing.
Husband and wife: Shellie Zimmerman, left, was charged with lying during the bond hearing of her husband George, right
George Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the shooting. He was granted $150,000 bond at that hearing and released.
The Orlando Sentinel reported that prosecutors alerted Judge Kenneth Lester that Mrs Zimmerman had lied about contributions to her husband’s legal defence to hide about $135,000.
Lester, in a strongly worded ruling, said the Zimmermans lied about how much money they had.
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- Cult leader who forced his three wives and nine kids to call him ‘Lord’ pleads guilty to murdering woman, 28, and boy, 4, because he thought he was gay
An arrest affidavit for Shellie Zimmerman obtained by the Associated Press said that records show in April she transferred more than $85,500 from her bank account into her husband’s account.
Revoked: George Zimmerman testifies from the stand during a bond hearing on second degree murder charges at the Seminole County Courthouse in Sanford, Florida in this file photo taken April 20, 2012
The affidavit also indicated that records of Zimmerman’s calls from jail showed that George Zimmerman instructed his wife to ‘pay off all the bills,’ including a Sam’s Club card and American Express.
A state attorney investigator met with credit union officials and learned that she had transfer control of his account.
Zimmerman’s attorney Mark O’Mara has said the Zimmermans were confused and fearful when they misled court officials about how much money they had.
Shellie Zimmerman, a nursing student, was ordered held on $1,000 bond. Sources told the Sentinel that she was working to post her bond.
In Florida, perjury is punishable by up to five years in jail.
Victim: Trayvon Martin, 17, was unarmed when he was shot by Zimmerman, who claims he acted in self-defence
George Zimmerman, of Sanford, has been behind bars since Judge Lester revoked his bond earlier this month.
He came out of hiding when he returned to the John E. Polk Correctional Facility on June 3.
To pass the time, it appears he’s also writing postcards to loved ones, having requested several different varieties.
He also requested a writing pad, pens, pencils and four erasers.
He purchased two ‘Missing You,’ two ‘Thinking of You,’ and two ‘With Love,’ cards from the jail.
Surrender: George Zimmerman was ordered back to the John E. Polk Correctional Facility after his bond was revoked by a Florida judge in Sanford, Florida, on June 3
Political statement: Hoodies have become symbols of racial profiling and discrimination, protestors say, after Trayvon Martin was shot and killed while wearing one
The former neighbourhood watch captain claims he was acting in self-defence when he shot Trayvon Martin on February 26.
On that night, Zimmerman spotted Martin, and called 911 to report that the hoodie-clad teen ‘looked suspicious.’
The 911 operator urged Zimmerman not to follow Martin and to stay in his truck, but Zimmerman, for unknown reasons, got out.
He claimed that he lost track of Martin and was returning to his car when he was ‘sucker-punched’ by the teen.
Zimmerman said he shot him, fearing that he was armed.
But Martin, 17, was not armed. He was returning to his father’s girlfriend’s house with an iced tea for himself and Skittles for his little brother.
Activism: Lawyer Benjamin Crump, centre, addresses the media with Tracy Martin, right, and Sabrina Fulton, left, the parents of Trayvon Martin, after they addressed lawmakers at a meeting on the ‘Stand Your Ground’ law in Longwood, Florida
Police contended that Zimmerman was protected under Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ law, which gives wide latitude to use deadly force rather than retreat in a fight if people believe they are in danger of being killed or seriously injured.
The questioning of Zimmerman’s truthfulness by the judge last Friday could undermine the defendant’s credibility if it is brought up at trial.
As the case stands now, his credibility is absolutely critical to the case.
The initial lack of an arrest in the case sparked massive protests nationwide and debates about whether race was a factor in Zimmerman’s actions and in the initial police handling of the case.
Martin was black; Zimmerman’s father is white and his mother is from Peru.
Protests: The initial lack of an arrest in the case sparked demonstrations nationwide and debates about whether race was a factor in Zimmerman’s actions and in the initial police handling of the case
Ottawa Citizen Article: Canadian Psycho Luka Magnotta’s Ex Girlfriend Says He’s Creepy & Wanted To Be Famous!!!
Her darkest romance: Magnotta’s ex-girlfriend describes “very cold” relationship
Luka Magnotta’s ex-girlfriend supplied this photo she took of the accused murderer in a limousine.
Photograph by: Image supplied , handout
OTTAWA — They met as strangers for a threesome in a Toronto apartment, and Luka Magnotta took a liking to the transgendered girl his same age — so much so that the other guy stormed out, said he was going for a pack of smokes and never returned.
