O.J. Simpson murder trial miniseries

Fox is developing an O.J. Simpson murder trial miniseries.Fox just announced two projects in development based on best-selling booksJames Clavell's classic novel Shogun will inspire a Fox "event series"Jeffrey Toobin's O.J. Simpson book, "The Run of His Life" will also become a series

(CNN) -- Fox just announced two very different long-form projects in development based on best-selling books: James Clavell's classic novel "Shogun" and legal journalist Jeffrey Toobin's "The Run of His Life: The People vs. O.J. Simpson" are both in the works for "event series" treatment.

"These are both epic stories -- one fiction, one fact -- that have captivated millions of people worldwide," said Shana C. Waterman, a senior vp at Fox. "They're riveting and emotional, with unique historic backdrops that lend themselves to the high-quality, dramatic event series we're looking to make."

The projects are dubbed "event series" by Fox instead of the traditional term "mini-series." The distinction: They're longer (10 to 12 parts) and could hypothetically extend beyond one season (though the Simpson project seems pretty self-contained). The shows have notable auspices on board — Shogun is from producers Michael De Luca (The Social Network) and Nigel Williams (Elizabeth I); The Run of His Life: The People vs. O.J. Simpson, which chronicles Simpson's 1995 murder trial, is from Nina Jacobson (The Hunger Games) and Brad Simpson (World War Z).

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Shogun was previously adapted into an NBC miniseries in 1980 starring Richard Chamberlain.

More notoriously, Fox scheduled a two-part interview with Simpson in 2006 as part of the promotional tour for his planned quasi-confessional book If I Did It. The network touted in the press release, "Simpson describes how he would have carried out the murders he has vehemently denied committing for over a decade." After public outcry and several of the network's affiliates balking at the prospect of airing the interview, Fox decided not to air the special.

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Official descriptions:

SHOGUN, based on the best-selling novel by James Clavell, opens a window into the brutal world of a rarely seen feudal Japan. Set in the 17th Century, the story is told from the perspective of British hero John Blackthorne, a sailor who rises from outsider to samurai, while being used as a pawn in Japanese leader Toranaga's struggle to reach the top of the ruling chain, or Shogun. A classic for the ages, SHOGUN is both a cross-cultural exploration of Blackthorne's journey away from the European way of life, and a star-crossed love story, as he falls for the magnificent Lady Mariko, the married confidant to Toranaga.

Everybody remembers where they were when O.J. Simpson, riding in a white Bronco, led the police on a low-speed chase all over Los Angeles. This marked the emergence of the 24-hour news cycle and the birth of reality television. Written by Golden Globe Award winners Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski ("The People vs. Larry Flint," "Man on the Moon," "Ed Wood"), THE RUN OF HIS LIFE: THE PEOPLE V. O.J. SIMPSON (wt) will take viewers behind the scenes of "The Trial of The Century," driven by the nonstop plot of a courtroom thriller and presenting the story of the trial as it has never been told.

See the original article at EW.com.

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Man charged with murder in wife's hospital death

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — A man charged with shooting his wife of 45 years in a hospital intensive care unit in what may have been a mercy killing was charged Wednesday with aggravated murder, and his attorney said the man always acted out of love.

John Wise appeared before a municipal court judge in Akron via video from jail Wednesday morning. No plea was entered. He must return to court Aug. 22.

Wise, who lived with his wife in Massillon, is accused of shooting her at her bedside in the ICU unit of Akron General Medical Center Saturday. She died the next morning.

His attorney, Paul Adamson, said after the brief court session that the unfolding case would show Wise acted out of love.

"I'm thoroughly convinced he's a good man. I think his past history bears that out," Adamson said.

"Forty-five years of marriage, blessed to be deeply in love with his wife throughout those 45 years, and I am absolutely confident that everything that he's ever done for his wife has been done out of deep love, including the events that just recently transpired."

Wise appeared in court Tuesday and was apparently confused about initially being charged only with attempted murder, asking "Is she not dead?" Visiting Judge Marvin Shapiro told Wise that he would soon have an attorney who could answer his questions.

Prosecutors upgraded the charge to aggravated murder after an autopsy showed that Barbara Wise died from a gunshot wound to her head. A county medical examiner ruled her death a homicide.

Nurses on the hospital floor where Barbara Wise had been in critical condition in the ICU for several days at first thought an oxygen tank had exploded when they heard a popping sound, a 911 caller told a dispatcher.

