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Courtroom dramas arent just the stuff of television soaps and sagas. Real life can sometimes be just as shocking as fantasy. Oxygens The Jury Speaks, premiering Saturday, July 22 at 9/8c, looks at some of the most unbelievable trials in history and examines the verdicts that made us gasp from the perspective of the jurors. If youve ever wondered why a juror voted the way they did, and how it affected the rest of their lives, The Jury Speaks has first hand interviews with the jurors whose verdicts changed the world. In the meantime, ere are some of the most shocking trial verdicts in history.

1. George Zimmerman

Neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman infamously shot and killed unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin on February 26, 2012 in Sanford, Florida. After police arrived at the scene, Zimmerman was briefly questioned but not arrested, with the local police chief saying there wasnt enough evidence to counter Zimmermans claim that he had acted in self defense. When the incident hit the media, protests rippled across America, and six weeks after the shooting Zimmerman was finally arrested. On trial, Zimmermans representatives argued self defense, and he was shockingly found not guilty of murder, despite accusations of racial profiling.

2. Darren Wilson

Black teenager Michael Brown was shot and killed by white police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri in August of 2014. Brown had allegedly been involved in a robbery shortly before he was confronted by Wilson. The two scuffled, fighting for Wilsons gun, and Brown eventually broke free and fled. Wilson pursued him, and eventually caught up. Brown, unarmed and surrendering, was held by Wilson at gunpoint, and allegedly took a step towards Wilson at which point, Wilson fired. A total of twelve bullets were discharged from Wilsons weapon, and Brown was shot six times. Like the Zimmerman case, protests alleging racial profiling took over the U.S., and when Wilson was found not guilty at trial, riots erupted in Ferguson and across the country.

3. O.J. Simpson

Probably the most famous case in American history, former footballer O.J. Simpson was acquitted of murdering his ex wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her partner, Ronald Goldman, despite compelling evidence. DNA evidence including bloody footprints and a glove, not to mention a high speed police chase in which Simpson was high-tailing for the Mexican border with a bag of cash werent enough to return a guilty verdict, and the country was polarized by the outcome. The verdict, watched lived by millions of Americans, shocked the nation.

4. Casey Anthony

In June, 2008, Casey Anthonys four year old daughter, Caylee, went missing in Orange County, Florida. However, Casey didnt report her daughter missing until July. Once the police began investigating, they found evidence suggesting Casey was responsible for her daughters disappearance. On trial, Casey changed her story multiple times and made up lies that were debunked. Despite decomposing human remains found in the trunk of Caseys car, the jury still decided there was reasonable doubt, and acquitted her of her daughters murder, and angry, disbelieving crowds protested at the courthouse and outside Caseys parents house.

5. Lorena Bobbitt

In a fit of rage, Lorena Bobbitt cut off her husband, John Wayne Bobbitts penis. She also threw it out a car window on a Virginia highway. At trial, Lorena said her husband was abusive and had raped her during their marriage. Shockingly, despite overwhelming evidence, Lorena was acquitted of the crime on the grounds of insanity. Meanwhile, Johns penis was surgically reattached, and he went on to star in porn films.

6. Amanda Knox

In 2009, Seattle student Amanda Knox was studying in Italy, where she lived with her British roommate, Meredith Kercher. Kercher was found raped and murdered in their flat, and Knox, along with her Italian boyfriend Rafael Sollecito and Ivory Coast immigrant Rudy Guede, were found guilty of the crime. The public found she was treated unfairly by the Italian courts, which were accused of being biased against her as an American. There were also suggestions that evidence against her had been tainted in the process of investigation. Knox was re-tried and acquitted in 2013, when she went back to America. In a shocking twist, Italian courts retried her in her absence, once again finding her guilty. There was another appeal, and she was exonerated in 2015.

7. Brock Turner

Brock Turner was caught sexually assaulting an unconscious woman by two witnesses. Turner was sentenced to only six months (and would only serve three), which left the public in a state of outrage, given his guilt, and the severity of his crime. Further outraged was caused as the judges decision hinged on the impact of the crime on Turner, rather than his victim.

[Photos: Getty Images and Wikipedia Commons]

Original post:
7 Of The Most Shocking Trial Verdicts In History - Oxygen (blog)

July 6, 2017

Today is Thursday, July 6, the 187th day of 2017. There are 178 days left in the year.

Today in local history

In 1962, a report from the American Embassy in Japan disclosed that Wilmington was one of the cities that Japanese businesses had identified as "opportunity areas" for investing in the United States.

