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Firing-squad executions get green light in South Carolina

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Firing-squad executions get green light in South Carolina

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South Carolina has given the inexperienced gentle to firing-squad executions, a technique codified into state regulation final yr after a decade-long pause in finishing up dying sentences due to the state’s lack of ability to acquire deadly injection medication.

The state Corrections Division stated Friday that renovations have been accomplished on the dying chamber in Columbia and that the company had notified Legal professional Normal Alan Wilson that it was capable of perform a firing-squad execution.

Lawmakers set about tweaking state regulation to get across the deadly injection drug scenario. Laws that went into impact in Might made the electrical chair the state’s major technique of execution whereas giving inmates the choice of selecting dying by firing squad or deadly injection, if these strategies can be found.

On this April 16, 2018, picture, a guard tower stands above the Lee Correctional Establishment, a maximum-security jail in Bishopville, S.C. South Carolina has given the inexperienced gentle to firing-squad executions.  
(AP Picture/Sean Rayford)

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Throughout South Carolina’s prolonged debate, Democratic state Sen. Dick Harpootlian — a prosecutor-turned-criminal-defense lawyer — launched the firing squad choice, arguing that it introduced “the least painful” execution methodology obtainable.

“The dying penalty goes to remain the regulation right here for some time,” Harpootlian stated. “If we’re going to have it, it must be humane.”

Based on officers, the dying chamber now additionally features a steel chair, with restraints, within the nook of the room during which inmates will sit in the event that they select execution by firing squad. That chair faces a wall with an oblong opening, 15 ft away, by means of which the three shooters will hearth their weapons.

South Carolina Sen. Dick Harpootlian, D-Columbia, speaks in favor of a bill that would add the firing squad to the electric chair and lethal injection as execution methods in the state March 2, 2021, in Columbia, S.C. 

South Carolina Sen. Dick Harpootlian, D-Columbia, speaks in favor of a invoice that may add the firing squad to the electrical chair and deadly injection as execution strategies within the state March 2, 2021, in Columbia, S.C. 
(AP Picture/Jeffrey Collins)

State officers even have created protocols for finishing up the executions. Three shooters, all volunteers who’re staff of the Corrections Division, could have rifles loaded with reside ammunition, with their weapons skilled on the inmate’s coronary heart.

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A hood will likely be positioned over the pinnacle of the inmate, who will likely be given the chance to make a final assertion.

Based on officers, Corrections spent $53,600 on the renovations.

South Carolina is one among eight states to nonetheless use the electrical chair and one among 4 to permit a firing squad, based on Washington-based nonprofit Loss of life Penalty Info Heart.

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In June, the South Carolina Supreme Courtroom blocked the deliberate executions of two inmates by electrocution, saying they can’t be put to dying till they’ve a selection of a firing squad choice set out within the state’s newly revised regulation.

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The electric chair used on Florida's death row 

The electrical chair used on Florida’s dying row 
(Florida Division of Corrections)

The excessive court docket halted the scheduled executions of Brad Sigmon and Freddie Owens, writing that officers wanted to place collectively a firing squad in order that inmates might select between that or the electrical chair. The state’s plans, the court docket wrote in an unanimous order, had been on maintain “because of the statutory proper of inmates to elect the way of their execution.”

Now {that a} firing squad has been shaped, the court docket might want to concern a brand new order for any execution to be carried out.

The executions had been scheduled lower than a month after the passage of the brand new regulation. Jail officers had beforehand stated they nonetheless could not acquire deadly injection medication and have but to place collectively a firing squad, leaving the 109-year-old electrical chair as the one choice.

Attorneys for the 2 males argued in authorized filings that dying by electrocution is merciless and weird, saying the brand new regulation strikes the state towards much less humane execution strategies. They’ve additionally stated the lads have the correct to die by deadly injection — the strategy each of them selected — and that the state hasn’t exhausted all strategies to acquire deadly injection medication.

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Attorneys for the state have maintained that jail officers are merely finishing up the regulation and that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom has by no means discovered electrocution to be unconstitutional.

South Carolina’s final execution passed off in 2011, and its batch of deadly injection medication expired two years later. There are 37 males on the state’s dying row.

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New Orleans attack: Inside Bourbon Street terrorist's Houston home

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New Orleans attack: Inside Bourbon Street terrorist's Houston home

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HOUSTON — New photos taken by Fox News Digital provide a look inside Bourbon Street killer Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston. 