Luka Magnotta was 23 and years away from becoming the monster depicted in the headlines. Then an aspiring porn actor and an escort for older men, he ended up courting the girl and would go on to live with her in 2006.
It was her darkest romance.
Magnotta’s ex-girlfriend, who wishes to remain anonymous, recalls a date that year in which the two went to see the Sharon Stone film Basic Instinct 2 on opening night. Magnotta insisted they sit in the front row, and she recalls him holding her hand through the scene where a mystery blonde woman kills a man with an ice pick.
The online video of the alleged killing at Magnotta’s Montreal apartment is titled “1 lunatic 1 ice pick.”
Magnotta’s ex-girlfriend said he was prone to mood swings at the time she knew him, and was infatuated by serial killer Karla Homolka.
“He talked at length about Karla,” she said.
She said Magnotta — at the time a year away from filing for bankruptcy, as revealed by the Citizen — spared no expense in the courtship, renting limousines to pick her up for dates at noted Toronto restaurants.
It was fun, she said — at least at first.
But their sex life was lousy, she said, because of his river-bottom sex drive.
“He didn’t have much of a high sex-drive when I was with him, to be honest. I kept begging him for sex, and he would never give it to me. This one time he allowed me to give him oral sex but it only lasted for one minute,” she said.
Magnotta wouldn’t even kiss her on the lips. He wanted only to hold her hand, take her to the movies and wine and dine her at fancy restaurants. When not eating out, she said, Magnotta ordered pizza all the time, and never cooked meals. He always made the sign of the cross before he ate, saying he was raised to be grateful for what was on his plate.
She said there was no intimacy even though they slept in the same bed. So she settled for hickeys on her neck.
He had no problem doing that, she said, and he once sucked on her skin so hard he broke blood vessels in her neck. When she told him, she says, “He quickly ran to the bathroom, and he looked at himself in the mirror, and he freaked out and washed it away with water.”
And he told her that he couldn’t sleep with her because it didn’t mean anything special to him; because Magnotta had sex “with old men for money,” and because he was dating her, she said, “He wanted to express that kind of love in a different way.”
She said Magnotta was “very cold” and would go silent when they argued.
When she dumped him, she said Magnotta insisted they remain friends. She didn’t keep in touch and one of the last times Magnotta called her he said he’d had a “bad experience” with a john.
Magnotta invited her on a holiday in Greece, but she declined. “He got mad ‘cause he didn’t understand why I didn’t want to go.”
She said Magnotta would get upset over little things.
“I remember, I knocked down a picture frame of himself, and he freaked out on me.
“He was hot and cold. I just thought the whole relationship was … weird, you know?”
She said her friends warned her not to date Magnotta, but she said she was “blinded” by love.
“I didn’t trust him, cause there was something about him that gave me the creeps. I’m glad I broke up with him, ‘cause he could have killed me, and chopped me up in pieces,” she said.
Interviewed separately, a close friend of Magnotta’s from the time recalled that he was self-absorbed, and always asking how he looked.
Magnotta’s ex-girlfriend also said he constantly wanted her to take pictures of him. She said the first thing he did every morning was “market himself” on the internet.
“He wanted to be famous,” she said.
Shocking News: Human Remains Sent To Vancouver Schools Is There A Connection To Canadian Psycho Luka Magnotta Case?
Human remains sent to two Vancouver schools
Two Vancouver schools remain cordoned off with police tape following the grisly discovery this afternoon of separate packages containing body parts.
Vancouver police say a staff member at False Creek Elementary School opened a package at 1 p.m. this afternoon and discovered what appeared to be a human hand.
Staff at St. George’s School later opened up a package containing what appeared to be a human foot.
Vancouver police and the B.C. Coroners Service are trying to determine the identity of the victim and the origin of the packages.
James Gemmill has a child at False Creek Elementary and learned about the incident on Twitter. He hadn’t received any information about it from the school or the Vancouver School Board.
“I understand this happened a few hours ago, and staff and teachers must have been shocked, but it would be good information to pass on to parents,” he said.
Gemmill was waiting to hear more and speak with his wife before deciding whether they should be concerned about keeping their child in school.
“Who knows? We need more information, whether it’s connected to Montreal [the Luka Magnotta case] or even a copycat, which would be even more troubling.
“We’ll just wait for more information from the police, I guess.”
