[ad_1]
Alabama cancels execution of inmate in 1988 murder because of trouble establishing venous access, time concerns
[ad_2]
Tag: Alabama
-
Execution of Alabama inmate stayed by appellate court; state has appealed
[ad_1]
An appellate court on Thursday night ordered a halt to the scheduled execution of an Alabama inmate convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher’s wife, but the state is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court to proceed with the lethal injection.
The 11th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay blocking the execution of Kenneth Eugene Smith, 57, after he raised concerns about problems with venous access at the state’s last two scheduled lethal injections. The state quickly appealed the order.
Prosecutors said Smith was one of two men who were each paid $1,000 to kill Elizabeth Sennett on behalf of her husband, who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect on insurance.
Sennett was found dead on March 18, 1988, in the couple’s home on Coon Dog Cemetery Road in Alabama’s Colbert County. The coroner testified that the 45-year-old woman had been stabbed eight times in the chest and once on each side of the neck. Her husband, Charles Sennett Sr., who was the pastor of the Westside Church of Christ, killed himself one week after his wife’s death when the murder investigation started to focus on him as a suspect, according to court documents.
Alabama Department of Corrections
Alabama will proceed with the execution if the Supreme Court lifts the stay before a midnight deadline to get the execution underway.
Smith’s final appeals focused on the state’s difficulties with intravenous lines at the last two scheduled lethal injections. One execution was carried out after a delay, and the other was called off as the state faced a midnight deadline to get the execution underway. Smith’s attorneys also raised the issue that judges are no longer allowed to sentence an inmate to death if a jury recommends a life sentence.
John Forrest Parker, the other man convicted in the slaying, was executed in 2010. “I’m sorry. I don’t ever expect you to forgive me. I really am sorry,” Parker said to the victim’s sons before he was put to death.
According to appellate court documents, Smith told police in a statement that it was, “agreed for John and I to do the murder” and that he took items from the house to make it look like a burglary. Smith’s defense at trial said he participated in the attack but that he did not intend to kill her, according to court documents.
In the hours before the execution was scheduled to be carried out, the prison system said Smith visited with his attorney and family members, including his wife. He ate cheese curls and drank water, but declined the prison breakfast when it was offered to him.
The 11th Circuit issued the stay as Smith’s attorneys pointed to problems establishing venous access during the last two executions in Alabama. U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr. on Thursday denied Smith’s request for a stay, but Smith’s attorneys appealed the decision to the 11th Circuit.
The execution of Joe Nathan James Jr. was delayed because of problems establishing an IV line, leading an anti-death penalty group to claim the execution was botched. In September, the state called off the scheduled execution of Alan Miller because of difficulty accessing his veins. Miller said in a court filing that prison staff poked him with needles for over an hour and at one point, they left him hanging vertically on a gurney before announcing they were stopping for the night. Prison officials have maintained the delays were because the state was carefully following its procedures.
The state argued to let the execution proceed, saying Smith is in a different situation than Miller, who is obese.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday denied Smith’s request to review the constitutionality of his death sentence.
Smith was initially convicted in 1989, and a jury voted 10-2 to recommend a death sentence, which a judge imposed. His conviction was overturned on appeal in 1992. He was retried and convicted again in 1996. This time, the jury recommended a life sentence by a vote of 11-1, but a judge overrode the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Smith to death.
In 2017, Alabama became the last state to abolish the practice of letting judges override a jury’s sentencing recommendation in death penalty cases, but the change was not retroactive and therefore did not affect death row prisoners like Smith.
The Equal Justice Initiative, an Alabama-based nonprofit that advocates for inmates, said that Smith stands to become the first state prisoner sentenced by judicial override to be executed since the practice was abolished.
[ad_2]
-
Alabama execution set in murder-for-hire of preacher’s wife
[ad_1]
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama is preparing to execute a man convicted in the 1988 murder-for-hire slaying of a preacher’s wife, even though a jury recommended he receive life imprisonment instead of a death sentence.
Kenneth Eugene Smith, 57, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at a south Alabama prison on Thursday evening. Prosecutors said Smith was one of two men who were each paid $1,000 to kill Elizabeth Sennett on behalf of her husband, who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect on insurance.
Elizabeth Sennett was found dead on March 18, 1988, in the couple’s home on Coon Dog Cemetery Road in Alabama’s Colbert County. The coroner testified that the 45-year-old woman had been stabbed eight times in the chest and once on each side of the neck. Her husband, Charles Sennett Sr, who was the pastor of the Westside Church of Christ in Sheffield, killed himself one week after his wife’s death when the murder investigation started to focus on him as a suspect, according to court documents.
Smith’s final appeals focused on the state’s difficulties with intravenous lines at the last two scheduled lethal injections. One execution was carried out after a delay, and the other was called off as the state faced a midnight deadline to get the execution underway. Smith’s attorneys also raised the issue that judges are no longer allowed to sentence an inmate to death if a jury recommends a life sentence.
