NEW YORK–So, just a few minutes ago I sat down with Casey Anthony's attorney here on Best Defense, Jose Baez. And even before I'd asked him a single question, I received a flood of emails attacking him for defending a mother accused of killing her baby girl.

In fact, in nearly every case we bring you on the Best Defense, the defense attorneys, especially the ones who do their jobs well, come under fire. But think about it. Would we have it any other way?

Because it’s not about Casey Anthony or any other notorious client. Instead, it’s about that client’s right to counsel and to a fair trial. Because her rights are your rights. It’s all right there in the Constitution. The Sixth Amendment gives to us all the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury, the right to confront witnesses and the assistance of counsel. I believe that defending the accused is the most sacred role a lawyer can play in our system of justice.

Folks always ask me: How can you defend those people? My answer: How could I not?

–Jami Floyd, In Session anchor

NEW YORK–Marcello Lucero was walking to a friend’s house last weekend to watch a movie when his life came to a brutal end. The Ecuadorean native was allegedly beaten and stabbed by a group of teenagers who police said wanted "to beat up some Mexicans."

Lucero's death Saturday night on Long Island, New York was quickly labeled a hate crime by authorities. Unfortunately, it’s part of an underreported spike of hate crimes against Hispanics in the last few years. According to the FBI, Anti-Hispanic hate crimes have increased 40 percent since 2003.

Hispanic advocates blame a climate of harsh rhetoric surrounding the national immigration debate, and they surely have a point.

The Justice Department says that out of all bias crimes based on ethnicity, 62 percent target Hispanics, 38 percent everyone else. 62 percent! Though Hispanics are only 14 percent of the population. Those are some scary numbers.

New York’s hate crimes law operates as an enhancement, so if convicted, these defendants will serve longer terms. On the federal level, we need stronger protection against hate crimes against all groups, including gay, lesbian and transgender people. The Matthew Shepard Act would provide that protection. It’s been introduced every year since 1999. President-elect Barack Obama favors it, and so do I. Let’s all speak with a clear, unequivocal voice that hate crimes have no place in this country.

–Lisa Bloom, In Session anchor

NEW YORK - I am going to go out on a limb here and say this about gay marriage: California got it wrong and Connecticut has it right. And I say this to you as a Christian – one who reads the Bible and goes to church and prays with my children. Because to me Proposition 8, well it just doesn't seem like the Christian thing to do.

The courts in California gave gay people the right to marry. And now, voters have taken that right away. And that's downright mean-spirited. Now, my Christian brothers and sisters are quick to tell me that they are okay with civil unions. But that marriage is between a man and a women. My friends say they are tolerant. But is tolerant the best we can do in this country? Doesn't the Constitution require something more? Isn't this country about equal protection for all Americans? Not just some of us.

And I know, there have always been those who resist change. They opposed the abolition of slavery. They opposed civil rights. They opposed inter-marriage and now they oppose gay marriage too. But time and time again we do the right thing and time and time again the Constitution prevails. Because the greatness of America is not rooted in intolerance.

This country is great precisely because we recognize the fundamental rights of all Americans - black and white, male and female and yes, gay and straight.

-Jami Floyd, In Session anchor

NEW YORK–In a new low point for the American criminal justice system, an eight-year-old boy accused of killing his father and another man living in his home faces two counts of premeditated murder in Arizona. Authorities are seeking to try him as an adult.

Police say the child confessed to shooting the two men with a .22 caliber rifle kept in his home.
The lawyer for the eight year old says police questioned the boy without a parent or attorney present and failed to notify the boy of his rights.

As if an eight year old would understand his Miranda rights.

Police are also investigating possible abuse of the boy, which they think may have led to the shooting. Hm. You think?

Are we out of our minds? This child could not sign a contract, vote, drive, marry, hold even a part-time job, or, if he were my kid, walk to school by himself or decide his own bedtime. Yet under our law, he could be charged an adult, and his confession without counsel used against him?

