Tag Archives: Alabama

The Birmingham News reports: Alabama Death Row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith on Thursday night became the first prisoner to die using a new untested method of execution in the United States—suffocation by nitrogen gas. The 58-year-old was executed at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. In announcing the execution had been carried out, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey stated: “I …

NBC News reports: An Alabama Republican congressman said on Wednesday that “everyone has some racist in them,” pushing back on GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s assertion that the United States has never been a racist country. Rep. Jerry Carl made the remarks during a GOP primary debate against fellow Rep. Barry Moore. The two congressmen are squaring off against each …

Courthouse News reports: The Supreme Court refused to pause an experimental execution in Alabama on Wednesday, allowing the state to move forward with the U.S.’s first oxygen deprivation execution. Kenneth Eugene Smith asked the Supreme Court to block Alabama’s second shot at carrying out his death sentence. In 2022, Alabama spent nearly two hours poking and prodding Smith while he …

The Birmingham News reports: The conservative political group Moms For Liberty sent a letter last week that asked the state legislature and the public library service to withhold funds for libraries that allow children to check out “pornographic” materials. The statement outlines the primary mission for Alabama’s two chapters of Moms for Liberty in 2024: to apply for library board …

The Birmingham News reports: History in Alabama is under attack again. A handful of state lawmakers are on a mission to erase it, to cancel those who would mention it and punish those who would protect it. No less than a revered state institution is on the line — the Alabama Department of Archives and History — and the stories …

The Birmingham News reports: Daniel Boman, a Republican candidate for Congress in Alabama’s 5th District, was suspended from practicing law because of racist and misogynistic language he used during a phone call threatening a lawsuit against an appliance company in 2017. The penalty is part of a longer disbarment period that is also related to an alleged theft from an …

The Birmingham News reports: The Mobile priest and the 2023 high school graduate with whom he left the country for Europe this summer are now married, according to records filed with Mobile County Probate Court. Alex Crow, 30, and 18-year-old Taylor Victoria Harrison were married last Friday, according to the date on the marriage certificate. Crow and Harrison, a graduate …

Columbus, Georgia’s ABC affiliate reports: Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones confirms Smiths Station Mayor F.L. Bubba Copeland is dead following controversy from posted online photos. According to the sheriff’s office, around 4:15 p.m. CT, deputies received information regarding the mayor needing a possible welfare check. Deputies found Copeland in the Beulah community area, where a slow pursuit began. Officials say …

The Associated Press reports: A divided Alabama Supreme Court said the state can execute an inmate with nitrogen gas, a method that has not previously been used carry out a death sentence. The all-Republican court in a 6-2 decision Wednesday granted the state attorney general’s request for an execution warrant for Kenneth Eugene Smith. The order did not specify the …

The Decatur Daily reports: A former member of Grace River Community Church in Decatur said Tuesday that he left the church after one of its leaders was arrested and charged with electronic solicitation of a child and violating the Sex Offenders Registration and Community Notification Act. “It seems to me that a background check would’ve caught this,” said Josh Harris, …

“I’m hoping that cooler heads prevail, they don’t go into Palestine. Hopefully they get the hostages back and people start cooperating. But this has been really bad. Israel has the right to go because they they came in and they did some terrible things in their country. But the problem is when you start picking sides in the Middle East, …

The Birmingham News reports: “Read Me a Story, Stella” is a children’s picture book about a pair of siblings reading books together and building a doghouse. However, because the author’s name is Marie-Louise Gay, the book was added to a list of potentially “sexually explicit” books to be moved from the children’s section of the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library (HCPL) …

ABC News reports: After a protracted legal battle, Alabama voters will vote in their next congressional elections, in 2024, using a map that includes a second district designed to empower the state’s Black voters, a federal court ruled on Thursday. The state Legislature had been previously ordered to redraw its House districts to include “two districts in which Black voters …

The Birmingham News reports: After Alabama’s governor ousted a top state official over a “woke” pre-K training manual, officials dumped dozens of the books, totaling thousands of dollars, in the trash. A photograph shows more than 100 manuals, newly bought from the National Association for the Education of Young Children, scattered across the floor of a Montgomery waste recycling plant …

The Associated Press reports: The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the drawing of a new Alabama congressional map with greater representation for Black voters to proceed, rejecting the state’s plea to retain Republican-drawn lines that were struck down by a lower court. In refusing to intervene, the justices, without any noted dissent, allowed a court-appointed special master’s work to continue. …

Fox News reports: An Alabama math teacher at a private Christian school is accused of having sex with two teenage boys who had both been her students, according to an arrest warrant obtained by Fox News Digital. Chrystal Frost, 35, a married mother of three, resigned last month from Crenshaw Christian Academy, known as Home of the Cougars for its …

The Alabama Political Reporter reports: Gov. Kay Ivey has sent a letter to APLS Director Dr. Nancy Pack expressing concerns that closely follow Clean-Up Alabama’s push over LGBTQ materials in library spaces intended for minors. Here’s what the group plans to do. 1. “Amend the Anti-Obscenity Law that exempts public libraries from criminal punishment when it comes to the distribution …

The Montgomery Advertiser reports: The Prattville City Council sided against a resolution Tuesday that could have changed rules for how books are handled at the Autauga-Prattville Public Library, or threatened its funding. The vote came after Gov. Kay Ivey earlier in the day released a letter expressing concern about children’s access to LGBTQ-themed books at the Autauga-Prattville Public Library and …

The Birmingham News reports: A three-judge federal court has ruled that a Congressional district map approved by the Legislature in July did not fix a likely Voting Rights Act violation and has ordered a cartographer and special master appointed by the court to draw a new map. The court had ruled last year, in a decision affirmed by the Supreme …

Huntsville’s NBC affiliate reports: House District 10 Representative David Cole (R-Huntsville) has resigned and signed a plea agreement following his arrest for voting fraud. According to Gov. Kay Ivey’s office, the District 10 seat will remain vacant until a future special election can be scheduled. That date is unknown at this time. Cole was charged with fraud-voting at multiple or …