Category Archives: South Carolina

Wildfires rage on in North and South Carolina as more firefighters arrive

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Hundreds of people asked to leave their homes amid states of emergency and out-of-state responders battling blazes

Wildfires continued to rage in North and South Carolina on Thursday, leading to states of emergency and evacuations as firefighters deployed from other parts of the US to help bring the blazes under control.

In North Carolina, progress was being made in containing two of the largest wildfires burning in the mountains, but officials warned that fire danger remained from dry and windy conditions.

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Three wildfires burn more than 3,300 acres in North and South Carolina

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South Carolina governor declares emergency as North Carolina announces mandatory evacuation in Polk county

Three major wildfires that broke out in one North Carolina county still recovering from Hurricane Helene have exploded to burn more than 3,000 acres combined as South Carolina’s governor declared an emergency in response to a growing wildfire in the Blue Ridge mountains.

The North Carolina department of public safety announced a mandatory evacuation starting at 8.20pm on Saturday for parts of Polk county in western North Carolina about 80 miles (129km) west of Charlotte.

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‘Etched in my mind’: reporter describes South Carolina firing squad execution

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Jeffrey Collins of the Associated Press recalls experience of watching Brad Sigmon die for 2001 murders

A reporter for the Associated Press who watched as South Carolina executed a convicted murderer by firing squad has described the experience, saying that the killing was now “etched” in his mind.

Jeffrey Collins, who has witnessed executions in South Carolina for the news agency for 21 years and has seen 11 people killed using three methods, wrote a short essay about the experience.

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South Carolina conducts first US firing squad execution in 15 years: ‘Barbaric’

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Brad Sigmon, 67, was shot dead by prison staff despite outcry over ‘cruel’ method and calls for clemency

The US has conducted its first execution by firing squad in 15 years, with South Carolina prison officials shooting to death Brad Sigmon, 67, on Friday evening, despite widespread concerns about the safety and cruelty of this method.

Sigmon was the oldest person to be executed in the state’s history and his death was part of a series of rapid killings the state has pursued in the last six months as it revives capital punishment. There had been growing calls for clemency, but minutes before Sigmon was killed, the state’s Republican governor, Henry McMaster, announced he would not be intervening.

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Firing squad could become Idaho’s main execution method if governor signs bill

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State senate passes bill as its sponsor suggests shooting someone is more effective and humane than other methods

Firing squads could become Idaho’s primary execution method under a bill headed to the governor’s desk this week.

The Idaho senate passed the bill on Wednesday, and if signed by governor Brad Little, it will take effect next year.

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Multiple wildfires in North and South Carolina force evacuations

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Emergency unfolds amid warnings throughout south-east over dry and windy conditions that exacerbate wildfires

Several wildfires were reported on Saturday in North and South Carolina, forcing evacuations.

The emergency unfolded amid warnings throughout the south-east over dry and windy conditions that exacerbate wildfires.

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Nine people hospitalized in listeria outbreak linked to South Carolina food processor

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A woman in California also lost a fetus from the disease that US health officials have linked to Yu Shang Food Inc

A listeria outbreak linked to ready-to-eat meat and poultry products from a South Carolina food processor has caused 11 illnesses in four states, with nine hospitalizations, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

A woman who was pregnant with twins was also sickened. Both of the fetuses died, but listeria was found in a sample from only one.

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Man who allegedly disguised killing as bear attack captured in South Carolina

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Nicholas Wayne Hamlett arrested almost one month after police found body of Steven Lloyd of Tennessee

Authorities in South Carolina have captured a man who allegedly murdered a hiker in woodlands in Tennessee then attempted to disguise the killing as a bear attack.

Nicholas Wayne Hamlett was arrested in Columbia on Sunday night almost one month after police found the body of the hiker, Steven Lloyd of Knoxville, Tennessee, close to the Cherahola Skyway in Monroe county, 80 miles north-east of Chattanooga.

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South Carolina executes Richard Moore despite objections from judge and jurors

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Moore, 59, was killed on Friday evening as the state pursues a rapid spree of killings

South Carolina has executed a man on death row, despite widespread calls for his life to be spared, including from the judge who originally condemned him to death.

Richard Moore, 59, was killed by lethal injection on Friday evening, minutes after the state’s Republican governor, Henry McMaster, announced he would not be granting him clemency.

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US south-east reels from ‘catastrophic’ devastation from Hurricane Helene

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Communities are stranded, over 200 people have died with more expected, and more than 700,000 are without power

Rescue crews in parts of the south-eastern US were still searching on Friday for those missing as they entered the eighth day since Hurricane Helene roared ashore in Florida and became the deadliest mainland hurricane in the US since Katrina in 2005.

The death toll could grow higher, having surpassed 200 on Thursday, while the sheer scale of the devastation from wind and floods has slowed efforts to find many people’s loved ones and also get supplies to stranded communities and restore power to more than 700,000 people.