In 2001, a seismology professor from Duke University was preparing to place a seismograph more than 1,300 feet below the surface of the earth to look for clues into the mystery of the Seneca Guns, the loud booms that occasionally rattle houses along the coast. The 1,300-foot-deep hole was drilled as part of a separate study by the U.S. Geological Survey of the coastal plain's subsurface geology. The professor, Peter Malin, was conducting research into possible seismic activity along the coast, but said he suspected the Seneca Guns were probably an atmospheric phenomenon rather than a seismic one.

Elsewhere on this date

In 1535, Sir Thomas More was executed in England for high treason.

In 1777, during the American Revolution, British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga.

In 1885, French scientist Louis Pasteur tested an anti-rabies vaccine on 9-year-old Joseph Meister, who had been bitten by an infected dog; the boy did not develop rabies.

In 1917, during World War I, Arab forces led by T.E. Lawrence and Auda Abu Tayi captured the port of Aqaba from the Ottoman Turks.

In 1933, the first All-Star baseball game was played at Chicago's Comiskey Park; the American League defeated the National League, 4-2.

In 1942, Anne Frank, her parents and sister entered a "secret annex" in an Amsterdam building where they were later joined by four other people; they hid from Nazi occupiers for two years before being discovered and arrested.

In 1944, an estimated 168 people died in a fire that broke out during a performance in the main tent of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Hartford, Connecticut.

In 1957, Althea Gibson became the first black tennis player to win a Wimbledon singles title as she defeated fellow American Darlene Hard 6-3, 6-2. The Harry S. Truman Library, the nation's first presidential library, was dedicated in Independence, Missouri. Sixteen-year-old John Lennon first met 15-year-old Paul McCartney when Lennon's band, the Quarrymen skiffle group, performed a gig at St. Peter's Church in Woolton, Liverpool.

In 1964, the movie "A Hard Day's Night," starring The Beatles, had its world premiere in London. British colony Nyasaland became the independent country of Malawi.

In 1967, war erupted as Nigeria sent troops into the secessionist state of Biafra. (The Biafran (bee-AF'-ruhn) War lasted 2 1/2 years and resulted in a Nigerian victory.)

In 1971, jazz trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong died in New York at age 69.

In 1988, 167 North Sea oil workers were killed when explosions and fires destroyed a drilling platform. Medical waste and other debris began washing up on New York City-area seashores, forcing the closing of several popular beaches.

In 1997, the rover Sojourner rolled down a ramp from the Mars Pathfinder lander onto the Martian landscape to begin inspecting the soil and rocks of the red planet.

Ten years ago: A man on a balcony over the New York-New York casino floor in Las Vegas opened fire on the gamblers below, wounding four people before he was tackled by off-duty military reservists. (The gunman, Steven Zegrean, was later convicted of charges including attempted murder and was sentenced to 26 to 90 years in prison; he died in April 2010 less than a year into his term.) Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, pioneer of the modern historical romance novel, died in Princeton, Minnesota, at age 68.

Five years ago: At a 100-nation conference in Paris, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton hailed an accelerating wave of defections in President Bashar Assad's inner circle as the United States and its international allies pleaded once again for global sanctions against the Syrian regime. Former neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman was released from jail in Florida for a second time while he awaited his second-degree murder trial for fatally shooting Trayvon Martin. (Zimmerman was acquitted.)

One year ago: President Barack Obama scrapped plans to cut American forces in Afghanistan by half before leaving office. Double-amputee Olympian Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to six years in a South African prison for murdering girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Philando Castile, a black elementary school cafeteria worker, was killed during a traffic stop in the St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights by Officer Jeronimo Yanez, who was charged with second-degree manslaughter (Yanez was acquitted at trial). Former Fox News Channel anchor Gretchen Carlson sued network chief executive Roger Ailes, claiming she was cut loose after she had refused his sexual advances and complained about harassment in the workplace, allegations denied by Ailes. (Carlson later settled her lawsuit for a reported $20 million.) The augmented-reality game Pokemon Go made its debut in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.