Photos of the inside of Jabbar’s mobile home in a majority-Muslim neighborhood in north Houston revealed multiple copies of the Quran, a book on Christianity and a book about teaching children about Islam. 

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Jabbar, 42, rammed a white truck into a crowd full of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans on Wednesday around 3:15 a.m. He then began shooting at law enforcement officers, who returned fire, killing Jabbar on the scene. The rampage, which is being investigated as a terrorist attack, left 15 dead, including Jabbar, and more than 30 people injured. 

SUGAR BOWL KICKS OFF AFTER NEW ORLEANS TERROR ATTACK

An interior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston on Thursday. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

Jabbar, who served in the U.S. Army for 13 years, including one tour in Afghanistan, was flying an ISIS flag on his truck during the attack and was inspired by the Islamic state. 

The FBI and a Houston SWAT team raided Jabbar’s home early Thursday morning. The team left the front door off its hinges and cracked open, revealing much of the house’s living room, kitchen and a glimpse of a bedroom. 

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BOMB-MAKING MATERIALS FOUND AT NEW ORLEANS AIRBNB POTENTIALLY TIED TO BOURBON STREET TERRORIST: REPORT

An interior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston, Texas

An interior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston on Thursday. (Peter Pinedo/Fox News Digital)

From outside the front porch, Jabbar’s living room could be seen left in a state of disarray by law enforcement officers who searched the home. A black suitcase lay strewn on the floor and a dart board and fake fireplace could be seen on the far side of the wall. 

An interior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston, Texas

An interior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston on Thursday. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

An interior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston, Texas

An interior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston on Thursday. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

Next-door neighbors described Jabbar to Fox News Digital as a quiet, respectful neighbor who was devoted to his Islamic religion. A bookshelf sitting near the front door seems to back his religious devotion, containing several copies of the Quran and books about Islam as well as one about Christianity. 

On the opposite side of the house, Jabbar had an elevated desk with a computer set up and a can of pepper spray, as well as several other items. A green, military-style backpack also lay near the kitchen. 

PRO-ISIS GROUP CALLED ON MUSLIMS TO CONDUCT NYE ATTACKS AHEAD OF NEW ORLEANS MASSACRE

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An interior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston, Texas

An interior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston on Thursday. (Peter Pinedo/Fox News Digital)

Jabbar was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, and was living in a rented mobile home in Houston. The house is in a neighborhood among several other mobile homes and RVs, just about a seven-minute walk from the Masjid Bilal Mosque and Darul Arqam Islamic school. 

Masjid Bilal Mosque and Darul Arqam Islamic school in north Houston.

Masjid Bilal Mosque and Darul Arqam Islamic school in north Houston. (Peter Pinedo/Fox News Digital)

Much of the neighborhood is in an extreme state of disrepair with dilapidated houses, parts of the road ripped up and trash and stray animals present throughout the street. Jabbar’s yard had several ducks and chickens wandering about and several goats were in another yard nearby. 

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT VICTIMS OF NEW ORLEANS TERRORIST ATTACK

Shamsud-Din Jabbar's Houston home

Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home is seen in Houston after law enforcement searched the property. (Peter Pinedo/Fox News Digital)

An interior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston, Texas

An interior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston on Thursday. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

A next-door neighbor, who asked not to be identified, told Fox News Digital he had seen Jabbar loading up a white pickup truck on Tuesday outside his Houston home, the morning before the attack in New Orleans, where he rammed the truck into New Year’s revelers. The neighbor said he spoke with Jabbar, who told him he had gotten a job and was moving to Louisiana. The neighbor said he was under the impression Jabbar had gotten another job in information technology.

An exterior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston

An exterior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston on Thursday. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

An exterior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston

An exterior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston on Thursday. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

“He said he got the job that day in Louisiana,” the neighbor said, describing how Jabbar was loading “very light stuff, handheld stuff, not heavy stuff” into the truck.

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Shamsud-Din Jabbar's Houston home

Shamsud-Din Jabbar lived in this Houston home before carrying out a New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans. (Peter Pinedo/Fox News Digital)

“The morning he was moving, I asked him if he needed help moving out, as a neighbor, ‘Do you need any help for moving?’ He said, ‘I’m OK,’” the neighbor told Fox News Digital.

An exterior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston

An exterior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston on Thursday. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

The neighbor expressed disbelief upon learning Jabbar was accused of the Bourbon Street bloodshed.