Roberto Rocca, a reporter at the Montreal Gazette, said Montreal Police are talking with Vancouver police but they are not confirming a link between the body parts in Vancouver and the Magnotta case.
Police said there is no indication that any of the students and staff at either school have been targeted.
Surprising News: Canadian Psycho Luka Rocco Magnotta Extradition From Germany To Canada Could Take Years!!!
Luka Rocco Magnotta’s extradition from Germany could take years, lawyer says
OTTAWA—It could take up to two years for murder suspect Luka Rocco Magnotta to be extradited from Germany to stand trial here. More, if he decides to fight every step of the way.
For those who’d like nothing more than to hear nothing more about the narcissistic Canadian who was arrested in Berlin surfing news about himself, get ready.
“It’s the flipside of the Karl Heinz Schreiber case,” said Vancouver lawyer Gary Botting, who wrote the Canadian Extradition Law Practice.
In an interview with the Star, Botting said Schreiber’s 10-year battle to fight extradition from Canada to face tax evasion charges generated “huge headlines” in Germany every time. “I think the same thing is going to happen here.”
The Canada-Germany Extradition Treaty was never formally ratified, but it is the guiding legal document and lays out the principles that apply, as well as a timeline of what to expect, said Botting.
Under it, Canada and Germany agree to extradite individuals charged with an act that is a criminal offence in each. Germany does not extradite anyone to face the death penalty. That doesn’t apply here as Canada doesn’t have the death penalty. Unlike Canada, Germany does not extradite its nationals, preferring to prosecute within Germany. Magnotta is a Canadian citizen.
Canada has 45 days from Magnotta’s arrest to file a formal extradition request, called a “record of the case,” which triggers the judicial proceedings.
Germany would then schedule an extradition hearing, possibly assigning Magnotta a lawyer if he cannot afford one. A defence lawyer may request time to become briefed, so Botting estimates it might take six months before a hearing is held.
Magnotta has 30 days after a decision of the court to appeal to the local minister of justice. He could argue he would not get a fair trial in Canada or he could argue he is not fit to stand trial, says Botting. The minister has 90 days before making a decision whether to surrenderMagnotta, which can be extended for another 60 days. The suspect then has 30 days to appeal a minister’s decision to surrender him to Canada to a court of appeal — a process that could take another six months “because courts are busy and lawyers have to prepare factums.”
After that, says Botting, the suspect could appeal a negative ruling to the national court of Germany, the equivalent of the Supreme Court of Canada.
He guessed it would be at least 18 months to 2 years “if every deadline is met” before a decision is made, more if Magnotta decides to drag it out.
“Motivation is a huge factor here. He won’t be motivated to come back to Canada right away necessarily,” says Botting. “If he’s publicity-seeking, that’s exactly playing into his hands. He’s going to fight it every step of the way.”
Moreover, says Botting, extraditions are a hot topic in Europe right now, with a controversy roaring around the use of European warrants — created to ease inter-country transfers of wanted criminals, much the way Canadian provinces easily transfer suspects across provincial boundaries. Sweden and Norway almost never extradite anymore, and Germany’s following suit, he said.
Canada has extradited Schreiber, Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel and Walter Ebke, a resident of the Northwest Territories wanted on terrorism charges in Germany. However, Botting does not recall a recent case where Germany extradited a citizen to face justice in Canada.
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson’s office issued a statement Monday saying Magnotta was arrested on “an Interpol Red notice which under German law constitutes a provisional request from Canada for his extradition. Pursuant to the Canada-Germany Treaty on extradition, Canada has to now submit a formal request for his extradition accompanied by documentation outlining the evidence supporting the request.”
“Officials with the International Assistance Group (IAG) are working expeditiously in conjunction with officials from the Attorney General of Quebec (the prosecuting authority) to prepare the materials in support of the request. Mr. Magnotta is scheduled to make a first appearance in court in Berlin tomorrow morning,” said spokeswoman Julie DiMambro in an email.
“Canada will continue to be advised of the progress of this matter through the German courts.”
Trayvon Martin Case Update: George Zimmerman Lied To The Judge Revoked Bond He Must Surrender In 48 Hours.
Judge revokes Zimmerman bond, has 48 hours to surrender
KYLE HIGHTOWER
SANFORD, Fla.— The Associated Press
Published Friday, Jun. 01, 2012 3:02PM EDT
Last updated Friday, Jun. 01, 2012 10:42PM EDT
- A judge has revoked George Zimmerman’s bond in the Trayvon Martin killing. Mr. Zimmerman has 48 hours to surrender to authorities.