Arizona has one of the laxest gun laws in the U.S. Gun owners are not required to keep their guns inaccessible to kids, they’re not liable for leaving a loaded gun around kids, and they’re not required to have child or trigger locks. As a result, Arizona has one of the highest gun death cases per capita.

This child is caught in the crosshairs of our dangerously lax gun laws and the civilized world’s harshest juvenile justice system. We’re blaming a third grader instead of ourselves for gun violence. Have we gone mad?

–Lisa Bloom, In Session anchor

LAS VEGAS–O.J. Simpson has been denied in his motion for a new trial.

I'm here in Las Vegas, where, in the first court proceeding since Simpson and co-defendant Clarence Stewart were convicted on 12 criminal counts, Judge Jackie Glass stated she had studied the motions for a new trial and denied them all.

As the hearing got underway, attorneys for both men complained to Glass that their clients were not allowed to wear suits to court, and were dressed in the blue uniforms of the Clark County Detention Center.

Simpson's attorneys based their motion for a new trial on seven main issues, including errors during jury selection, not allowing full cross-examination of witnesses and not allowing the defense to present their theory of the case through jury instructions.

Brent Bryson, attorney for Stewart, who also argued for a new trial for his client, based his motion on alleged juror misconduct.

I don't think anyone believed Judge Glass would reverse her rulings, but it is the first step in a post-conviction process that now goes forward with sentencing in December.

That is, unless Simpson's defense team is successful with a motion that raises, in more detail, the alleged juror misconduct issue. Simpson's defense attorney, Yale Galanter, says we will very shortly see a motion that will allege jury foreman Paul Connelly was less than truthful on his jury questionnaire, which the defense says amounted to jury misconduct.

In addition, defense attorney Brent Bryson stated in open court today that Connelly was terminated by his employer, Pepsi, for making racial statements. Galanter and Gabriel Grasso will ask Judge Glass for an evidentiary hearing on the issue.

If it is denied, don't be surprised if there is an emergency appeal on the matter to the Nevada Supreme Court. All of this is expected to be done before the sentencing of Simpson and Stewart, scheduled for December 5.

–Jean Casarez, In Session correspondent

NEW YORK - Prosecutors have filed a motion seeking a gag order in the Casey Anthony case and a hearing has been scheduled for Monday. The attempt to keep parties involved in this case quiet comes in the wake of a defense report that surfaced, outlining why Anthony should not get the death penalty if convicted.

Of course, Anthony is charged with first-degree murder in the disappearance of her daughter Caylee. The 3-year-old was last seen in mid-June but wasn't reported missing until mid-July.

The defense says Anthony may be suffering from depression or other mental conditions and "If death did occur, the death was almost certainly a tragic accident" and the "Death may have occurred while the child was sedated or from an unwitting overdose of a sedative."

The state has until the beginning of December to decide whether it will seek death.

Also, more documents released by the State Attorney's office reveal details of the continuing investigation, including police interviews. Most striking, is the description by George Anthony, Casey's father, of the odor in her car which he noticed on June 30, 2008, two weeks after Caylee was last seen by him.

He is quoted as telling police in a July 24th interview that he recognized the foul odor when he was three feet from the car. George Anthony is a retired Ohio deputy sheriff and knows what a decomposing body smells like. As he opened the trunk he told himself: "Please don't let this be my Caylee." He went on to say "I believe that there's something dead back there, and I hate to say the word 'human'."

Meantime, another search for Caylee's body is taking place this weekend and is based on evidence linked to Casey Anthony's cell tower hits. Bounty hunter Leonard Padilla believes he and EquuSearch can find the missing toddler by Monday.

-Bob Regan, In Session senior executive producer

NEW YORK–It has been a glorious week in America. And at the end of it all, there are the people we love. And then there are still the people we love to hate. And I have long said that black men don't get a fair shake in the media.

