Tag: alabama

Trans Antifa member arrested over bombing at Alabama Attorney General’s Office

A trans person with links to Antifa was arrested and charged with the February detonation an improvised explosive device, a nail bomb, outside the Alabama attorney general’s Montgomery office.  

Kyle Benjamin Douglas Calvert, 26, of Irondale, Alabama, was indicted on Wednesday and charged with malicious use of an explosive and possession of an unregistered destructive device. 

The charges per the indictment allege that Calvert “maliciously damaged, and attempted to maliciously damage, by means of fire and explosive materials, the Alabama Attorney General’s Office,” and that Calvert “knowingly possessed a firearm, to wit: a destructive device… which was not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.” 

A detention memo from a US attorney’s office stated, “That device had the characteristics of an IED, and Calvert added a substantial number of nails and other shrapnel to increase its destructive capability.” 

The explosion was outside the office of Attorney General Steve Marshall on February 24, in the early hours of the morning, at approximately 3:42 am. Surveillance footage showed an individual wearing dark clothes, a mask, and goggles near the statehouse.  

In addition to the explosive device, law enforcement officers discovered that Calvert vandalized state buildings with stickers that were advocating for various political ideologies. These included Antifa and anti-police sentiments as well as sentiments expressing opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

Some of those stickers read, “Support your local antifa,” and surveillance footage showed the individual putting the stickers on the doors of the Alabama State Capitol Building. Shortly thereafter, the suspect could be seen near the attorney general’s office, right before the explosion. They were then seen walking away. 

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How the ‘NASA Nazis’ helped transform sleepy Alabama farming town into America’s ‘Rocket City’ and win the Space Race – but dark legacy of ‘our Germans’ led by former SS officer remains divisive

Huntsville, Alabama, is fiercely proud of its Rocket City nickname – earned for its crucial role in America’s space race success.

The city, which transformed in the 1950s from a cotton market town to the world’s foremost hub for space travel research, is home to NASA‘s Marshall Space Flight Center, which led development of the Saturn rockets that put the first man on the moon.

But there is a dark side to the story of these epic achievements: many of the men who led the groundbreaking work were Nazis – recruited through a top secret operation after the Second World War.

The fascinating, and troubling, reality is often omitted from lessons about America’s victory in the space race against the Soviet Union. It is also something Huntsville continues to grapple with today.

There are those who say the ‘greater good’ outweighed the moral cost of recruiting members of an evil regime, allowing them to avoid justice in the process.

But others say bringing these men to the US was an inexcusable decision – compounded by the fact their Nazi backgrounds go largely unmentioned in lessons about America’s space history.

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Frozen Embryos Are Now Children Under Alabama Law

Frozen embryos are “children” under Alabama law, the state’s Supreme Court says. Its decision could have major implications for the future of fertility treatments in the state.

Frozen embryos are “unborn children” and “unborn children are ‘children,'” Justice Jay Mitchell wrote in the court’s main opinion. Only two of nine justices dissented from the holding that an 1872 wrongful death statute applies to the destruction of frozen embryos.

The ruling seems to represent a turn toward judicial activism among members of Alabama’s Supreme Court, which for a long time held that the law’s text could not justify reading it to include “unborn children”—let alone frozen embryos.

It also portends a creeping Christian conservatism into court decisions, with Alabama Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker citing the Bible in his legal reasoning. In a concurring opinion, Parker justifies prohibitions on murder not by invoking classical liberal principles, like natural rights, but rather on the basis of “Man’s creation in God’s image” and the “you shall not murder” edict of the Sixth Commandment. “Human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God, who views the destruction of His image as an affront to Himself,” Parker writes.

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Alabama Medical Marijuana Access Could Take Months, Even After Licensing Lawsuits End

Antoine Mordican has a medical cannabis cultivation license. And he is building out a facility to begin growing the product.

Under state law, he has to demonstrate he can maintain cultivation facilities; use an inventory control system approved by the state; can start cannabis cultivation within 60 days; can dispose of plant waste according to regulations; and can maintain financial stability.