John Forrest Parker, the other man convicted in the slaying, was executed in 2010. “I’m sorry. I don’t ever expect you to forgive me. I really am sorry,” Parker said to the victim’s sons before he was put to death.
According to appellate court documents, Smith told police in a statement that it was, “agreed for John and I to do the murder” but that he just took items from the house to make it look like a burglary. Smith’s defense at trial said he agreed to beat up Elizabeth Sennett but that he did not intend to kill her, according to court documents.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday denied Smith’s request to review the constitutionality of his death sentence.
Smith was initially convicted in 1989, and a jury voted 10-2 to recommend a death sentence, which a judge imposed. His conviction was overturned on appeal in 1992. He was retried and convicted again in 1996. This time, the jury recommended a life sentence by a vote of 11-1, but a judge overrode the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Smith to death.
In 2017, Alabama became the last state to abolish the practice of letting judges override a jury’s sentencing recommendation in death penalty cases, but the change was not retroactive and therefore did not affect death row prisoners like Smith.
The Equal Justice Initiative, an Alabama-based nonprofit that advocates for inmates, said that Smith stands to become the first state prisoner sentenced by judicial override to be executed since the practice was abolished.
Smith filed a lawsuit against the state seeking to block his upcoming execution because of reported problems at recent lethal injections. Smith’s attorneys pointed to a July execution of Joe Nathan James Jr., which an anti-death penalty group claimed was botched. The state disputed those claims. A federal judge dismissed Smith’s l awsuit last month, but also cautioned prison officials to strictly follow established protocol when carrying out Thursday’s execution plan.
In September, the state called off the scheduled execution of inmate Alan Miller because of difficulty accessing his veins. Miller said in a court filing that prison staff poked him with needles for over an hour and at one point, they left him hanging vertically on a gurney before announcing they were stopping for the night. Prison officials said they stopped because they were facing a midnight deadline to get the execution underway.
[ad_2]
-
Voters in four states approve effort to wipe slavery and indentured servitude off the books | CNN Politics
[ad_1]
CNN
—
Voters in five states on Tuesday were asked whether to update their states’ constitutions to remove slavery and indentured servitude as potential punishments.
Although the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution prohibited slavery in 1865, it allowed an exception “for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,” and the proposed amendments asked voters to either explicitly rule out slavery and indentured servitude as potential punishments or remove the terms from state law altogether.
Voters in four states agreed to strike the punishment from the books, CNN projects, while the effort fell short in one.
Voters in Alabama approved a ballot measure that will overhaul the state’s constitution to rid it of racist language and make the constitution more accessible to Alabama’s citizens, CNN projects. One of the revisions in the overhaul will remove an exception clause as it applies to slavery and indentured servitude, changing the text of the constitution from:
That no form of slavery shall exist in this state; and there shall not be any involuntary servitude, otherwise than for the punishment of crime, of which the party shall have been duly convicted.
To:
That no form of slavery shall exist in this state; and there shall not be any involuntary servitude.
Voters in Oregon approved a ballot measure to remove “all language creating an exception” and make “the prohibition against slavery and involuntary servitude unequivocal.”
As part of the initiative, the Oregon Constitution was amended to allow “programs to be ordered as part of sentencing,” such as ones for education, counseling, treatment and community service.
Tennessee voters approved a measure to amend the state’s constitution to say slavery and indentured servitude shall be “forever prohibited,” CNN projects.
In Vermont, a measure to amend the constitution passed, CNN projects.
Although Vermont was the first state to outlaw slavery, the proposal sought to remove text that read “no person born in this country, or brought from oversea, ought to be holden by law, to serve any person as a servant, slave or apprentice, after arriving to the age of twenty-one years, unless bound by the person’s own consent, after arriving to such age, or bound by law for the payment of debts, damages, fines, costs, or the like.”
Louisiana voters rejected an amendment that would have changed the state’s constitution by explicitly prohibiting the punishments, CNN projects.
Louisiana voters had been asked to mark yes or no to the question, “Do you support an amendment to prohibit the use of involuntary servitude except as it applies to the otherwise lawful administration of criminal justice?”
[ad_2]
-
Jeff Cook, co-founder of country group Alabama, dies at 73
[ad_1]
Guitarist Jeff Cook, who co-founded the successful country group Alabama and steered them up the charts with such hits as “Song of the South” and “Dixieland Delight,” has died. He was 73.
Cook had Parkinson’s disease and disclosed his diagnosis in 2017. He died Tuesday at his home in Destin, Florida, said Don Murry Grubbs, a representative for the band.
Tributes poured in from country stars, including Travis Tritt who called Cook “a great guy and one heckuva bass fisherman.