But now with Barack Obama as our next president, well, I can't really say that anymore. Forty years after Dr. King's dream, after decades of civil rights struggle before that and after a long legacy of slavery that dates back to the Constitution and before. After all that, we have finally arrived.

So listen up my fellow black folks. All eyes are upon us now. As my grandmother used to sing, it's time to straighten up and fly right. It’s time for dignity and direction. It’s time for a new sense of purpose. It is time, as President Obama said, to "summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility." So my brothers and sisters, that means no more talking trash. No more n-word. No more street corner hustle. No more violence against women. And no more Vegas hotel room capers, either.

It's time to respect one another and ourselves. All Americans, black and white and every shade in between, need this president to succeed, despite his color, not because of it. And we black Americans need to bring our A-game to that effort every day. So as the days and weeks pass, let's not forget what this week has felt like. And let's live up to its promise today and every day.

–Jami Floyd, In Session anchor

NEW YORK–Change is coming. And nowhere is it more necessary than in the realm of law and justice. But there is a new sheriff in town, and when he looks to select the next Attorney General of the United States, or the next Supreme Court Justice, Barack Obama will have an unprecedented opportunity to put into practice his appealing promise of "new" politics.

The next AG will have an awesome responsibility: to restore our faith in the Department of Justice in the face of an ever-evolving war on terror. And up at the Supreme Court, President Obama can restore balance and stop that slow creep to the right. Liberal lions John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader-Ginsberg have served long and well but are likely to retire soon. Put swing-voter Anthony Kennedy and right-winger Antonin Scalia in the mix (both 72) and Obama will likely have several slots to fill in his first term alone.

Add to that all the trial judges and other appointments related to justice, and President Obama has an historic opportunity to reverse the very wrong course of the last eight years. It's a brand new day for justice.

–Jami Floyd, In Session anchor

NEW YORK–In this week of inspiring change, I want to give three cheers for a new California law that’s just been passed on a subject near and dear to my heart.

In what the Humane Society calls the most ambitious ballot measure for animals in this country’s history, California passed Prop 2 with 62 per cent of the vote. Prop 2 requires factory farmers to give animals a little extra room to stretch their limbs and to move like animals should.

It’s cruel to force a hen to be confined with a half-dozen other birds in a tiny cage for her whole life. It’s cruel to force a sow to live in a crate so small she can’t turn around. It’s cruel to chain a calf tightly inside a pen. Any pet owner knows that animals experience fear and suffering. This measure will provide them with some minimal creature comforts.

I’ve been a vegetarian nearly all my life because I can’t support an industry that causes so much suffering to animals. But you don’t have to be vegetarian to take a stand against cruelty, as millions of California voters demonstrated.

Conditions in factory farms have to change, and it’s in our power to make it happen. Cruelty’s out; compassion’s in. Let’s hope this is a start of a nationwide trend.

–Lisa Bloom, In Session anchor

NEW YORK–I knew the day would come, but I never thought it would come this soon. America's first black president. And it is historic. My children really can grow up to be anything they want to be. And their grandfather, my father, who was born during Jim Crow, lived to see the day. Think of all those who did not get here with us, but who must be smiling down today.

So I am proud more than ever of my country. Close to 140 million of you turned out to vote. And that is what the founders intended. That is why we marched on Selma and that is why this is a glorious day.

But this is also about so much more because Barack Obama did not run as the black candidate. He did not run to be the black president. He ran to be America's President. That is why he won and that is what he will be. This man rose above the old divide to transcend race; to appeal to the best of America. Now we must do the same. Together, black and white, men and women, rich and poor. Because change cannot come on the shoulders of one man, however great.

President Obama will stand on the shoulders of all of those who came before. And we must stand with him, shoulder to shoulder, for change. And we can stand tall. Because 40 years ago, Dr. King had a dream that his four little children would one day live in a nation where they would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Today that dream comes true.

–Jami Floyd, In session anchor