A woman, who identified herself as a nurse, said she and others looked into the room and saw a man dressed in black. "We saw him sitting there with a gun. He was, like, loading it," she said.

The caller said she didn't know if anybody had been shot, but she heard screaming as she hid in a room.

Why Barbara Wise was in the hospital hasn't been released.

Emergency personnel responded to the Wises' home a week before the shooting for a medical call that involved advanced life support, including oxygen and a heart monitor. Hospital and emergency officials have said they can't disclose any information about patients because of privacy rules.

Wise entered the hospital on Saturday through the main entrance and went up to his wife's room without drawing any attention, apparently keeping the handgun concealed, hospital spokesman Jim Gosky said. A doctor nearby heard a distinctive popping sound, he said.

Man shoots wife at Akron General Medical Center.

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El Salvador's gang truce cuts murder rate

QUEZALTEPEQUE, El Salvador (Reuters) - Victor Garcia, alias 'The Duck,' at 39 has survived longer than most gang members in El Salvador, and has seen hundreds of his 'homies' killed by rivals over the years.

The relentless tit-for-tat murders between El Salvador's two largest street gangs - "Calle 18" and "Mara Salvatrucha" - made the country the most murderous in the world last year after neighboring Honduras, also ravaged by gang violence.

That was until Garcia, from the Calle 18 ("18th Street") gang, along with elders from the Mara Salvatrucha declared an unprecedented truce that authorities say has cut the homicide rate in half in just four months.

"We've been through things that have changed us. It is a waste of life, those who have died in this conflict," said Garcia, a tattoo of a skeleton hand clutching his shaved head.

Formed in the 1980s in the United States by Central American immigrants, many refugees from the region's civil wars, the gangs or "maras" grew into an international franchise when criminals were deported back home.

They have grown dramatically in the last two decades and El Salvador alone has an estimated 64,000 gang members. Branches operate across Central America and in at least 42 states in the United States.

The gangs deal drugs, run prostitution rings and protection rackets and carry out armed robberies. Many gang members cover their faces and bodies with menacing tattoos to prove their lifelong commitment. The turf wars are brutal, with gangs often targeting their rivals' family members.

Tired of the cycle of revenge killings, gang leaders housed side by side with their enemies in a maximum security prison outside the capital of San Salvador decided to broker a deal.

Garcia from the Calle 18 gang and Aristides Umanzor, aka "El Sirra," from the Mara Salvatrucha - each backed up by 15 of their top lieutenants - sought out a Catholic bishop and a former leftist congressman to serve as mediators.

In March, they surprised the country by releasing a joint statement declaring an end to violence and pledging to freeze recruitment of new adolescent members, especially in poor neighborhoods and around schools.

Since then, the change has been dramatic. Murder rates are down to around five a day from more than a dozen before the pact. On April 14, El Salvador recorded its first day in three years without a single murder.

"We aren't demobilizing, we'll always be gangsters," Garcia said from a prison in Quezaltepeque where he is serving out a 28-year sentence. "But we are quitting crime little by little as long as we can find jobs and a chance to re-enter society."

President Mauricio Funes, a leftist, insists his government did not cut any deals with the gangsters. But shortly before the truce was made public, 30 top gang leaders were transferred from maximum-security prisons to others with benefits like family visits.

Garcia was transferred to Quezaltepeque, where prisoners enjoy some modest freedoms, although he still lives with 15 other men in a cell designed for six.

U-TURN

The government has lauded the truce and is trying to help its long-term success by working with business leaders to offer work and rehabilitation programs for gang members.

It is a policy U-turn from the "iron fist" tactics used against the gangs for years in Central America. Under Funes' conservative predecessor, teenagers could be arrested just for sporting gang tattoos without having committed any crime, filling the jails to dangerous levels.

"It was open hunting season on the gangs. We knew that if we didn't do something soon, this was never going to change," said Garcia.

El Faro, an online newspaper in El Salvador, reported the truce was the result of a government deal with gangsters to stop the violence in exchange for better prison conditions and other favors, but the government denies that.

Still, it hopes that, just as the rivalries crossed borders for decades, the message of peace from Garcia and his former enemies can now seep over to neighboring countries.

"We want to share our experiences because we are seeing results," said El Salvador's defense minister, David Munguia, who recently met with his counterparts in Guatemala and Honduras to discuss regional crime-fighting strategies. "We would like it to be replicated elsewhere but always considering the specific circumstances in the different countries."