“I’m building—getting everything in place, getting the necessary parameters and everything in place to be in compliance, such as security,” said Mordican, the CEO of Native Black Cultivation.

But when he will see actual marijuana plants grow depends on what approach he takes.

If he grows from seed, which Mordican plans to start out with, it would take about six to eight months before he can get the first harvest.

If growing from a clone, or a cutting from a growing plant, it would be closer to four to six months. Mordican said he might look at that approach, but added that he’s not in a rush.

“Everybody’s got their own techniques,” he said. “My goal is to be within compliance with the revenue rules and regulations.”

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An Alabama Couple’s Lives Were Upended by an Unconstitutional Police Raid. A Jury Awarded Them $1 Million.

Six years ago, Greg and Teresa Almond were left destitute and living in a utility shed after sheriff’s deputies in Randolph County, Alabama, illegally raided their house and seized their savings over a misdemeanor drug crime.

Now the Almonds will be made partly whole, at least financially. Last month, a jury in their federal civil rights lawsuit awarded the couple $1 million in punitive and compensatory damages after trial testimony showed the deputies never got a warrant to search the Almonds’ property.

The Randolph County Sheriff’s Department’s 2018 raid on the Almonds’ house, first reported by the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, exemplified the worst aspects of the war on drugs and civil asset forfeiture—a practice that allows police to seize property when it’s suspected of being connected to criminal activity. 

On January 31, 2018, a Randolph County sheriff’s deputy showed up at Greg and Teresa Almond’s house in Woodland, Alabama, to serve Greg court papers in a civil matter. The deputy reported that he smelled marijuana.

A county drug task force returned two hours later, busted down the Almonds’ front door, threw a flash-bang grenade at Greg Almond’s feet, detained the couple at gunpoint, and ransacked their house. The search only turned up $50 or less of marijuana, which the Almonds’ adult son tried in vain to claim as his, and a single sleeping pill outside of a prescription bottle with Greg’s name on it.

Using the paltry amount of narcotics as justification, deputies seized roughly $8,000 in cash, along with dozens of firearms and other valuables, under Alabama’s civil asset forfeiture laws. The deputies took the money right out of his wallet, Greg Almond told Reason in 2019.

More than a year after the initial raid, the Almonds were indicted on two misdemeanor charges: unlawful possession of marijuana for personal use and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia, thus violating “the peace and dignity of Alabama.” However, prosecutors dropped the charges, and a judge ordered their property to be returned.

The Almonds filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in 2019 alleging that the Randolph County Sheriff’s Department used excessive force; stole, lost, or failed to inventory their missing property; and violated their constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, as well as their right to due process.

That was in addition to the other injuries they suffered. As a result of the raid and arrest, the Almonds’ missed a crucial deadline to refinance loans on their farm and lost their house. Their reputation was tarnished, and their ability to earn a living was practically destroyed.

What’s more, depositions and trial testimony showed that the deputies never obtained an official search warrant from a judge for the raid.

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Alabama Cops ‘Violently’ Arrested Two Elderly Women For Taking Care of Feral Cats

In 2022, Wetumpka, Alabama, police violently arrested two elderly women and charged them with a litany of criminal offenses. Their crime? Taking care of stray cats. The pair has now sued the officers, arguing that their arrest and the resulting charges against them were unconstitutional and caused “significant physical and emotional injuries.”

According to the complaint, Mary Alston, who was 60 at the time, often worked with Beverly Roberts who was then 84, to “trap-neuter-return” (TNR) feral cats. TNR is a common strategy of limiting stray cat populations by safely capturing cats, having them spayed or neutered by a veterinary clinic, and releasing or putting them up for adoption. According to their complaint, Roberts and Alston took up this practice because “neither the Humane Society nor any other animal rights organization had the resources to conduct TNR in or around the City of Wetumpka.”

On June 25, 2022, Alston was setting up a trap for a feral cat on local public property when she saw Wetumpka Mayor Jerry Willis drive past, followed by police vehicles. However, within minutes the three police officers who had been trailing Willis turned around and approached Alston. 