Today's Birthdays: Singer-actress Della Reese is 86. The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, is 82. Actor Ned Beatty is 80. Singer Gene Chandler is 77. Country singer Jeannie Seely is 77. Actor Burt Ward is 72. Former President George W. Bush is 71. Actor-director Sylvester Stallone is 71. Actor Fred Dryer is 71. Actress Shelley Hack is 70. Actress Nathalie Baye is 69. Actor Geoffrey Rush is 66. Actress Allyce Beasley is 66. Rock musician John Bazz (The Blasters) is 65. Actor Grant Goodeve is 65. Country singer Nanci Griffith is 64. Retired MLB All-Star Willie Randolph is 63. Jazz musician Rick Braun is 62. Actor Casey Sander is 62. Country musician John Jorgenson is 61. Former first daughter Susan Ford Bales is 60. Hockey player and coach Ron Duguay is 60. Actress-writer Jennifer Saunders is 59. Rock musician John Keeble (Spandau Ballet) is 58. Actor Pip Torrens is 57. Actor Brian Posehn is 51. Political reporter/moderator John Dickerson (TV: "Face the Nation") is 49. Actor Brian Van Holt is 48. Rapper Inspectah Deck (Wu-Tang Clan) is 47. TV host Josh Elliott is 46. Rapper 50 Cent is 42. Actress Tia Mowry is 39. Actress Tamera Mowry is 39. Comedian-actor Kevin Hart is 38. Actress Eva Green is 37. Actor Gregory Smith is 34. Rock musician Chris "Woody" Wood (Bastille) is 32. Rock singer Kate Nash is 30. Actor Jeremy Suarez is 27.

Thought for Today: "Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light. Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing." Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter (born this date in 1907, died 1954).

Read more:
FLASHBACK: This date in history, July 6, 2017 - StarNewsOnline.com

Irv Gotti says he wants to shake s--t the f--k up with his new BET anthology series, Tales.

And Gotti, who created and produces the series, did just that in the shows June 27 premiere episode, Fk the Police in which a white man (played by Brody Jenner) was lynched by an African-American mob.

I am not a political guy at all. I just seen the chance to put the mirror up to the world with the concept of Tales, Gotti says. You get a glimpse of what black people go through. Now you see the same scenario being done to white people, so how does it feel? In real life these things are happening, so maybe we should rethink and change.

I created a fictitious world where white people are the minority living within zones separated by rich and poor, he says. Just watching over the past six years the injustices of seeing cops kill black people and nothing happens I felt [NWAs] Fk the Police record could be an interesting concept that can make a statement, cause a little change and get people to think. So I took the shot.

The Queens-born Gotti (born Domingo Lorenzo Jr.) is best-known as the co-founder (with his brother Chris) of Murder Inc Records, working with acts including Ja Rule, DMX and Ashanti. And he says that the music used in Tales will be an integral component of the eight-part series.

The songs I picked are very descriptive, he says. Cold Hearted by Meek Mill is about friendship, betrayal, jealousy and anger so thats what [this] Tuesdays episode will be about. Story To Tell by Biggie Smalls is telling you about adultery, cheating and the whole relationship aspect.

Gotti says he conceived the idea for Tales about six years ago, but it wasnt until two years ago that it finally got the green light. [Tales] was received with open arms but it was a process, he says. I had to fight for things that I wanted. For the first episode, BET was wary about doing a story based on race, and portraying white people like that so I had to really fight to have it that way.

I called up Brody Jenner I told him, I need a favor, I gotta hang you from a tree. He said What! I thought it would shock people seeing a white man hanging from a tree. [The Notebook director] Nick Cassavetes played the role of Rodney King in one scene. [King] got hit 56 times whats your explanation for whopping this guys ass like that? He was on the floor not handcuffed, it was filmed and [all the cops] were let off. With Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman wasnt even a cop and they let him off. Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, we see these things and nothing is happening. It sends the message to black people that Your life aint worth st and we are letting you know that.

The premiere episode also featured Chet Hanks, son of Tom Hanks and Gotti says he has other stars in mind for future roles on Tales.

My celebrity dream cast would be Denzel Washington, Daniel Day Lewis, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, Eddie Murphy, and Samuel L. Jackson, he says. That would be epic.

Tales 8 p.m. Tuesday on BET

Continue reading here:
'Tales' creator flips the script on race in provocative series - New York Post

Via Facebook, former WESH-Channel 2 reporter Bob Kealing has announced his new job.

On Monday, he starts as senior public affairs administrator/PIO for Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma.

I'm honored to be the new spokesman for such a professional and progressive law enforcement agency, Kealing writes.

Lemma, also on Facebook, tells Kealing: I can't tell you how excited we all are to have you join the team. You are going to be great in this new role.

Kealing made the announcement on Wednesday, which was his 53rd birthday. In October, I wrote about him and seven other veteran reporters at WESH.