The head of the Organization of American States, or OAS, went to El Salvador last week to meet with gang members and to glean lessons for the rest of the region.

A former journalist, Funes is the first president from the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, which was founded by Marxist guerrillas who fought in a 12-year-long civil war that killed 75,000 people.

Peace accords were signed in 1992 but the political violence was quickly replaced with an explosion of gang warfare and violent crime, and the government says the recent truce is only part of the solution.

"The gangs are still criminal organizations and we are still pursing them. ... We don't expect them to stop being delinquents overnight," Munguia said.

NEIGHBORS ARE SKEPTICAL

Officials and gangs in other countries are skeptical the success in El Salvador can spread.

Guatemalan President Otto Perez, a retired general, took office in January on a campaign promise to clamp down on crime and just this week busted 40 gang members for extorting money from people in a neighborhood in the capital city.

The groups run lucrative extortion schemes, demanding "war taxes" from local shop owners, bus drivers and private homes. They often kill those who don't pay up.

"We are not willing to have a dialogue with 'maras'" Perez said earlier this year. "We are calling on them to stop committing crimes, but if they have already committed crimes, they must face the consequences."

In Honduras, the deadliest country in the world according to the United Nations with an annual rate of 87 murders per 100,000 people, the sentiment is much the same.

"We cannot negotiate with them," said Hector Suazo, director of Honduras' special investigations unit at the security ministry. "They manage large sums of money thanks to the drug trade. The kids are heavily armed and take over entire areas to extort and terrorize the population."

One former member of the Mara Salvatrucha in Guatemala, who belonged to a local clique called "the crazies," is not convinced the calm in El Salvador will last.

"There are a lot of lies on the street," he said, asking not to be named during an interview at the jail where he is locked up for homicide. "The homies say one thing and do another. They don't keep their word."

(Additional reporting by Mike McDonald in Guatemala City and Gustavo Palencia in Tegucigalpa; Writing by Mica Rosenberg; Editing by Kieran Murray; Desking by Todd Eastham)

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Zimmerman seeks new judge in murder case

MIAMI (Reuters) - The Florida man charged with second-degree murder in the killing of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin asked for a new judge in his case on Friday, accusing the current judge of bias.

Lawyers for George Zimmerman filed a motion requesting that Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester withdraw from the trial.

Zimmerman alleged in the filing that Lester made "gratuitous" and "disparaging remarks" about him during a July 5 bond hearing and offered "a personal opinion" in the case.

"In doing so, the Court has created a reasonable fear in Mr. Zimmerman that this Court is biased against him and because of this prejudice he cannot receive a fair and impartial trial or hearing by this Court," the motion said.

Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watch volunteer, was released from jail on $150,000 bail in April. But Lester later revoked his bail after prosecutors accused Zimmerman and his wife of misleading the court about their finances to secure a lower bond.

During the original bond hearing, Zimmerman sat silently as his wife, Shellie, told the court the couple had no money.

But investigators later learned the couple failed to disclose $135,000 they raised from a website created by Zimmerman to collect funds from anonymous donors for his legal defense and his wife was later charged with perjury.

Earlier this month, Lester set Zimmerman's bail at $1 million and issued a scathing decision rejecting arguments by Zimmerman's lawyer that he posed no risk to the community and his portrayal of the case against Zimmerman as weak.

"Under any definition, the defendant has flouted the system," Lester wrote at the time. He said Zimmerman's "stories changed with each retelling."

Lester also said Mark O'Mara, Zimmerman's attorney, attempted to portray Zimmerman as a confused young man who "experienced a moment of weakness" and may have acted out a sense of betrayal by the justice system.

"This court finds the opposite. The defendant has tried to manipulate the system when he has been presented the opportunity to do so," Lester wrote.

O'Mara referred to Lester's words in the motion. "The Court chose language ... to describe the defendant in ways that reflect the Court's opinion of Mr. Zimmerman's character as much as his conduct," he wrote.

"A reason why Mr. Zimmerman feels he cannot get a fair trial is that the Court spent a lot time and a lot of words crafting an order that was harsh and morally indignant in tone," O'Mara continued.

Zimmerman was released from jail last week after posting bail and is currently living in an undisclosed safe house in Seminole County, Florida.

It is the second time Zimmerman and his legal team have requested a new judge.