Paul R. Giunta/Getty Images
As a guitarist, fiddle player and vocalist, Cook — alongside cousins Randy Owen and Teddy Gentry — landed eight No. 1 songs on the country charts between spring 1980 and summer 1982, according to the Country Music Hall of Fame. That run included the pop crossover hits “Love In The First Degree” and “Feels So Right,” as well as “Tennessee River” and “Mountain Music.”
“Jeff Cook, and all of the guys in Alabama, were so generous with wisdom and fun when I got to tour with them as a young artist,” Kenny Chesney said in a statement. “They showed a kid in a T-shirt that country music could be rock, could be real, could be someone who looked like me. Growing up in East Tennessee, that gave me the heart to chase this dream.”
The band had a three-year run as CMA Entertainer of the Year from 1982-1985 and earned five ACM Award Entertainer of the Year trophies from 1981-1985. He stopped touring with Alabama in 2018.
Cook released a handful of solo projects and toured with his Allstar Goodtime Band. He also released collaborations with Charlie Daniels and “Star Trek” star William Shatner. He entered the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005 as a member of Alabama.
Survivors include his wife, Lisa.
[ad_2]
-
Jeff Cook, co-founder of country band Alabama, dies at 73
[ad_1]
NEW YORK — Guitarist Jeff Cook, who co-founded the country group Alabama and steered them up the charts with such hits as “Song of the South” and “Dixieland Delight,” has died. He was 73.
Cook had Parkinson’s disease and disclosed his diagnosis in 2017. He died Tuesday at his home in Destin, Florida, said Don Murry Grubbs, a representative for the band.
Tributes poured in from country stars, including Travis Tritt who called Cook “a great guy and one heckuva bass fisherman,” and Jason Aldean, who tweeted: “ I got a chance to perform with him multiple times over the years and I will never forget it.” Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, added: “Everything he did was rooted in his deep love of music, a love he shared with millions.”
As a guitarist, fiddle player and vocalist, Cook — alongside cousins Randy Owen and Teddy Gentry — landed eight No. 1 songs on the country charts between spring 1980 and summer 1982, according to the Country Music Hall of Fame. That run included the pop crossover hits “Love In The First Degree” and “Feels So Right,” as well as “Tennessee River” and “Mountain Music.”
“Jeff Cook, and all of the guys in Alabama, were so generous with wisdom and fun when I got to tour with them as a young artist,” Kenny Chesney said in a statement. “They showed a kid in a T-shirt that country music could be rock, could be real, could be someone who looked like me. Growing up in East Tennessee, that gave me the heart to chase this dream.”
The band had a three-year run as CMA Entertainer of the Year from 1982-1985 and earned five ACM Award Entertainer of the Year trophies from 1981-1985. He stopped touring with Alabama in 2018.
Cook released a handful of solo projects and toured with his Allstar Goodtime Band. He also released collaborations with Charlie Daniels and “Star Trek” star William Shatner. He entered the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005 as a member of Alabama.
A song he co-wrote in 2015, “No Bad Days,” took on new meaning after his diagnosis. “After I got the Parkinson’s diagnosis, people would quote the song to me and say, ‘No bad days,’” Cook told The Tennessean in 2019. “They write me letters, notes and emails and they sign ‘No Bad Days.’ I know the support is there.”
Survivors include his wife, Lisa.
[ad_2]
-
Jeff Cook, guitarist and co-founder of the band Alabama, dead at 73 | CNN
[ad_1]
CNN
—
Jeff Cook, one of the original members of the country band Alabama, has died, according to the group’s representative, Don Murry Grubbs. He was 73.
Cook died at his vacation home in Destin, Florida on Monday “with his family and close friends by his side,” according to a press release and a statement posted to the band’s social media accounts. Cook, the statement added, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2012.
A guitarist and co-founder of Alabama, Cook also played fiddle and other musical instruments for the band. He is “credited for introducing the electric double neck guitar to country music,” the statement said.
He was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville in 2019 and is also a member of both the Country Music Hall of Fame and Fiddlers Hall of Fame.
Over the course of his country music career as part of Alabama, Cook sold 80 million albums and charted 43 No. 1 hits.
The band enjoyed 13 Grammy nominations and two wins – back to back trophies in 1983 and 1984 for best country performance by a duo or group with vocal for “Mountain Music” and “The Closer You Get,” respectively.
Cook, a native of Fort Payne, Alabama, is survived by his wife of 27 years Lisa Cook, his mother Betty and his brother David, among other family members.
[ad_2]
-
In the 5 states without lotteries, a case of Powerball fever
[ad_1]
Loretta Williams lives in Alabama but drove to Georgia to buy a lottery ticket for a chance at winning the $1.5 billion Powerball jackpot.
She was one of many Alabama ticket-buyers flooding across state lines Thursday. The third-largest lottery prize in U.S. history has people around the country clamoring for a chance to win. But in some of the five states without a lottery, envious bystanders are crossing state lines or sending ticket money across them to friends and family, hoping to get in on the action.