According to the complaint, Willis later admitted that after observing Alston, he ordered the police to approach her. Further, the lawsuit alleges that “Willis was angry that Ms. Roberts and Ms. Alston frequently complained, both publicly and to officials at Wetumpka City Hall, that. Willis was failing to enforce laws and ordinances prohibiting the ‘chaining’ of dogs.”

Body camera footage shows one officer telling Alston that someone called about a person feeding feral cats.

“Ya’ll got three cop cars because I’m feeding cats?” Alston said to the officer. “Wow, it’s unbelievable.”

The officers demanded that Alston leave the public property, and then left the scene. However, Shortly after this encounter, Roberts joined Alston. The pair were on public property, and sitting calmly, waiting for a cat they were hoping to trap to arrive. However, the three officers soon returned. This time, the complaint states that they informed Roberts that she would be arrested. When the officers handcuffed Roberts, Alston got out of her car and attempted to speak with the officers.

“The officers ordered Ms. Alston to quit talking and to get in her vehicle. Ms. Alston complied with the officers’ demand to get back into her vehicle but continued to try to speak to the officers,” the complaint states. In response, one of the officers, Brenden Foster responded by grabbing Ms. Alston, jerking her out of her vehicle by force, and then handcuffing her.”

The pair were then taken to a local jail, where they were mistreated further. While in jail, Roberts lost consciousness and hit her head. However, the complaint alleges that an officer who witnessed this did nothing, and she was not given any medical help. When Roberts later asked to make a phone call, she was allegedly told that a call is a “privilege, not a right,” which is in violation of Alabama law.

Ultimately, the pair was charged with “criminal trespass, obstructing governmental operations and disorderly conduct,” according to the complaint. In December 2022, a municipal Judge found the pair guilty and sentenced them to “10 days in jail, suspended, two years supervised probation, and a $50 fine on each charge,” though the charges were later dismissed on appeal.

While their charges were ultimately dismissed, the pair is still suing, arguing that the officers and mayor “directed the unlawful arrest and malicious prosecution of Ms. Roberts and Ms. Alston to retaliate against them for exercising their First Amendment rights to peaceably assemble on public property, engage in expressive conduct…and engage in peaceful political speech.”

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Alabama Attorney General vows to use nitrogen gas executions AGAIN as he doubles down on ‘textbook’ controversial death with 43 Alabama death row inmates set to die just like Kenneth Eugene Smith

Alabama‘s Attorney General has vowed to keep using nitrogen gas to execute inmates despite harrowing reports from witnesses to Kenneth Eugene Smith’s execution.

Steve Marshall even offered to assist other states in procuring the previously-untested method, brushing off claims the killer writhed and shook in agony as he was slowly suffocated to death in a 22-minute ordeal on Thursday night. 

‘What occurred last night was textbook,’ Marshall said Friday, contrasting allegations from many, including Smith’s spiritual advisor who said it was ‘torture’ and the ‘worst thing’ he had ever seen. 

‘When they turned the nitrogen on, he began to convulse, he popped up on the gurney over and over again, he shook the whole gurney,’ spiritual advisor Jeff Hood, who was in the chamber, said immediately after the execution.  

In the face of the controversy, nitrogen hypoxia has opened a new avenue for US prisons to continue the practice of executions, with some states going years without amid a nationwide shortage of lethal injection drugs. 

Marshall cited this in his remarks Friday, praising how nitrogen gas executions are ‘no longer an untested method – it is a proven one.’ 

Officials insisted for months leading up to the execution that it would be humane and painless for Smith, who had a previous execution in 2022 called off after prison staff tried and failed to insert an IV line for several painful hours. 

Following the failed execution in 2022, Smith sought his subsequent execution to be carried out via nitrogen hypoxia – in an apparent gamble that officials wouldn’t follow through with the untested method.

However, Marshall said of the 165 inmates on Alabama’s death row, 43 prisoners have opted to be executed via nitrogen hypoxia over lethal injection when their time comes. 

‘We’ll definitely have more nitrogen hypoxia executions in Alabama,’ he concluded. 

