Saturday, June 22, 12:13 p.m. EDT: On Saturday morning, Judge Debra Nelson ruled that while the audiotape of the 911 call can be played during the upcoming trial, which begins on Monday, the findings of audio will not be admissable. CBS News reports that this decision will likely shorten the proceedings by one week.
Thursday, June 20, 3:32 p.m. EDT: A jury has been selected to decide if George Zimmerman is guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin. According to Raw Story, here are the stats: The six jurors are all women. Five are white, and one is Hispanic. All are in their 50s, 60s and 70s. That's right, in the racially charged case of the unarmed teen's murder, not a single person responsible for deciding on the outcome of the case will be African American.
Thursday, June 20, 11:02 a.m. EDT: After eight days of jury selection, during which 40 potential jurors have been culled from a group of hundreds, a final jury of six people will soon be seated in the second-degree-murder trial of George Zimmerman, the New York Times reports. Of that pool of 40 people, 27 are white. That, the Times reports, makes the group more racially diverse than Florida's Seminole County, where 4 out of 5 residents are white; and Sanford, where 57 percent of residents identify as white.
Wednesday, June 19, 12:39 p.m. EDT: Trayvon Martin's family has "every confidence" that a jury will convict George Zimmerman, a family attorney said today. Trayvon's family, including his mother, Sybrina Fulton, and father, Tracy Martin, have attended jury-selection proceedings in the Seminole County Criminal Justice Center over the past week. That process moves into its second phase today.
Tuesday, June 18, 10:57 a.m. EDT: As jury selection in George Zimmerman's second-degree-murder trial continues, lawyers are looking to select jurors who can be fair and impartial despite what they know or believe about the case; they are also looking to root out the occasional "stealth juror" with a hidden agenda. That means spending about 30 minutes grilling each one. Reuters explains how that time-consuming process is unfolding.
Monday, June 17, 10:10 a.m. EDT: As jury selection in the murder trial of George Zimmerman resumes today for a second week, there's a heavy police presence provided by about two dozen uniformed officers who patrol the parking lots, surround an outdoor public gathering space and staff two separate security checkpoints, Reuters reports. However, inside the courtroom, most of the public seating has reportedly been vacant. The Martin family's attorney, Benjamin Crump, blamed that on the jury-selection process, which he said was as exciting as "watching paint dry."
Friday, June 14, 2013, 9:32 a.m. EDT: The jury in Zimmerman's second-degree-murder trial will be sequestered for the period of time needed to try the case, the judge assigned to the case announced Thursday. She predicted that the trial would take two to four weeks once jury selection is complete, the Miami Herald reports.
Thursday, June 13, 11:33 a.m. EDT: Jury selection continues in George Zimmerman's second-degree-murder case, and you can see all it live at NBC News.
Thursday, June 13, 9:21 a.m. EDT: After yesterday's jury-selection proceedings, Martin-family attorney Ben Crump said to reporters, "Trayvon Martin is not on trial here; he is the victim. George Zimmerman, his killer, is the man who is on trial." He also took issue with a comment made by former New York City police Detective Harry Houck Tuesday on a FoxNews.com live panel that Trayvon would be alive if he didn't have "street attitude." Crump called the remark "reprehensible and extremely reminiscent of the victim-blaming rhetoric we saw a year ago."
Tuesday, June 11, 8:44 a.m. EDT: On the first day of George Zimmerman's second-degree-murder trial, members of both his family and Trayvon Martin's told the court that they have received death threats, ABC News reports. "We have an issue with security," Trayvon's mother, Sybrina Fulton, said yesterday. "We have decided that we would not wear bulletproof vests. Are we taking a chance with our lives? Yes, we certainly are, but we're putting our faith in God." Zimmerman's brother Robert Zimmerman also mentioned death threats his family has received when he addressed the court in the morning.
Monday, June 10, 2013, 7:28 p.m. EDT: Potential jurors met George Zimmerman on Monday before filling out questionnaires for the lawyers picking a panel that will decide if he's guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Trayvon Martin, NBC News reports. Prosecutors and defense attorneys are expected to take about two weeks to find six jurors and some alternates. Five hundred people received summonses for the high-profile trial, and 100 of them reported on Monday.
Monday, June 10, 2013, 7:02 a.m. EDT: As jury selection begins today in George Zimmerman's second-degree-murder trial, legal experts preduct that race may be a focus, ABC News reports. "Each side will try to stack the deck in their favor," said Jose Baez, who successfully defended Casey Anthony in 2011. "It's going to be an issue of what type of jurors will sit in the judgment of George Zimmerman. What political backgrounds do they come from? What are their views on racism? What are their views on gun control? All of these important modern issues that we're facing … and that's what jury selection will be about in this case." Zimmerman, who fatally shot Trayvon Martin in Florida, has claimed self-defense, and his attorney plans to portray the unarmed teen as a troublemaker.
Friday, June 7, 11:12 a.m. EDT: A new video from Trayvon Martin's cellphone publicly reveals his voice for the first time. Listen to it at ABC News.