“I think it’s ridiculous that we have to drive to get a lottery ticket,” Williams, 67, said.
Five states — Utah, Nevada, Hawaii, Alaska and Alabama — do not have a lottery. A mix of reasons have kept them away, including objections from conservatives, concerns about the impact on low-income families or a desire not to compete with existing gaming operations.
“I’m pretty sure the people of Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi and Georgia appreciate all of our contributions to their roads, bridges, education system and many other things they spend that money on,” said Democratic legislator Chris England, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Several times weekly, England hears from constituents asking when Alabama will approve a lottery: “Especially when people look on TV and see it’s $1.5 billion dollars.”
Opposition intertwined with opportunity
In 1999, Alabama voted down a lottery referendum under a mix of opposition from churches and out-of-state gambling interests. Lottery proposals have since stagnated in its legislature, the issue now intertwined with debate over electronic gambling.
In Georgia, a billboard along Interstate 85 beckons motorists to stop at a gas station billing itself as the “#1 LOTTERY STORE” — 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the Alabama-Georgia line. Alabama car tags outnumbered Georgia ones in the parking lot at times and a line for ticket purchases stretched across the store.
Kristopher Radder/The Brattleboro Reformer via AP
Similarly, anybody in Utah wanting a lottery ticket must drive to Idaho or Wyoming, the two nearest states to the Salt Lake City metro area, where most of the population resides. Lotteries have long been banned in Utah amid stiff opposition to gambling by leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known widely as the Mormon church. The faith has its headquarters in Salt Lake City and the majority of lawmakers and more than half of the state’s residents belong to the religion.
In Malad, Idaho, 13 miles (21 kilometers) from the Utah line, KJ’s Kwik Stop is taking advantage of Powerball’s absence in Utah, advertising directly to Utah residents to cross over for tickets. “Just because Utah doesn’t participate in the lottery doesn’t mean you can’t!” their website read recently.
KJ’s sold hundreds of Powerball tickets to Utah residents on Thursday alone, said Cassie Rupp, a Kwik Stop cashier.
“Everybody wants to be part of the scene”
In Alaska, when oil prices slumped in recent years, legislative proposals to generate revenue through lottery games, including possibly Powerball, faltered. A 2015 report suggested annual proceeds from a statewide lottery could be around $8 million but cautioned such a lottery could negatively affect charitable gaming activities such as raffles.
Anchorage podcast host Keith Gibbons was in New York earlier this week but forgot to buy a Powerball ticket, even though he didn’t know the size of the jackpot. His response when told it could be $1.5 billion: “I need a ticket.”
He believes even though Alaska is extremely diverse — Anchorage School District students speak more than 100 languages besides English in their homes — offering Powerball would appeal to everyone.
“There’s a little bit of everybody here, and so when you bring things like that, it doesn’t just speak to our culture, it speaks to all cultures because everybody wants money, everybody wants to win, everybody wants to be part of the scene,” Gibbons said.
Not everyone agrees.
Harmful “waste of money”
Bob Endsley is no fan of Powerball. He says Alaskans shouldn’t have the opportunity to buy tickets. “It’s a waste of money,” said Endsley, also finding fault with the taxes that have to be paid on winnings and the increasing jackpots.
Taking a break from shoveling snow off his sidewalk, the Anchorage man said he once won $10,000 in a Canadian lottery. But it was so long ago, he said, that he doesn’t remember what he did with the windfall other than “paid taxes.”
Hawaii joins Utah as the two states prohibiting all forms of gambling. Measures to establish a Hawaii state lottery or allow casinos are periodically introduced in the Legislature but routinely fail in committee.
Opponents say legalized gambling would disproportionately harm Hawaii’s low-income communities and encourage gambling addictions. Some argue the absence of casinos allows Hawaii to maintain its status as a family-friendly destination. Gambling is popular among Hawaii residents, however, with Las Vegas one of their top vacation destinations.
Wearing a University of Alabama cap, John Jones of Montgomery, Alabama, bought a Powerball ticket on Thursday in Georgia. He voted for an Alabama lottery in 1999 and said he hopes lawmakers there try again. A retired painter, Jones said he usually doesn’t buy a lottery ticket, but decided to take a chance.
He said many Alabamians seem to be doing the same at the Georgia store. “I even met some friends over here,” said Jones, 67.
[ad_2]
-
Police standoff shuts down part of downtown Mobile, Alabama
[ad_1]
Multiple police officers with weapons drawn surrounded a vehicle parked outside a government building in Mobile, Alabama, in a standoff that lasted for hours
MOBILE, Ala. — Multiple police officers with weapons drawn surrounded a vehicle parked outside a government building in downtown Mobile, Alabama, in a standoff that lasted for hours Monday.
