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Weekends on All Things Considered guest host Laura Sullivan speaks with NPR reporter Joseph Shapiro about the sentence of Shirley Ree Smith's "shaken baby" case. California Gov. Jerry Brown has commuted Smith's sentence. Despite her claims of innocence, Smith was convicted in December 1997, and has been free since 2006 awaiting the results of her appeals.

The former Liberian president was convicted of aiding and abetting war crimes in Sierra Leone this week. More than 50,000 people were killed during the 11-year conflict, and in Sierra Leone, the verdict was celebrated. But in Liberia's capital, many believe he has been used as a scapegoat for another country's war.

One of New York City's most famous cabaret clubs, the Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, is closing. Murray Horwitz, a veteran Broadway writer, is feeling the loss. In this essay he explains just what it is that makes cabaret such an important art form.

An investigative journalism project concluded that New Jersey led the nation with the toughest government accountability laws and enforcement while Georgia had the dubious distinction of being ranked last.

When Teddy Roosevelt became a New York police commissioner in 1895, he vowed to clean up the city's endemic vice and corruption. It didn't exactly work out. New Yorkers liked the idea of standing up to corrupt cops, but they rebelled when Roosevelt tried to enforce a ban on Sunday drinking.

Trayvon Martin punched him on the nose and then slammed his head into a sidewalk, Zimmerman told police, according to the Orlando Sentinel. It's the most extensive account so far of the older man's claim of self defense.

Eddie Alterman, an editor for Car and Driver magazine, says he doesn't want to live in a world without stick shift vehicles. "It's a world without guys building treehouses for their kids. It's a world without train sets. It's a world without fun." Alterman has started a movement to save the manual shift.

The seven-character change is expected to save Twitter $1.4 billion this year.

Last weekend, English soccer fans were looking forward to a sporting feast. They ended up taking part in a nationwide communal vigil, focused on an African-born player's fight for life.

The opposition is keeping up the pressure on Syrian security forces with repeated attacks, and Syria President Bashar Assad has shown no signs of moving toward a cease-fire. Against this backdrop, the "Friends of Syria" are gathering in Turkey.