Earlier Friday, prosecutors asked a judge to revoke the bond of the neighbourhood watch volunteer.
Prosecutors said in a motion that 28-year-old Mr. Zimmerman and his family misled them about his finances when testifying during a bail hearing that allowed him to be released from jail on a $150,000 bond. Prosecutor Bernie De la Rionda asked for the revocation during a hearing to help determine if prosecutors and the defence can stop the public release of certain documents in the case.
VIDEO
Reports on Zimmerman’s injuries emerge
During the bond hearing in April, Mr. Zimmerman’s relatives testified they had limited funds. Mr. Zimmerman’s attorney said several days later that he had discovered his client had raised more than $200,000 from a website. At the time of the hearing, about $135,000 had been raised, and that money wasn’t disclosed at the bond hearing.
“This court was led to believe they didn’t have a single penny,” said Prosecutor Bernie De la Rionda. “It was misleading and I don’t know what words to use other than it was a blatant lie.”
Defence attorney Mark O’Mara said it was an innocent misunderstanding and that Mr. Zimmerman wasn’t using that money for his expenses and wasn’t sure what he could use the money for. He said Mr. Zimmerman used the houses of his parents and grandmother as collateral for the bond.
Prosecutors also said in the motion that Mr. Zimmerman didn’t disclose he had a second passport. Mr. Zimmerman turned his passport over to the court at the bond hearing as a measure that would prevent him from fleeing the country.
Mr. Zimmerman is pleading not guilty to second-degree murder and claims self-defence. Mr. Zimmerman shot Mr. Martin last February during a confrontation at a gated community of townhouses in Sanford, Fla., where Mr. Zimmerman lived and where Mr. Martin was visiting his father’s fiancée.
The delay in an arrest for 44 days prompted protests nationwide and led to Sanford’s police chief stepping aside so emotions could cool down.
At Friday’s hearing, Mr. De la Rionda and Mr. O’Mara also asked a judge to stop the public release of witness names and statements made by Mr. Zimmerman to police officers. Those documents normally are part of the public record under Florida law.
“What’s occurring, unfortunately, are cases are being tried in the public sector as opposed to in the courtroom,” Mr. De La Rionda told Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester. “We are in a new age with Twitter, Facebook, and all these things I’ve never heard of before in my career. Everybody gets to find out intimate details about witnesses that never occurred before. Witnesses are going to be reluctant to get involved.”
A consortium of more than a dozen media groups, including The Associated Press, asked the judge to ignore the request, saying such records are presumed to be publicly available under Florida law.
Rachel Fugate, an attorney for the Orlando Sentinel, cited the Casey Anthony trial as an example of a highly publicized case in which a jury was able to be seated despite intense media coverage. The Florida mother was acquitted last year of killing her 2-year-old daughter.
“Discovery in Florida has traditionally been open … and Florida hasn’t encountered problems seating juries and giving defendants fair trials,” Ms. Fugate said.
Mr. O’Mara said Friday on a website that he doesn’t expect the case to be ready for trial until next year.
Mr. O’Mara said he expects to call on 50 witnesses who need to be deposed before he decides whether to file a “stand your ground” motion which would ask for a hearing before a judge without a jury. At the hearing, Mr. Zimmerman would argue self-defence under the Florida law which gives wide latitude to use deadly force rather than retreat in a fight if people believe they are in danger of being killed or seriously injured.
Former Gay Porn Star, Cat Killer, & Accused Murderer Luka Rocco Magnotta Is Dangerous & Fled Canada!!!
WARNING: The following story contains graphic content that may be disturbing to some readers.
OTTAWA — The nation’s most wanted man, Luka Rocco Magnotta, once described in an Internet blog post how to disappear completely and never be found.
The central suspect in a gruesome Montreal murder — a dismembered foot from the victim was mailed to Conservative Party headquarters in downtown Ottawa — Magnotta, 29, once offered step-by-step instruction on starting a new life in another country.
“A minimum of four months is really necessary to carry out the heroic actions necessary to leave your old life behind,” he wrote in 2009.
Magnotta, a former male prostitute and porn film actor, said it was necessary to slowly withdraw from all social circles; acquire two sets of false identification; convert all assets to cash; then take a bus to a chosen destination after selling a car somewhere else to mislead authorities.
The game plan for his own disappearance is part of Magnotta’s enormous digital presence.
It will now be the difficult task of police investigators to sort fact from fiction.