Katrina Frazier, a police spokeswoman, told reporters that a man with an apparent gunshot wound was spotted in a parked car outside Government Plaza, which contains multiple Mobile County offices and courts. She said the man pointed a gun at his head when officers approached to see if he needed help, al.com reported.
“Officers backed away from the scene and we called in the SWAT teams and a negotiator,” said Frazier. It wasn’t clear whether the man shot himself or was shot by someone else.
Photos and video from the scene showed dozens of officers pointing handguns and rifles toward a car parked along a curb. Mental health professionals were on the scene talking to the person, and no hostages were involved, James Barber, an aide in the mayor’s office, told WALA-TV.
A main road through the city was blocked, as was a tunnel that passes under the Mobile River leading out of the city.
[ad_2]
-
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/HDPIWSLKFJHTNMLXHMUZJGGSWM.jpg)
Building 4200 at Marshall Space Flight Center imploded
[ad_1]
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) – The home of the Marshall Space Flight Center’s administrative headquarters was demolished on Saturday morning.
Building 4200 was the administrative headquarters for 63 years seeing incredible feats accomplished in NASA’s history. The Marshall Space Flight Center has played an unprecedented role in space exploration with the development of the Saturn V rocket that propelled the Apollo missions to the Moon.
Other projects included engines and propulsion hardware for the space shuttle program, science communications for the International Space Station and management of the Space Launch System.
The first employees at the flight center began moving into the building in June 1963 after it was built by Electronic and Missile Facilities Inc. of Valley Stream, New York. On top of being home for the Research Projects Division, Aeroballistics Division, Future Projects and the Launch Operations Directorate, there was a barber shop, library, cafeteria and other services in Building 4200.
Building 4200 which was demolished Saturday morning was the former headquarters of the MSFC.
Many well-known figures toured the building including First Lady Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson and General Chuck Yeager.
Marshall Space Flight Center’s historical preservation officer, Scott Worley, said it best with the demolition of the building.
“Buildings come down,” Worley said in a statement. “But rockets keep going up. Our work lies beyond the sky.”
Watch the implosion in the video at the top of this story.
Copyright 2022 WAFF. All rights reserved.
[ad_2]
-
At least 5 tornadoes confirmed in Gulf Coast outbreak
[ad_1]
MOBILE, Ala. — At least five tornadoes have been confirmed after a severe weather outbreak Saturday along the Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coast.
No injuries or deaths were reported as damage surveys continued.
The National Weather Service said Sunday that three tornadoes touched down in Jackson County, Mississippi, each with top winds estimated between 100 mph and 110 mph (160 kph and 175 kph).
In Alabama, two weak tornadoes with winds of 72 mph (115 kph) or less were confirmed, one in Theodore and one south of downtown Mobile. Surveyors were still looking Sunday for evidence of tornadoes in Alabama, where multiple funnel clouds were captured on video or in pictures.
A Mississippi twister in Vancleave had a path of 1.25 miles (2 kilometers) damaging trees, a home and some outbuildings. A 2.8-mile (4.5-kilometer) tornado damaged trees in Moss Point before crossing a marsh and Interstate 10. A 1-mile (1.6-kilometer) tornado damaged light poles at a park in Big Point.
Surveyors concluded that damage to Gautier Middle School was caused by straight line winds. Wind damage was also reported farther west in Pass Christian and Diamondhead, Mississippi.
Although tornadoes are rare in most of the United States in late fall and winter, they are more common along the Gulf Coast in those seasons, when cold fronts collide with warm Gulf of Mexico air.
In Alabama, multiple people made images of a funnel cloud crossing a highway that runs across Mobile Bay between Mobile and Spanish Fort. No damage was reported there.
Residents also reported wind damage in parts of western Mobile and in Theodore, southwest of the city. The Theodore tornado tore the roof off at least one house, blowing out windows. Other residents lost fences, trampolines and above-ground swimming pools.
“Opened this front door and the tree tops over there just parted and you could see a funnel not touching the ground, come through I slammed the door got in the hallway with the kids, and in a matter of 30 seconds the ramming and banging and it was gone,” homeowner Matthew McGilberry of Theodore told WKRG-TV on Sunday.
East across Mobile Bay, thousands were without power late Saturday around Magnolia Springs and Bon Secour. However utilities reported that almost all the outages had been restored by Sunday.
[ad_2]
-
Alabama jury convicts parolee in 2018 triple killing
[ad_1]
GUNTERSVILLE, Ala. — A man who was charged with killing two north Alabama women and a boy months after being paroled from prison was convicted of capital murder in the triple slaying and could be sentenced to death.
Jurors deliberated about a half-hour Wednesday before convicting Jimmy O’Neal Spencer, 57, in the 2018 killings of Martha Reliford, 65; Marie Martin, 74; and 7-year-old Colton Lee, who was Martin’s great-grandson, news outlets reported.
The women were killed in separate robberies that netted about $600, evidence showed, and the boy was killed because he was a witness.