An exterior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston

An exterior view of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston on Thursday. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)

“Blow my mind, I was shocked, somebody seized the carpet under my feet, I was just like too shocked, unbelievable. ‘This really happened?’” the neighbor said. “Like I said, we still don’t believe, we still don’t believe that that’s the person, just there’s no way, it can’t be like that.”

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New Orleans attack could embolden ISIS to radicalize other Americans, experts say

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New Orleans attack could embolden ISIS to radicalize other Americans, experts say

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Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s New Year’s massacre in New Orleans, carried out with a pickup truck flying an ISIS flag, could embolden the terrorist organization to radicalize more Americans, experts told Fox News Digital.

Jabbar’s younger half-brother, Abdur Rahim-Jabbar, told Fox News Digital that he, his Army veteran half-brother and their three siblings were raised in a Muslim household in Beaumont, Texas; Jabbar stepped away from the religion, but embraced it again after his latest divorce, his brother said. 

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Rahim-Jabbar said this “was not a direct reflection of his brother and the Muslim community,” blaming Wednesday’s attack on his half-brother’s radicalization rather than religion.  

NEW ORLEANS TRUCK ATTACK SUSPECT INSPIRED BY ISLAMIC STATE TERRORIST GROUP

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a suspect in the New Orleans attack, is seen in this picture obtained from social media released in November 2013 at Fort Johnson (formerly Fort Polk), Louisiana. (1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division via Facebook via Reuters)

He added that Jabbar did not know what he wanted to do in life and began his military career “to get some sort of discipline.”

While he was traveling from his home in Texas to Louisiana on Tuesday, Jabbar posted videos to his Facebook account pledging his allegiance to ISIS, law enforcement sources said.

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Retired FBI agents Scott Duffey and Chris Swecker told Fox News Digital Wednesday’s attack could embolden ISIS, other terrorist groups or individuals who have been radicalized.

NEW ORLEANS TERROR SUSPECT’S BROTHER SAYS ATTACK IS SIGN OF ‘RADICALIZATION’: REPORT

ATF agents continue investigating the rental home used by Shamsud-Din Jabbar in New Orleans

ATF agents investigate a rental home used by Shamsud-Din Jabbar in New Orleans on Thursday. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)

“This is a time where ISIS is under extreme stress, and their existence is being threatened in Syria and elsewhere. It would make sense for them to double down on their message to radicalize Americans to put them into action and activate any cells that they have in place,” Swecker said.

Before his rampage in New Orleans, Jabbar posted several videos on Facebook declaring his support for ISIS, the FBI said at a news conference Thursday.

“In the first video, Jabbar explains he only planned to harm his family and friends but was concerned the news headlines would not focus on the ‘war between the believers and the disbelievers,’” FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia said. 

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ISIS and other terrorist organizations often use social media to recruit new members, experts said.

NEW ORLEANS ATTACK: INVESTIGATION CONTINUES, AS FBI SAYS NO OTHER SUSPECTS INVOLVED

“ISIS and other foreign adversaries use all sorts of social media platforms to spread anti-American ideologies, rhetoric and propaganda,” Duffey said. “It’s free speech and designed to slowly convert young people to start questioning their American and religious ideals.

“It starts off (with) soft messaging to attract people into their thought process,” he added. “Links are often provided that lead people to additional messages… sowing division and distrust of government in young impressionable minds.

“I think there is often an underlying mental issue in the reader that attracts them to the message, which over time leads to… more encrypted messages of violence.

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“It’s a win for them if someone does something like what he did yesterday.”

Investigators search the rental home used by Shamsud-Din Jabbar in New Orleans

Investigators search a rental home used by Shamsud-Din Jabbar in New Orleans on Thursday. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)

Most people are radicalized by online materials, said John Ryan, who served as chief of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department.

“Him being an IT person, it would mean he probably knows how to access the dark web where a lot more material is available,” Ryan said of Jabbar’s background in information technology.

“In regards to whether it could trigger other people, sadly there are a lot of keyboard warriors who are being exposed to this and searching for something to connect to. Given the high level of mental health issues in the aftermath of COVID and the number of protests in support of Hamas and pro-Palestine and anti-Israel, the answer is yes. Mostly lone wolf type of people.”

Although law enforcement officers were initially searching for accomplices in the attack, the FBI said Thursday it appears Jabbar acted alone. However, Swecker said, that does not discount the possibility of an active terror cell within the country. 

