Alabama inmate executed with nitrogen gas was ‘shaking violently’ for 22 minutes, witnesses say

White House calls death of Kenneth Smith, executed via untested method lawyers say was cruel and unusual, ‘very troubling’

Alabama has carried out the first execution of a death row prisoner in the US using nitrogen gas, an untested procedure which the prisoner’s lawyers had argued amounted to a form of cruel and unusual punishment banned under the US constitution.

Kenneth Smith, 58, was pronounced dead at 8.25pm on Thursday evening at an Alabama prison after breathing pure nitrogen gas through a face mask to cause oxygen deprivation. The execution took about 22 minutes.

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Canadian firm under fire for supplying equipment for Alabama execution

Private equity firm Onex Corp partly owns company that makes mask for use in untested nitrogen hypoxia execution method

A Canadian company is facing criticism for allegedly supplying the equipment for a state execution in the United States, in a case that has drawn outrage for the reliance on a seemingly untested method of execution.

On Thursday, Alabama plans to kill inmate Kenneth Smith by suffocating him with nitrogen gas, a method never before used in the country.

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‘I’m not ready, brother’: US man to be put to death months after botched execution attempt

Kenneth Smith, to be executed in Alabama by untested gas method, tells Guardian of nightmares from failed lethal injection

On Tuesday morning, Kenneth Smith will be moved within the Holman correctional facility in Alabama to the “death cell”, the bluntly named holding unit where condemned prisoners are placed two days before their appointed execution.

Smith knows the cell well. He knows its dimensions and the feel of the place. He knows that it sits only about 20 feet from the death chamber where, barring a last-minute reprieve, he will be escorted in handcuffs and leg irons on Thursday before being strapped to a gurney to await his fate.

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John Lewis review: superb first biography of a civil rights hero

With In Search of the Beloved Community, Raymond Arsenault delivers a fitting tribute to the late Democrat from Georgia

John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Community chronicles one man’s quest for a more perfect union. An adventure of recent times, it is made exceptional by the way the narrative intersects with current events. It is the perfect book, at the right time.

Raymond Arsenault also offers the first full-length biography of the Georgia congressman and stalwart freedom-fighter. The book illuminates Lewis’s time as a planner and participant of protests, his service in Congress and his time as an American elder statesman.

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Alarm as Alabama man to be executed via gas method rejected by veterinarians

Death row prisoner Kenneth Smith, 58, to be killed via nitrogen-gas procedure animal scientists have ruled out for ethical reasons

Alabama is preparing to execute a death row inmate using nitrogen gas, an experimental method that veterinarians in the US and across Europe have deemed unacceptable as a form of euthanasia for most animals.

Barring last-minute appeals, Kenneth Smith, 58, is scheduled to be judicially killed on 25 January using a previously untested technique. Alabama’s department of corrections is proposing to strap him to a gurney, apply a respirator mask to his face, then force him to breathe pure nitrogen which would cause oxygen deprivation and death.

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Man who died in Alabama prison was reportedly returned to family without organs

Second recent case involving allegations of missing body parts from Alabama prisoners involves man whose brain was removed

A man who died in the custody of Alabama’s corrections department was reportedly returned to his family without his organs, including his brain.

The news, which broke earlier this week, is the second recent case involving allegations of missing body parts from people in Alabama prisons. The US prison system has been widely criticized for its poor treatment of inmates.

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Alabama woman with two uteruses gives birth twice in two days

Kelsey Hatcher, 32, delivered healthy daughters after 20 hours of labor, one day apart – giving each twin a separate birthday

An Alabama mother with a rare double uterus has delivered a set of twins, the hospital treating her announced on Friday.

In what doctors are calling a “one-in-a-million” pregnancy, 32-year-old Kelsey Hatcher delivered a set of twin daughters, one of whom was in each womb, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) hospital.

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New maps offer hope for Alabama voters ignored for so long

State to receive extra congressional district after winning court battle – but advocates must convince Black voters to turn out

Tuskegee resident Elise Tolbert hasn’t had a hospital in her city in her lifetime. Macon county, where her family has lived for generations and where four out of five residents are Black, once had two hospitals, but both were closed by the late 1980s.

That has forced locals to travel a half hour or more to other larger towns to get treatment – a long trip during a medical emergency, especially since calling for an ambulance can lead to a long wait. Residents often have to drive themselves, or find someone to take them if they don’t own a car – which is common in a town where 29% of residents live in poverty.

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Florida’s revival of death penalty fuels rise in US executions in 2023

Governor Ron DeSantis scheduled six of the country’s 25 executions this year amid his presidential election bid

The US saw a rise in executions in 2023 as a result of Florida’s revival of the death penalty, amid Ron DeSantis’s “tough on crime” campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

DeSantis scheduled six executions this year – the first time the state has judicially killed people since 2019 and the largest number in almost a decade. Florida also handed down five new death sentences this year, more than any other state.

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US Catholic priest who avoided charges marries teen he fled to Italy with

Alexander Crow, 30, married 18-year-old high school graduate on Friday, according to license filed in Mobile county, Alabama

A Roman Catholic priest in Alabama who was investigated by law enforcement after fleeing to Europe with a recent high school graduate he met through his ministry legally married after he returned to the US with her, a document provided to the Guardian showed.

According to a marriage license filed in Mobile county, Alabama, Alexander Crow, 30, married the 18-year-old former McGill-Toolen Catholic high school student on Friday.