A Marshall County jury on Friday will consider either a sentence of life without parole or death for Spencer, who was paroled about eight months before the slayings after serving 28 years of two life sentences for a variety of convictions including burglary and assault.
Politicians cited Spencer’s case in pushing to make the state’s parole process tougher and the rate of paroles has dropped sharply since then. The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles refused to grant Spencer an early release in August while he was awaiting trial in the killings.
Evidence over four days of trial showed Spencer did well initially after being released from prison but returned to crime after losing a job.
The man went to the home of Reliford, whom he had met through a relative, and hit her in the head with a hatchet, authorities said. Worried the woman wasn’t dead, he cut her throat with a kitchen knife before fleeing with about $600.
Days later, after the money ran out, he went to the home of Martin, who was Reliford’s neighbor, and strangled her with a dog leash before cutting her throat, news outlets reported. He bashed the child’s head with a hammer to prevent the boy from identifying him and left with $13, evidence showed.
Jurors listened to a police recording in which Spencer admitted to the slayings.
While the defense challenge Spencer’s mental competency, a judge ruled he was able to stand trial.
[ad_2]
-
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/QEJYFOYUEJFLHOV45G5WDDHMJY.PNG)
Tennessee fan claims win over Alabama caused her to go into labor
[ad_1]
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) – As Chase McGrath lined up the game-winning field goal Saturday night, Tennessee fans all around the state were as tense as they’d been all day. Once the ball cleared the uprights, that nervousness turned into unfathomable joy, but for a woman in Chattanooga it turned out to be the very thing that brought her third child into the world.
Jordan Johnson watched the game from her home in Chattanooga, and at 38 weeks pregnant, she began to feel contractions but wasn’t focused on them enough to know what was happening.
“I was like I don’t know what’s happening with my body right now, I’m sitting here on the couch watching this game,” said Johnson.
It didn’t set in until she went to bed that night and the adrenaline from the game wore off, but she knew at that point her daughter was on the way and she was going into labor. At 38 weeks it’s not uncommon to go into labor, but the Chattanooga native firmly believes it was her screaming, jumping, and cheering during the game that induced labor that night.
“I think me jumping up and down, it picked things up. They say that you can walk and induce contractions to get things going but I was clearly jumping up and down and doing a bit more than walking,” said Johnson.
A few hours after midnight, Johnson gave birth to her third child, a daughter, who goes by the name Heidi Chase. A middle name that endured a lot of debate, mainly because of what happened in the game the night before.
Ultimately, Johnson decided to give Heidi the middle name of Chase after Vols’ kicker Chase McGrath.
“When we put together Heidi Chase we loved it but it was going to be between that and Heidi Jean which was my grandmother’s middle name. And we loved them both so much and we couldn’t decide. So at about day two in the hospital we put both names in a cup and shook them up and it came down to the last minute and Chase won again,” said Johnson.
McGrath saw the story and reached out on Instagram to Johnson to congratulate her and acknowledge the new name.
“Wow! That’s amazing. Congrats on the beautiful baby girl! Love the name! go Vols,” said McGrath in an Instagram message to Johnson.
In this family passion for Tennessee football runs deep. So much so, that in 2018 Neyland Stadium was the place Johnson got engaged to her now husband Ryan.
With the addition of Heidi Chase, Johnson said the Vols fandom will only grow stronger.
Copyright 2022 WVLT. All rights reserved.
[ad_2]
-
Korean auto giant Hyundai investigating child labor in its U.S. supply chain | CNN Business
[ad_1]
CNN Business
—
Hyundai Motor Co, Korea’s top automaker, is investigating child labor violations in its U.S. supply chain and plans to “sever ties” with Hyundai suppliers in Alabama found to have relied on underage workers, the company’s global chief operating officer Jose Munoz told Reuters on Wednesday.
A Reuters investigative report in July documented children, including a 12-year-old, working at a Hyundai-controlled metal stamping plant in rural Luverne, Alabama, called SMART Alabama, LLC.
Following the Reuters report, Alabama’s state Department of Labor, in coordination with federal agencies, began investigating SMART Alabama. Authorities subsequently launched a child labor probe at another of Hyundai’s regional supplier plants, Korean-operated SL Alabama, finding children as young as age 13.
In an interview before a Reuters event in Detroit on Wednesday, Munoz said Hyundai intends to “sever relations” with the two Alabama supplier plants under scrutiny for deploying underage labor “as soon as possible.”
In addition, Munoz told Reuters he had ordered a broader investigation into Hyundai’s entire network of U.S. auto parts suppliers for potential labor law violations and “to ensure compliance.”
Munoz’s comments represent the Korean automotive giant’s most substantive public acknowledgment to date that child labor violations may have occurred in its U.S. supply chain, a network of dozens of mostly Korean-owned auto-parts plants that supply Hyundai’s massive vehicle assembly plant in Montgomery, Alabama.