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“If his radicalization was as a result of the propaganda and calls to action from ISIS on the internet, this is [still] international terrorism. We’re calling him homegrown, but it’s directed from a terrorist organization,” Swecker said. 

“Even if he doesn’t carry a card, even if he isn’t on the phone with the ISIS director but he’s being called to action by propaganda on their websites, it’s still international terrorism,” he said. “That’s very much a part of the playbook for al Qaeda and these international groups.”

Jabbar was stationed at Fort Bragg, now called Fort Liberty, in North Carolina, as was active-duty U.S. Army soldier Matthew Livelsberger, who police said intentionally set and died in an explosion that injured seven outside Trump International Hotel Las Vegas on Wednesday.

Investigators have uncovered no evidence of a connection between the Bourbon Street terror attack in New Orleans and the Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas despite the suspects’ shared military history.

Shamsud-Din Jabbar and Matthew Livelsberg

The driver of the Tesla Cybertruck that blew up outside Trump International Hotel Las Vegas New Year’s Day has been identified as active-duty U.S. Army soldier Matthew Livelsberger, pictured right. Livelsberger’s attack took place within hours of Jabbar’s in New Orleans. (Fox News)

“If they served at the same base, I think I’m still very open and there’s a distinct possibility that they linked up on the internet or with their prior military associations,” Swecker said. “If [Livelsberger] was a convert, he would have been going to the same [religious] services as [Jabbar].

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“What [Jabbar] did and what happened in Las Vegas does give credibility to the movement and creates that excitement in others who may be thinking about it [carrying] on their plan in a short time frame,” Duffey said.

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Florida DEI leader sees revenue cut in half due to state policies: 'We're in trouble'

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Florida DEI leader sees revenue cut in half due to state policies: 'We're in trouble'

Multiple diversity, equity and inclusion consulting companies have been struggling in Florida in the years following the “Stop WOKE Act.”

Roni Bennett, the Executive Director of South Florida People of Color, told the Miami Herald on Thursday that she has seen her annual revenue of nearly $300,000 be cut in half thanks to Florida’s new policies.

“We’re in trouble,” Bennett said.

The “Stop WOKE Act” or the “Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act” is a law that was passed in 2022 by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. It targeted critical race theory in work and educational programs. Bennett found that many businesses stopped requesting services from her organization despite a slight boost during the pandemic.

Businesses are reportedly moving away from diversity, equity and inclusion programs. (Getty Images)

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Bennett added how even prior to the act she saw shifts in some clients’ attitudes, suggesting their original interest was “performative.”

“One client had a president change, and the new president wasn’t into DEI training,” she said.

Consultants like Bennett are now trying to remind current and potential clients that, regardless of the national concerns about the “Stop WOKE Act,” the bill does not actually target private businesses.

“It’s important because the Stop Woke Act for businesses became very prominent after passing,” Alexander Rundlet, a Brickell lawyer and public policy consultant, said. “It made every business fearful it couldn’t [participate] in DEI training in fear of the act. Since March, it’s clear this doesn’t apply to businesses.”

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In March, a federal appeals court ruled that the workplace portion of the law violated the First Amendment.

Ron DeSantis

In April 2022, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 7, known as the “Stop WOKE Act.”  (Daniel A. Varela/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

“We cannot agree, and we reject this latest attempt to control speech by recharacterizing it as conduct. Florida may be exactly right about the nature of the ideas it targets. Or it may not. Either way, the merits of these views will be decided in the clanging marketplace of ideas rather than a codebook or a courtroom.” Judge Britt C. Grant wrote at the time. “The First Amendment keeps the government from putting its thumb on the scale.”

A federal judge later granted a permanent injunction against that portion of the law in July. However, the portion of the law focused on education has been allowed to remain intact.

Despite the favorable ruling, DEI consultant businesses continue to struggle based on the growing anti-woke culture, Rundlet said.

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“A lot of deep and widespread harm has been inflicted over the past few years,” Rundlet said. “People like Roni Bennett have to do a lot of work to undue that harm.”

"End Racism" sign

Bennett has shown concerns that some clients’ actions are only “performative.” (iStock)

The Miami Herald reported that Bennett nevertheless “remains steadfast in her work,” though she is looking for an angel investor to help her business.

“We owe it to the next generation to make progress for them,” she said. “I want to be able to dismantle systematic racism in America.”

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