Thursday, June 6, 11 a.m. EDT: At a hearing today, Judge Debra Nelson of Seminole County Circuit Court in Florida rejected a request from a lawyer for George Zimmerman to shield the identities of as many as seven witnesses at Zimmerman's upcoming trial, NBC reports. Attorney O'Mara said that the concerns of the potential trial witnesses included "personal concerns for their safety," but Nelson seemingly agreed with prosecutors who worried that it would be "alarming and confusing to a juror and might otherwise highlight their testimony when it shouldn't be highlighted."
Tuesday, June 4, 2013, 8:22 a.m. EDT: The 5th District Court of Appeal ruled yesterday that Benjamin Crump, an attorney for Trayvon Martin's family, must answer questions under oath from George Zimmerman's attorneys. The defense will have a right to depose Crump about his dealings with a woman who was on the phone with Trayvon moments before he was shot and is expected to be the state's most important witness, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
Monday, June 3, 11:05 a.m. EDT: George Zimmerman's lawyers said on Sunday that a video found on Trayvon Martin's cellphone actually shows two homeless men fighting over a bicycle, not two of Trayvon's friends beating up a homeless man, as defense attorney Mark O'Mara described it in court last week. O'Mara described his mischaracterization in court as unintentional and said, "We have been committed to disputing misinformation in every aspect of this case, not causing it," the Los Angeles Times reports.
Wednesday, May 29, 6:13 p.m. EDT: George Zimmerman's defense fund is almost depleted, just under two weeks before the scheduled beginning of his second-degree-murder trial in the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, the Huffington Post reports. Zimmerman's attorneys posted on their website Wednesday that the fund had less than $5,000 left. The fund had almost $315,000 in January.
Tuesday, May 28, 6 p.m. EDT: At a hearing today, U.S. Circuit Judge Debra Nelson ruled that George Zimmerman's defense will be barred from mentioning Trayvon Martin's marijuana use, history of fights or high school suspension during opening statements in Zimmerman's second-degree-murder trial, which begins June 10. She also denied the defense's requests for more time to prepare for the trial. Read more at the Orlando Sentinel.
Tuesday, May 28, 9:54 a.m. EDT: Today Mark O'Mara, George Zimmerman's defense attorney, will ask U.S. Circuit Judge Debra Nelson to postpone George Zimmerman's second-degree-murder trial in order to assess whether voice-identification experts should be allowed to testify, and to allow the jury to learn about Trayvon's drug use, fights and school history. Watch the pretrial hearing live at NBC News.
Friday, May 24, 12:20 p.m. EDT: Photos and text messages provided by George Zimmerman's defense attorney have been added to evidence in his second-degree-murder case in the death of Trayvon Martin, the Chicago Tribune reports. The information, which was pulled from the teen's cellphone, includes images of plants that appear to be marijuana and a .40 Smith & Wesson handgun, as well as text messages that Trayvon wrote about being a fighter, smoking marijuana and quarreling with his mother. The prosecution says the evidence should be barred. Circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson may decide on this issue during a court date on May 28.
Tuesday, May 21, 8:10 a.m. EDT: Audio experts in George Zimmerman's second-degree-murder case in the death of Trayvon Martin disagree about the source of the screams for help captured on 911 calls, the Associated Press reports. One audio expert says in a report released today that the screams came from Trayvon, while another audio expert says the shouts were a mix of Trayvon and Zimmerman.
Thursday, May 16, 7:04 p.m. EDT: George Zimmerman's wife, Shellie, who is facing a perjury charge (prosecutors contend that she lied during her husband's April 20, 2012, bond hearing when she told a judge they were broke), has filed a witness list in her case. The list includes her sister-in-law and brother-in-law, the couple who helped her husband set up a fundraising website and manage the money they received, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
Tuesday, May 14, 12:41 p.m. EDT: Florida prosecutors on Monday asked a judge to block George Zimmerman's attorneys from presenting information about Trayvon Martin's troubles at school and his marijuana smoking at the trial for the former Sanford, Fla., neighborhood-watch volunteer, calling it irrelevant, according to WFTV. Prosecutors also moved to bar any social media screen names that Trayvon used, the contents of his text messages and his school records.
Thursday, May 9, 10:43 a.m. EDT: In a May Daily Caller op-ed, George Zimmerman's brother, Robert, asserts that the NAACP "thrives off racially divisive controversies" and accuses the organization of "spewing fabrications laced with racial innuendo." The piece doesn't mention his own explicitly racist Twitter tirade against "black teens," in which he linked Trayvon to a 17-year-old accused of killing an infant. Read more at Media Matters.
Wednesday, May 8, 12:14 p.m. EDT: George Zimmerman, who has pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder for fatally shooting 17-year-old Trayvon Martin last year, is challenging the expected use of a voice-recognition expert at his upcoming murder trial. Trayvon's family claims that a voice heard on 911 calls made by neighbors during the struggle is Trayvon's. But Zimmerman's attorney filed a motion asking for a hearing to determine whether testimony from the expert would be allowed, and arguing that it could confuse jurors, Fox News reports.
Read our last set of updates on the Trayvon Martin case here.
Read all of The Root's news and commentary about the Trayvon Martin case here.