Hyundai’s $1.8 billion flagship U.S. assembly plant in Montgomery produced nearly half of the 738,000 vehicles the automaker sold in the United States last year, according to company figures.
The executive also pledged that Hyundai would push to stop relying on third party labor suppliers at its southern U.S. operations.
As Reuters reported, migrant children from Guatemala found working at SMART Alabama, LLC and SL Alabama had been hired by recruiting or staffing firms in the region. In a statement to Reuters this week, Hyundai said it had already stopped relying on at least one labor recruiting firm that had been hiring for SMART.
Munoz told Reuters: “Hyundai is pushing to stop using third party labor suppliers, and oversee hiring directly.”
Munoz did not offer further detail into how long Hyundai’s probe of its U.S. supply chain would take, when Hyundai or any partner plants could end their dependence on third party staffing firms for labor, or when Hyundai could end commercial relationships with two existing Alabama suppliers investigated for child labor violations by U.S. authorities.
In a statement on Wednesday, SL Alabama said it had taken “aggressive steps to remedy the situation” as soon it learned a subcontractor had provided underage workers. It terminated its relationship with the staffing firm, took more direct control of the hiring process and hired a law firm to conduct an audit of its employment practices, it said.
SMART Alabama did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Munoz’s comments come on the same day that an investor group working with union pension funds sent a letter to Hyundai, pushing it to respond to reports of child labor at U.S. parts suppliers, and warning of potential reputational damage to the Korean automaker.
The letter said that the use of child labor violated international standards Hyundai committed to in its Human Rights Charter and its own code of conduct for suppliers.
[ad_2]
-
Judge dismisses lawsuit over upcoming lethal injection
[ad_1]
MONTGOMERY, Ala — A federal judge dismissed an inmate’s claim seeking to block his upcoming execution in Alabama because of reported problems at a recent lethal injection.
The judge on Sunday granted Alabama’s request to dismiss the lawsuit brought by Kenneth Eugene Smith, agreeing that Smith waited too long to file the challenge. But U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr. also warned Alabama’s prison commissioner to strictly follow established protocol when officials attempt to put Smith to death next month.
“Sanctions will be swift and serious if counsel and the Commissioner do not honor or abide by their representations and stipulations,” Huffaker wrote.
Smith is set to be executed by lethal injection Nov. 17 after being convicted in the murder-for-hire killing of Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett, 45.
Smith’s attorneys pointed to a July execution, which an anti-death penalty group claims was botched, to argue that Alabama’s lethal injection process creates a risk of cruel and unusual punishment.
The July 28 execution of Joe Nathan James Jr. was carried out more than three hours after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request for a stay. State officials later acknowledged the execution was delayed because of difficulties in establishing an intravenous line, but did not specify how long it took.
A doctor who witnessed a private autopsy paid for by an anti-death penalty group said it appeared officials might have attempted to perform a “cutdown,” a procedure in which the skin is opened to allow a visual search for a vein.
Huffaker noted that Corrections Commissioner John Hamm “represents in his brief and during oral argument that the ADOC did not employ a cutdown procedure or intramuscular sedation during the James execution and denies any present intent to employ any such procedure in the future.”
Huffaker ruled that Smith missed the time frame to challenge Alabama’s lethal injection process.
Smith missed the 2018 deadline to request execution by nitrogen hypoxia, an execution method that Alabama has authorized but not developed a process to use. Smith’s attorneys argued that the state violated his due process rights by not providing him information necessary to make a knowing and voluntary waiver of his nitrogen hypoxia election right in 2018.
His attorneys argue that Smith did not know nitrogen hypoxia “would not be implemented for years, if ever.” Huffaker said that complaint also could not overcome a “clear statute-of-limitations hurdle.”
Prosecutors said Smith was one of two men paid $1,000 to kill Sennett on behalf of her husband, the Rev. Charles Sennett, who was deeply in debt and wanted to collect on insurance. Smith maintained it was the other man who killed Sennett, according to court documents.
Smith was initially convicted in 1989, and a jury voted 10-2 to recommend a death sentence, which a judge imposed. His conviction was overturned on appeal in 1992.
He was retried and convicted again in 1996. This time, the jury recommended a life sentence by a vote of 11-1, but a judge overrode the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Smith to death. Alabama no longer allows a judge to override a jury’s recommendation.
[ad_2]
-
Attorneys: Inmate endured ‘torture’ during execution attempt
[ad_1]
MONTGOMERY, Ala — An Alabama inmate said prison staff poked him with needles for over an hour as they tried to find a vein during an aborted lethal injection last month. At one point, they left him hanging vertically on a gurney before state officials made the decision to call off the execution.
Attorneys for 57-year-old Alan Eugene Miller wrote about his experience during Alabama’s Sept. 22 execution attempt in a court filing made last week. Miller’s attorneys are trying to block the state from attempting a second lethal injection.