He explained then why he had stayed so long in Central Florida. We've all been bitten by the ambition bug and had some very tempting offers, he said. Ive been able to do things during my career to grow and remain challenged which did not require uprooting myself and my family. Ive reported nationally and internationally for WESH and NBC. Anyone who knows Orlando knows the next major story is never far away. Its a great news town.

Kealing and his wife, Karen, have been married 19 years. Their children are William, 16, and Kristen, 14.

Personal issues were a crucial reason for staying here, Kealing said. With a young family and a great group of friends and neighbors, that only added to the allure of staying in the City Beautiful, he said. My family loves it here.

In early May, Kealing left the NBC affiliate after nearly 25 years.

Twenty-five years is a line of demarcation, Kealing told me then. Its scary any time you try to jump off in a new venture.

At WESH, Kealing earned five Emmys and shared in two Edward R. Murrow Regional Awards. He reported on the Casey Anthony and George Zimmerman trials and the Pulse nightclub massacre.

Kealing has gained fame as an author. Tupperware Unsealed, his 2008 book on pioneering businesswoman Brownie Wise, became Life of the Party when it was re-released last year. A movie version remains in development.

His most recent book, Elvis Ignited, examines Floridas importance in the career of Elvis Presley.

Kealing also wrote "Calling Me Home: Gram Parsons and the Roots of Country Rock," which came out in 2012, and "Kerouac in Florida: Where the Road Ends," which was published in 2004.

hboedeker@orlandosentinel.com and 407-420-5756.

More here:
Bob Kealing to become Seminole sheriff's PIO - Orlando Sentinel

July 6, 2017

Osahon Tongo's Website: Click Here

by Matt Winkeljohn | The Good Word

Osahon Tongo circled around the other day, passing through Atlanta and stopping by Georgia Tech to revisit the roots of his flight plan -- which is by no means static -- and the former Yellow Jacket linebacker found himself connecting with several of his "light warriors."

This is not to say that the newly minted filmmaker closed any circles.

Tongo will be back, and his next visit to Tech is likely to merge profession and passion -- storytelling and the Yellow Jackets. He's hoping to help breathe life into the vision of athletics director Todd Stansbury by helping to tell the stories of Tech and its student-athletes via video, film and interactive media.

With air beneath his feet following the June 15 world premiere of his short story, "Iman and the Light Warriors," at the American Black Film Festival presented by HBO in South Beach, he returned to The Flats, where he played, studied and discovered possibilities from 2006-10. He left recently with the goal of expanding more horizons. (Photos from "Iman and the Light Warriors")

"Hopefully, I'll be back in Atlanta more often. I'm going to be able to help with some of the story telling at Georgia Tech," Tongo said. "Todd Stansbury is really trying to make Georgia Tech what it can be, and what I imagined.

"Even if you go in his room, there are quotes on his board, like, `Our responsibility is to create leaders who will change the world.' I don't know that any other ADs have that priority, just balancing budgets."

Tongo has a term, "light warrior," for those who aid, guide and even protect. Tech gave him many light warriors while he was a Jacket.

Teammates, coaches, professors and others helped the management major conquer adversity, choose prudent paths from countless options, solve problems, and even learn to assist others. Tongo wants to be a light warrior back.

He's already been one, actually, as he played a supporting role in "Iman and the Light Warriors," a fictional story he wrote about a 10-year-old boy in the dangerous post-revolution City of Aya. Iman's light warriors, who each have developing superpowers, help safeguard him on the way to school so that he can profess his love to his friend, Crystal.

Tongo, who earned a graduate degree in April, 2016, from the USC Cinematic School of Arts, originally made the film, with director, friend, and classmate Jarrett Benjamin Woo, as the final project for one of his last classes, Film 546, Production III - Fiction. Later, they polished it up, and submitted it for a spot in the Black Film Festival, which chose it and a few others from roughly 100 applications.

Motivations for his script were drawn from Tongo's personal experiences and observations of the world. Iman was borne from observation, for example, and Osiris from experience.

"I originally wrote that three years ago. I'd watched this movie (Five Broken Cameras) about a Palestinian on the border, a human story about kids walking through a war zone to go to school," Tongo explained.

"My best friend's brother, Dejavonte Moore, died growing up. He was hit by a truck. He went through gang territory going to school. It was always on my mind."

The movie's credits dedicate the film to "The Fallen Light Warriors," a combination of nine people in the lives of Tongo, Woo and other production and cast members who have passed away -- like Moore.