In April, they asked the judge presiding at the time to step aside because of a possible conflict of interest after revelations that the judge's husband had been contacted by Zimmerman's family as part of their search for a defense attorney.

The request was granted and Lester was appointed to serve as the judge in the case.

Zimmerman claims self-defense in the February 26 shooting death of 17-year-old Martin in a gated community in the central Florida city of Sanford.

Martin's killing drew national attention because police initially declined to arrest Zimmerman, citing Florida's "Stand Your Ground" self-defense law and his assertion that he used deadly force because he feared his life was in danger.

In a another development on Friday, Lester ordered the release of recorded telephone calls made by Zimmerman while he was in jail, denying a motion by his lawyer.

(Editing by Todd Eastham)

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Tulsa shooting suspects face murder, hate crime charges

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Two men accused of going on a shooting spree that terrorized Tulsa's predominantly black north side face murder and hate crime charges, prosecutors said Friday in an announcement praised by community leaders who had called for swift action by authorities.

Jake England, 19, and his roommate, Alvin Watts, 33, each were charged with three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of shooting with intent to kill and five counts of malicious harassment, prosecutors said. The harassment counts allege the victims were targeted because of their race.

"I think that it's an embrace, a symbolic embrace of the serious nature of the crime," said Democratic State Rep. Seneca Scott of Tulsa, who attended a Friday meeting with area ministers and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. "Sad as it is, it's a real victory for justice."

Jackson planned to stay in Tulsa for a community gathering Saturday, while the Rev. Al Sharpton announced after the charges were filed that he would cancel plans to travel to the city for a Sunday rally but would visit with victims' families another time.

Police say England and Watts, arrested early Sunday after a two-day manhunt, have confessed and appeared to have chosen five random victims. Three died and two others were wounded. All the victims were black and police have said one motive might have been England's desire to avenge his father's fatal shooting by a black man two years ago.

Defense attorney Clark Brewster, who said he has agreed to represent England at the request of England's mother, said Friday that it's "a misplaced premise that he was motivated by any racial hate."

Brewster said "the facts that people are throwing about" need to be proven in court. He said how England pleads will depend on where the case stands at the point when he's asked to do so, which could be several weeks away.

Court documents do not list an attorney for Watts and efforts to reach him by phone at the Tulsa County Jail, where both men are being held without bond, were unsuccessful Friday. Both men are to be arraigned Monday.

First-degree murder is punishable by death or life in prison in Oklahoma. Prosecutors said decisions about whether to seek the death penalty are usually made after a preliminary hearing. A first conviction under the state's malicious harassment law — which applies in cases where a victim is specifically targeted because of race, religion, ancestry, natural origin or disability — carries up to a year in jail.

"Filing charges is the first step to obtain justice for the victims and their families," said Doug Drummond, Tulsa County First Assistant District Attorney. "This is a tragic and senseless crime."

Documents filed with the charges said anonymous callers to a police department hotline before the men were arrested claimed England was a racist who hated black men and that he "has mentioned he will die in a shoot out with the police if he has to." England's family and friends have said the death of his father and his girlfriend's January suicide sent him into a downward spiral.

England's father, Carl, was fatally shot in 2010 by a black man who had threatened Carl England's daughter. After tracking down Pernell Jefferson, the men fought and Carl England was fatally shot. Jefferson was not charged with homicide because an investigation determined he acted in self-defense.

The Easter weekend shootings had gripped Tulsa's black community with fear. Quick arrests relieved many residents and ended talk of a vigilante response, but community leaders were firm in calling the shootings a hate crime.

Jackson attended the Friday funeral for one of the victims, Bobby Clark, before meeting with a group of ministers and elected officials at First Baptist Church of North Tulsa later in the afternoon, the Rev. Anthony Scott said. Jackson planned to stay in Tulsa through the weekend to attend a community worship service at the church Saturday and Sunday morning services, Scott said.

Sharpton, who had planned to attend another rally Sunday at Greater Union Baptist Church, issued a statement saying he's glad the charges were filed and that he would now stay at his National Action Network's weekend convention in Washington, D.C., to fundraise.

"I was scheduled to be in Tulsa this weekend but now feel that I can be more useful to the families of the victims to remain at my national convention and raise money for them," Sharpton said.

Sharpton said he would kick off a fundraising drive with $1,000 from the network for the families of each of the three people killed.

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