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Minute by gruesome minute: From his last words to the final horrifying spasm on his gurney, how America’s first nitrogen gas execution saw killer Kenneth Smith thrash around while his wife wept during grisly 22-minute death in Alabama prison

A murderer was put to death in Alabama overnight with a previously unused and untested method, in what witnesses described as a horrifying 22-minute ordeal.

Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, was paid $1,000 to kill an Alabama woman, 45-year-old Elizabeth Sennett, more than 30 years ago and was sentenced to death for the crime. He has been on death row ever since.

The state had previously attempted to execute Smith in 2022, but the lethal injection was called off at the last minute because authorities couldn’t connect an IV line.

On Thursday night, the state tried again to put him to death, this time successfully using ‘nitrogen hypoxia’ – suffocation by administering gas through a mask.

It marked the first time a new execution method was used in the US since 1982, when lethal injection was introduced and later became the most common method. 

Alabama had predicted the nitrogen gas would cause unconsciousness within seconds and death within minutes.

However, those who watched the execution at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama have said it was anything but simple.

Witnesses said Smith appeared to shake and convulse at the start, pulled against his restraints, and breathed for up to ten minutes before finally falling unconscious.

While executions are never filmed in the US, it is possible to piece together the events from witnesses testimony given by those who watched the scene unfold in the immediate aftermath of Smith’s death.

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Parole denied for 68-year-old in Alabama: ‘A life sentence for growing marijuana’

Leon Hotchkiss, now 68, remains behind bars in Alabama, spending decades imprisoned for growing pot.

Authorities seized about five and half pounds of the plant on his property in Baldwin County, allowing authorities to charge him under the state’s marijuana trafficking law.

In 2013, Hotchkiss was sentenced to spend the next 40 years in prison.

And when he came up for parole in February, after serving a decade, the three-member Alabama parole board voted to keep him there.

The board set his next hearing in 2028 – the furthest they could push it back. He’ll be 73.

Today, Hotchkiss is incarcerated at the Loxley Community Work Center, although he spends most days outside the lockup. Each morning, he is dropped off at his job at a Fairhope boat dealership.

Jody Cullifer recently retired from the dealership, but he’s the person who secured the job for Hotchkiss. He said he had trouble finding a person to wash the boats, so he called the prison and asked if they had anyone who could do the job and provide general maintenance. They sent Hotchkiss.

On Hotchkiss’s first day, Cullifer explained the job. “He picked up really quick… and did a phenomenal job,” he said.

Cullifer called Hotchkiss a good worker and a trustworthy employee, and said the bosses gave him his own key to the dealership. That way, Hotchkiss could let himself inside in case the prison van dropped him off too early in the morning.

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‘Nothing short of grave robbery’: 2 families allege bodies of Alabama prison inmates were returned missing organs

Two families have claimed that when the Alabama Department of Corrections returned the bodies of their loved ones who died in prison, they were found to be missing one or more internal organs, court documents show.

When Charles Edward Singleton died at age 74, he was incarcerated at the Hamilton Aged and Infirmed Center in Hamilton, about 90 miles northwest of Birmingham.

The chaplain of the prison told his family the corrections department would take care of funeral arrangements, according to an affidavit signed January 3 by Singleton’s daughter, Charlene Drake.

Drake said she told the chaplain the family wanted to make the arrangements and asked that the body be transported to a funeral home. But when Singleton’s body arrived, the funeral director informed her “it would be difficult to prepare his body for viewing, as his body was already in a noticeable state of decomposition” and his internal organs, including his brain, were missing, the affidavit said.

The funeral director said the organs are normally placed in a bag and put back in the body after an autopsy, but not in Singleton’s case, according to the affidavit.

The Alabama Department of Corrections told CNN it does not comment on pending litigation, nor does it authorize or perform autopsies.

“Once an inmate dies, the body is transported to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences or (the University of Alabama at Birmingham) for autopsy, depending on several factors, including but not limited to region and whether the death is unlawful, suspicious, or unnatural,” the department said in a statement.

Drake’s affidavit was filed in support of a federal lawsuit filed by the family of Brandon Clay Dotson, who was found dead at age 43 in Ventress Correctional Facility in Clayton on November 16, 2023.

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