Two men in scrubs used needles to repeatedly probe Miller’s arms, legs, feet and hands, at one point using a cell phone flashlight to help their search for a vein, according to the Oct. 6 court filing. The attorneys called Miller the “only living execution survivor in the United States” and said Alabama subjected Miller “to precisely the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain that the Eighth Amendment was intended to prohibit.”
Alabama has asked the state Supreme Court to set a new execution date for Miller, saying the execution was canceled only because of a time issue as the state faced a midnight deadline to get the lethal injection underway.
“Despite this failed execution, the physical and mental torture it inflicted upon Mr. Miller, and the fact that Defendants have now botched three lethal injection executions in just four years, Defendants relentlessly seek to execute Mr. Miller again—presumably by lethal injection,” attorneys for Miller wrote, referencing an execution that was canceled and another that took three hours to get underway.
“What then, in Defendants’ view, is a constitutional amount of time to spend stabbing someone with needles in an attempt to kill them?” his attorneys wrote.
The 351-pound (159-kilogram) inmate testified in an earlier court hearing that medical workers always have difficulty accessing his veins, and that is why he wanted to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia, a newly approved execution method that the state has yet to try.
Miller said he was led into the execution chamber at 10 p.m., about an hour after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted an injunction that had been blocking the lethal injunction, and was strapped to the gurney at about 10:15 p.m.
After the two men used needles to probe various parts of his body for a vein, also using a phone flashlight to help, Miller told the men, “he could feel that they were not accessing his veins, but rather stabbing around his veins.” Later, a third man then began slapping his neck in an apparent attempt to look for a vein.
The three men in scrubs stopped their probing and left the chamber after there was a loud knock on a death chamber window from the state’s observation room, according to the court filing. A prison officer then raised the gurney to a vertical position. Miller said the wall clock read 11:40 p.m. and he estimated that he hung there for about 20 minutes before he was let down and told that his execution was cancelled for the evening.
“Mr. Miller felt nauseous, disoriented, confused, and fearful about whether he was about to be killed, and was deeply disturbed by his view of state employees silently staring at him from the observation room while he was hanging vertically from the gurney. Blood was leaking from some of Mr. Miller’s wounds,” the motion stated.
Miller was sentenced to death after being convicted of a 1999 workplace rampage in which he killed Terry Jarvis, Lee Holdbrooks and Scott Yancy.
“Due to the lateness of the hour, the Alabama Department of Corrections was limited in the number of attempts to gain intravenous access it could make. ADOC made the decision to halt its efforts to obtain IV access at approximately 11:30 p.m., resulting in the expiration of the court’s execution warrant,” the state attorney general’s office wrote in the request for a new date.
This is at least the third time Alabama has acknowledged problems with vein access during a lethal injection. The state’s July execution of Joe Nathan James took more than three hours to get underway. Alabama called off the 2018 execution of Doyle Hamm after being unable to establish an intravenous line.
[ad_2]
-
Here Comes the Sun: Comedian Billy Eichner and the boll weevil
[ad_1]
Here Comes the Sun: Comedian Billy Eichner and the boll weevil – CBS News
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
[ad_2]
-
Mississippi teenager dies after being shot by police officer
[ad_1]
GULFPORT, Miss. — A Black teenager in Mississippi has died days after Gulfport police shot him in the head outside a discount store, and his relatives are questioning officers’ actions.
Jaheim McMillan, 15, was shot Thursday. Harrison County Coroner Brian Switzer confirmed to the Sun Herald that the Gulfport High School freshman died Saturday after he was taken off life support at USA University Hospital in Mobile, Alabama. An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday, Switzer said.
McMillan is survived by his mother, Katrina Mateen. She told WLOX-TV that when she arrived at the store after her son was shot, officers handcuffed her and walked her across the street.
Gulfport police said in a news release that the shooting occurred after they responded to a 911 call about several minors waving guns at other motorists. Officers pulled the minors over in the parking lot of a Family Dollar store.
Gulfport Police Chief Adam Cooper said an officer engaged an armed suspect, since identified as McMillan, resulting in shots being fired. The police department has not released the race of the officer.
McMillan’s family doesn’t believe he was armed, and their supporters are calling for the release of camera footage of the shooting.
McMillan was initially taken to Memorial Hospital at Gulfport but was transferred to the Mobile hospital, where he subsequently died shortly before 5 p.m. Saturday.
In a video taken by a bystander after the shots were fired, McMillan could be seen on the ground in front of the door to the store. A witness said police handcuffed the teenager after he had been shot. Cooper said police took four other suspects, all believed to be minors, into custody, and several firearms were recovered from the scene.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is examining the shooting of McMillan. MBI investigates all police shootings in the state, and the attorney general’s office is in charge of any prosecutions.
[ad_2]