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Hurricane Helene: more than 200 dead as search for missing people continues

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Hurricane that made landfall as category 4 last week is described as one of deadliest storms in US history

A week after Hurricane Helene made landfall in the US, search-and-rescue teams continue to look for missing people in parts of the south-east that were devastated by the storm, and nearly a million people in the region remain without power.

Officials have reported at least 215 deaths across six states, and have warned that the toll is expected to rise as recovery efforts continue. A separate NBC News tally found that at least 202 people have died, including at least 98 in North Carolina, 19 in Florida, 33 in Georgia, 39 in South Carolina, 11 in Tennessee and two in Virginia.

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Over 120 dead and a million without power after ‘historic’ Hurricane Helene

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Biden says he will visit North Carolina after devastating storm destroys entire communities across several states

As the south-east US continues recovery efforts after Hurricane Helene’s devastation, the storm’s death toll keeps climbing, with more than 120 killed across several states.

Joe Biden will visit North Carolina, where the western part of the state has been devastated by flooding, on Wednesday.

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Hurricane Helene’s ‘historic flooding’ made worse by global heating, Fema says

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It will be ‘complicated recovery’ in five states, says disaster relief agency, with hurricane killing at least 91 people so far

The head of the US disaster relief agency has called Hurricane Helene, which has killed nearly 100 people, a “true multi-state event” that caused “significant infrastructure damage” and had been made worse because of global heating.

The storm killed at least 91 people, according to state and local officials in South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia. Officials feared more bodies would be discovered.

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At least 64 dead and millions without power after Helene devastates south-eastern US

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Flooding and landslides strike southern Appalachians after hurricane pummeled region and wreaked havoc

At least 64 people have been confirmed dead and almost 3.5 million were without power on Saturday, after strong winds and torrential rain from Hurricane Helene wreaked unprecedented havoc across large swathes of the south-eastern United States.

Historic flooding continued over parts of the southern Appalachians on Saturday, as first responders worked to reach stranded communities in trying conditions while local authorities began to assess the scale of the damage and displacement.

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South Carolina prepares for first execution in more than 13 years

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After July ruling that state’s death penalty is legal, a man on death row has a week to decide how he will be executed

A man on death row in South Carolina has until 6 September to decide how he would prefer to be executed by the state.

South Carolina’s prisons director has declared the state’s supply of a lethal injection drug acceptable and said its electric chair was tested two months ago and its firing squad has the ammunition and training to carry out its first execution next month in more than 13 years, if needed.

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Man accused of Nazi salute during US Capitol attack jailed for nearly five years

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Tyler Dykes, 26, who said at sentencing he is supporting Trump to be president, pleaded guilty to assault charges

A Marine who stormed the US Capitol and apparently flashed a Nazi salute in front of the building was sentenced on Friday to nearly five years in prison.

Tyler Bradley Dykes, of South Carolina, was an active-duty US marine when he grabbed a police riot shield from the hands of two police officers and used it to push his way through police lines during the attack by a mob of Donald Trump’s supporters on 6 January 2021.

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South Carolina implements one of US’s most restrictive public school book bans

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Education superintendent and Moms for Liberty ally drafts law requiring all reading be ‘developmentally appropriate’

South Carolina has implemented one of the most restrictive book ban laws in the US, enabling mass censorship in school classrooms and libraries across the state.

Drafted by Ellen Weaver, the superintendent of education and close ally of the far-right group Moms for Liberty, the law requires all reading material to be “age or developmentally appropriate”. The vague wording of the legislation – open to interpretation and deliberately inviting challenge – could see titles as classic as Romeo and Juliet completely wiped from school shelves.

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Alex Murdaugh’s son sues Netflix over docuseries linking him to 2015 death

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Son of convicted murderer says Netflix defamed him when suggesting he was involved in death of Stephen Smith

Richard Alexander “Buster” Murdaugh, the son of imprisoned South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh, has filed a defamation lawsuit against Netflix, accusing the streaming giant of “reckless indifference to the truth” when it linked him to the 2015 death of his schoolfriend Stephen Smith in a documentary.

The 28-year-old son of Alex Murdaugh, who was convicted in 2022 of murdering his wife, Maggie, and youngest son, Paul, seeks actual and punitive damages from Netflix and other companies connected to documentaries examining the murders for damaging his reputation “irreparably” and causing “mental anguish”.

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South Carolina mulls mystery $1.8bn in account: ‘We don’t know why it’s there’

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Governor says officials don’t know how or when money materialised in state coffers, what it’s for, or if it’s even real

To put it mildly, the South Carolina state government faces an unusual problem: what to do about $1.8bn found in a state bank account when no one knows how it got there, how it should be spent or even whether it really exists.

Discussing the problem, the Republican governor, Henry McMaster, made a play for political understatement of the year.

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Alex Murdaugh sentenced to 40 years for stealing from clients and law firm

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Disbarred attorney already serving life sentence without parole in South Carolina prison for killing his wife and son

For maybe the last time, the convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh – in a prison jumpsuit instead of the suit he used to wear – shuffled into a courtroom on Monday in South Carolina and received a prison sentence.

This time, it was for 40 years in federal court for financial crimes.

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