A 10th spot is dedicated to Trayvon Martin -- an unarmed 17-year-old African-American shot and killed in 2012 by George Zimmerman, who reported Martin as "suspicious." In the movie, Iman places a package of red Twizzlers (licorice) at a shrine to Osiris while on the way to school. Martin died with skittles.

"We cut out a [full] scene where he goes to the grocery to get Twizzlers," Tongo said. "It's an analogy to Trayvon, somebody killed because of someone else's fears."

Tongo's conquered fears, and grown them into action items.

"When I was at Tech the last semester [spring, 2010], I didn't know what I was going to do," he recalled. "I had a year of eligibility. I had a hip injury from 2009, and I had a panic attack on the practice field. I was freaking out, my hands shaking in the dirt, and I didn't see a therapist. I just slept for the rest of the day.

"I didn't talk to anybody for two days. I finished spring ball and got a job [foregoing a final season of football]."

That job, in digital marketing at CNN, came in part through networking with a Tech connection, current assistant athletics director for brand & ideation Simit Shah. A Tech graduate, Shah in 2010 was director of web operations at CNN and helped Tongo get on at CNN after graduation. Soon, he figures to again work with Tongo, at least part time, at Tech.

After nearly two years at CNN, where he grew his digital skills and did more and more video and social work, Tongo executed an internship he'd earned at Tech. Off to Greece he went, "to work in a humane society through AIESEC. We went to Greece and met Tunisian revolutionaries at a conference in Athens; it was an incredible experience."

Back in the States in 2012, Tongo worked in the office of admissions for Emory University's Gouzieta School of Business MBA program. While working at Emory, "I started working on film sets," he said. "We flew around the country to tell these stories, not just write simple stuff."

Before long, an itched developed and Tongo went to USC's SCA -- the largest school of its kind in the world -- to scratch it.

He's learned and practiced just about every aspect of film making, including sound, special effects, casting, filming, you name it. Tongo was even an assistant director on Iman for a day, filling in, and helped find film sites for the crew.

"The director and I hit it off as [screenplay] writing partners, and I kept getting pulled in directions. We were in the Scientology commune building used by [Scientology founder] L. Ron Hubbard; we shot in there for two days," said Tongo, who's directed a few short films. "That scene where [Iman's] getting out of his house, the graffiti, we painted it back the way it was before we left.

"The trains and the mural [shrine to Osiris], that was in the arts district. That's tagging territory [where L.A. graffiti artists are prevalent]. We did our graffiti, and if you tag over someone else's [graffiti], they'll tag over yours so . . . the director (Woo) and production designer slept over to make sure we didn't get tagged."

Tongo's been tagged several times, actually, called upon to assist a number of productions in a variety of capacities.

Before going to the American Black Film Festival in Miami, he was working in Hawaii on "Paradise Run," one of Nickelodeon's top shows (Click Here).

"One of my professors, [executive director] Scott A. Stone, the professor for my reality TV class, asked if I'd like to go to Hawaii and be a production assistant," Tongo said. "I got to learn on the job."

The mind of Tongo, who was at Tech from 2006-10, is a fascinating place, and it travels. His itinerary is a chore to keep up with, as are his churning dreams and visions.

Always learning on the move, he left Atlanta for a wedding in Dallas and is now spending time with his family in Naperville, Ill. Then, back to Los Angeles, where he, Woo and others are trying to convert Iman and the Light Warriors into a TV series, albeit with a more adult orientation than that of the short film.

He'll return to Tech, too, where he built memories and hatched ideas.

For all the many visions he has and the paths he takes, some of his opinions are clear and constant: keep an open mind, embrace love, remain ever on the road to discovery and work with others to make the world a better place.

Former teammates Dominique Reese, Sedric Griffin and many others, coaches, professors, academic advisors, Shah . . . they're all light warriors, lifting Tongo and others so that he might lift others in return.

That's what Iman and the Light Warriors is about, and it's Tongo to a T.

"The whole message is how do you fight fear? With love," he said. "Keep your heart open when you're dealing with adversity. We're all light warriors even though I don't understand my powers yet."

The origin of Tongo's mission is cast in celluloid (or the modern equivalent), as the movie's final credit line explains the inspirations behind it:

"Based on the fact that all my homies are super heroes on a quest to unleash their superpowers."

See the rest here:
#TGW: Tongo to a 'T' - Georgia Tech Official Athletic Site