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An Alabama man vanished in 1995. Last week, Idalia cleanup crews found a body

Team clearing hurricane debris uncovered skeletal remains that police believe are of man who went missing on road trip to Florida

A decades-old car, a battered Sam’s Club membership card and human remains found in the water during a clean-up in Florida from Hurricane Idalia might have solved a cold case missing persons mystery, say authorities.

Crews clearing storm debris from the Steinhatchee River in Dixie county, close to where the 125mph cyclone struck the coast in August, made the grim discovery last week as they removed a damaged boat dock from a ramp.

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‘Astonishingly cruel’: Alabama seeks to test execution method on death row ‘guinea pig’

Nine months after Kenneth Smith’s botched lethal injection, state attorney general has asked for approval to kill him with nitrogen

Kenneth Smith is one of two living Americans who can describe what it is like to survive an execution, having endured an aborted lethal injection last November during which he was subjected to excruciating pain tantamount, his lawyers claim, to torture.

Nine months later Smith has been singled out for another undesirable distinction. If the state of Alabama has its way, he will become the test dummy for an execution method that has never before been used in judicial killings and which veterinarians consider unacceptable as a form of euthanasia for animals – death by nitrogen gas.

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Ex-Alabama deputy sheriff sentenced to prison for sexual assault on woman in his custody

Joshua Davidson given sentence of 12 and a half years for attack while on duty as a Dallas county deputy sheriff

A former Alabama deputy sheriff has been sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman in his custody.

On 30 January 2020, while on duty as a Dallas county deputy sheriff, 33-year-old Joshua Davidson placed a woman in custody following a traffic stop. He drove her down a dark road to a desolate location where he forced her to perform oral sex on him against her will, the justice department said in a statement.

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Alabama priest ‘groomed young girls’ before fleeing to Italy with 18-year-old

Alex Crow was previously accused of acting inappropriately with students and remains under orders by archdiocese to return home

A Roman Catholic priest in Alabama who fled to Europe with a recent high school graduate whom he met through his work has drawn scrutiny from law enforcement and been told to stop presenting himself in public as a cleric.

Alex Crow, an expert in the theological study of demons and exorcism, is suspected of having “groomed [multiple] young girls” before going to Italy with an 18-year-old, according to an interview that local sheriff Paul Burch recently gave to Fox Nation’s Nancy Grace. The teen’s family has been trying to convince her to return home.

In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit their website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800; adult survivors can seek help at Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International.

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Three white men face assault charges in Alabama riverfront brawl

One man in custody and two others expected to surrender after a group of white men attacked a Black boat worker in Montgomery

Three arrest warrants were issued on Tuesday by authorities in Montgomery, Alabama, relating to the chaotic riverfront brawl that broke out on Saturday during which punches were thrown, people were hit with chairs, and others were thrown into the river.

Montgomery police chief Darryl Albert announced on Tuesday that one man is in custody and two others were expected to turn themselves in. Montgomery mayor Steven Reed said none of the three are residents of the city.

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Trump faces four criminal counts as six co-conspirators listed in January 6 indictment – as it happened

Special counsel Jack Smith to seek speedy trial and says January 6 was ‘fueled by lies’

University of Virginia political guru Larry Sabato took a look at the New York Times/Siena College poll released today, and what he found does not look good for Democrats:

The firm behind the Mountain Valley Pipeline said today that it expects work on the controversial natural gas conduit to be completed by the end of the year.

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Carlee Russell charged after admitting she fabricated kidnapping

Alabama authorities file criminal charges after Russell says story that she was kidnapped after checking on toddler was hoax

Authorities in Alabama said on Friday they had filed criminal charges against a woman who confessed to fabricating a story that she was kidnapped after stopping to check on a toddler she saw walking on the side of an interstate highway.

Carlee Russell was charged with misdemeanor false reporting to law enforcement and falsely reporting an incident.

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Carlee Russell admits she wasn’t abducted and didn’t see child on road

Alabama woman could face charges for fabricating story, police say, as they try to determine where she was for two days

A woman in Alabama has confessed to fabricating a story that she was kidnapped after stopping to check on a toddler she saw walking on the side of the interstate.

Carlee Russell’s attorney, Emory Anthony, provided a statement to police on Monday saying there was no kidnapping.

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Alabama due to resume executions despite botching three last year

James Barber due to die on Friday but granddaughter of Dorothy Epps, the woman he murdered, doesn’t want it to happen

Alabama is due to resume executions on Thursday despite botching three last year and after a review of capital punishment practices in the southern state was largely kept from public view.

The inmate set to die by lethal injection by 6am on Friday is James Barber. Now 54, he was convicted of the murder of Dorothy Epps, who was 75, in 2001.

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Alabama police investigate mystery of woman’s missing 48 hours

Boyfriend hits back at skeptics and insists ‘Carlee’ Russell, 25, fought off ‘kidnapper’ after stopping to check on child on highway

Police in Hoover, Alabama, are trying to pin down exactly what happened to Carlethia “Carlee” Nichole Russell, the 25-year-old woman who set off a two-day search after she stopped to check on a child who was walking along a highway on Thursday and disappeared.

And as investigators carry out that process, Russell’s boyfriend issued a strongly worded statement in which he asserted that she had to fight off at least one abductor to come back home alive.

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