Already, Montreal police have confirmed one of the many bizarre elements of Magnotta’s online profile: that he once dated notorious sex killer Karla Homolka.
Magnotta — he was born Eric Newman — has in the past denied any connection to Homolka. “I just wish it would stop,” Magnotta told a reporter in September 2007. “I wish they would leave me alone.” Luka Magnotta is an Internet spectre. He is an inveterate blogger and a man of a dozen Facebook pages.
He’s also among the Internet’s most notorious fiends, accused of asphyxiating kittens in a plastic bag, drowning another and feeding still another to a python. The cruelties were videotaped and posted online.
The face of the perpetrator in those videos cannot be seen, but Magnotta was later identified as the culprit by a Facebook group dedicated to establishing the identity of the so-called Vacuum Bag Kitten Killer.
Magnotta has denied those accusations, but the charges follow him across his many Facebook pages.
“I have been surrounded by haters for years,” he has posted. “They come into my life … see that I have so much more than them going for me … they get jealous and try to bring me down.”
He once told his Internet enemies that he would vanish: “In the near future, I can’t wait to completely disappear and never be found again. A tropical island sounds nice. So, losers, stop writing about me and get a life.”
More recently, he has been linked to a sickening “snuff video” that shows someone dressed in black repeatedly stabbing a man on a bed.
Police in Montreal found a headless, limbless torso in a suitcase on Tuesday near the apartment building where Magnotta lived in the Snowdon district of Montreal. The police have a video of the crime.
Police have said the torso belongs to the same person whose foot and hand were discovered in Ottawa. The severed foot was delivered to Conservative Party headquarters, while the severed hand was in another package found at the Ottawa Postal Terminal.
In Montreal, Magnotta’s neighbours said he lived in the low-income apartment building for about four months, but kept to himself.
“It was like I was talking to the wall,” Richard Payette, who lives across from Magnotta’s second-floor apartment, told the Montreal Gazette. “I never heard a peep from him.”
Magnotta, he said, disappeared a few days ago.
A few residents were sitting on the apartment building’s front stairway several days ago, he said, when they saw Magnotta leave the building and walk south down Décarie Blvd. He appeared to be wearing a strange wig. Someone joked about Magnotta “having a bad hair day.”
Derek MacKinnon, another resident of the building, said he believes he might have been the last person to talk to Magnotta before he disappeared.
MacKinnon, an actor who appeared in several horror films in the ’80s, said Magnotta sat down with him on the front stairway to the building, where they discussed acting.
“He invited me to his apartment,” MacKinnon said of his conversation with Magnotta. “It was the first time he had ever talked to me. I’m glad I didn’t accept.
“He wanted to know how to get into legitimate films. He was bothered by what he had done in the past. He wanted to know if working in gay porns was something they would hold against you (in the mainstream movie industry).”
Magnotta’s own blog posts suggest he has worked as a male prostitute, bisexual porn actor and model. He admits to having cosmetic surgery to cover acne scars and hair implants to improve his career opportunities.
Often, he refers online to his own desirability. “Every day I thank God for giving me my looks and brains,” he posted in August 2010, not long after moving to Miami.
Pictures posted on his MySpace page, meanwhile, document his travels across Europe. He’s often pictured alone, but in several photos is seen standing beside a woman identified as an ex-girlfriend.
Some of the pictures were taken by Nicholas Monaco, a Miami-based photographer who met Magnotta in New York four years ago.
“He wanted somebody to take a couple shots of him just in the city,” the 31-year-old photographer told the Citizen.
The pair met near Madison Square Garden and spent about 45 minutes together. Magnotta told Monaco he was a model and paid the photographer $100 in exchange for digital copies of the pictures, which show the accused killer standing in front of the famous arena and exiting a subway station.
“He was kind of a creepy person, you know,” said Monaco.
Magnotta was born Eric Clinton Kirk Newman in Scarborough, Ontario on July 24, 1982.
According to information published in the Ontario Gazette, the professed fan of mafia movies legally changed his name to Luka Rocco Magnotta in July 2006.
Magnotta appeared in at least two issues of fab, the Toronto-based sister magazine to the gay and lesbian alternative newspaper Xtra.
In 2005, Magnotta, who identified himself as Russian-born “Jimmy,” posed shirtless as the magazine’s “fab boy” pin-up model. He told the magazine he hoped to become a police officer.
“I don’t want to do traffic tickets,” he said. “I am thinking vice or homicide.”
With files from Paul Cherry and the Montreal Gazette
Gayblackcanada 