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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.

SC JUDGE SETS BOND FOR ALEX MURDAUGH ACCUSED CO-CONSPIRATOR CORY FLEMING OVER $3.6M GLORIA SATTERFIELD PLOT

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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Bodycam footage shows moment Florida officers' attempt to restrain suspect goes horribly wrong

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Bodycam footage shows moment Florida officers' attempt to restrain suspect goes horribly wrong

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Newly released body camera footage shows the moment a Miami Beach Police officer shot a fellow officer in the leg while struggling with a man on a busy Florida roadway.

Officer Shenaqua Stringer was responding to a 911 call reporting a suspicious person possibly carrying a gun while walking on Venetian Causeway shortly before 12:30 p.m. March 2, according to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office. 

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The suspect reached into his pocket to grab an “unknown object” as Stringer approached him, investigators said.  

Stringer drew her gun and began struggling with the man, ordering him to the ground as fellow officer Fabio Balanos arrived. Balanos ran toward the struggle, and Stringer accidentally fired, striking Balanos in his left leg. 

AMERICAN DEPUTY KILLED BY STRAY BULLET ON TURKS AND CAICOS VACATION

Bodycam footage shows Officer Stringer attempting to detain a man on the Venetian Causeway in Miami, Fla., March 2, 2024. (Office of Miami-Dade State Attorney)

Stringer’s body camera was not rolling at the time of the shooting, which was not directly recorded on Balanos’ camera. But, moments later, a growing puddle of blood appeared beneath him. 

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“Why’d you do that?” the man can be heard asking as he is wrestled to the ground. “Ain’t nobody do nothing. You f—ed up his leg. He’s bleeding a lot.”

Stringer then handcuffed the suspect as she called for help. 

“Hurry up, because I need a tourniquet,” Balanos said.

GOOD SAMARITAN GROCERY SHOPPER, DAD KILLED WHILE TRYING TO STOP TEEN ROBBERY SUSPECTS

Body cam footage police officers tending to Fabio Balanos’ injuries after being shot in the leg on the Venetian Causeway

Bodycam footage shows police officers tending to Officer Balanos’ injuries after he was shot in the leg on the Venetian Causeway in Miami, Fla., March 2, 2024. (Office of Miami-Dade State Attorney)

Balanos’ bodycam captured the moment more officers arrived and wrapped a tourniquet around his leg as he wailed in pain and they loaded him into the back of a police cruiser. 

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During the ride to the hospital, Balanos asked another officer if he could borrow a phone to call his wife. 

“I’m OK,” Balanos told her. “I got shot in the leg. I’m OK though. They’re taking me to Ryder Trauma right now. I’m OK, though. All right, babe? I love you.”

The bodycam continued rolling as Balanos arrived at the hospital, showing officers frantically banging on the doors to alert medical staff that they needed help. 

“Open up, let’s go,” one officer can be heard yelling as they knocked on the hospital doors.

FLORIDA MAN ARRESTED AFTER ALLEGEDLY CLIMBING OVER WALL AT TRUMP’S MAR-A-LAGO ESTATE

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Miami-Dade bodycam police footage

Bodycam footage shows when police officers arrive at a hospital with Officer Fabio Balanos after he was shot in the leg by friendly fire. (Office of Miami-Dade State Attorney)

As Balanos was being treated for his injuries at a hospital, officers discovered the suspected handgun the man reached for was a metallic cigarette lighter.

The man was not charged with a crime, and authorities determined he was a missing person from nearby Collier County. 

The situation remains an active internal investigation, and Stringer is still employed by the agency, the Miami Beach Police Department confirmed to Fox News Digital.

The district attorney determined there was not enough evidence to bring criminal charges against Stringer. 

The South Florida Police Benevolent Association did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

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Balanos, a Coast Guard veteran with a combined 18 years of experience working as a law enforcement officer, has made a full recovery and returned to work, according to reports.

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Top Georgia Republican unveils statewide DOGE plan to 'reset' regulations: 'Red Tape Rollback'

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Top Georgia Republican unveils statewide DOGE plan to 'reset' regulations: 'Red Tape Rollback'

Georgia’s Republican lieutenant governor has introduced a plan similar to the DOGE efforts taking place with the Trump administration that he tells Fox News Digital will bring much-needed government accountability to his state.

“I own my own business employing thousands of people, and I know one of the biggest things that we run into as small business owners is regulatory burdens. And that’s regulatory burdens at the local, state and federal level,” Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones told Fox News Digital of his Red Tape Rollback Act of 2025.

“We’ve been fortunate here in Georgia to be the No. 1 state to do business for 11 years running, and if we want to stay like that, we’re going to have to always be retooling how we do things, improving how we do things, making government more efficient, making it try to work more like business.”

WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT DOGE AND ITS QUEST TO SLASH GOVERNMENT WASTE, SPENDING

Jones introduced the plan last year but was unable to move it through the Georgia Legislature. But he said Trump’s DOGE efforts provided an opportunity to pair the plan with the new DOGE brand that has become increasingly popular with Republicans and some Democrats in Washington, D.C. 

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“That’s what the essence or the genesis behind red tape rollback, which is our state version of DOGE that the Trump administration is doing, and I’m excited about what they’re doing with the first week of that administration,” Jones said. 

Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is pushing a statewide plan in Georgia that’s similar to DOGE efforts by the Trump administration. (Getty Images)

Jones explained to Fox News Digital what the priorities of his statewide DOGE plan would entail if successfully passed through the Legislature.

“The first thing we’d like to do is basically have a reset on all regulatory issues at every state agency. And what I mean by that is, instead of always adding more regulations, we’ll start back at zero and then the agencies just add what they need,” Jones said. 

ELON MUSK’S DOGE MAKES ANOTHER HIRING PUSH

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“There are so many regulations that are on the books that have been put there from decades worth of, you know, legislative laws that were passed or whatever. What our bill will do is basically have a reset just like you would on a computer game or whatever. 

“And say there’s a lot of things that are unneeded, whether we’re talking about on the educational front, on the environment front, transportation, whatever it might be, just the entire blanket. Have a reset, and then make the agencies tell us what regulations are needed and which ones they’re glad to get rid of.”

Burt Jones,

Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones (Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg)

Jones said in a press release his bill will “also give legislators the ability to request a ‘Small Business Impact Analysis’ for pending legislation to better understand how a bill might impact Georgia’s most important job creators.”

Jones told Fox News Digital that statewide spending waste is at a much “smaller scale” than federal government waste, but he said he hopes his statewide efforts will help shine a light on waste in the federal government. 

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Elon Musk at Congress

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are heading the Department of Government Efficiency. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

There’s no question D.C. is the elephant, so to speak, in the room that has gotten so bloated through duplicate agencies, duplicate services, whatever it might be,” Jones said. “There’s a lot of ways to trim the fat at the federal level. 

“State government, it won’t be anything like what you have at the federal level, but there’s definitely inefficiencies that need to be addressed, whether it’s in licensing, permitting processes, whatever it might be, regulatory codes and things that need to be repealed. Those are all things that are going to be on the table.”

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DC plane crash: ATC staffing levels under scrutiny as barges arrive to help salvage ops

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DC plane crash: ATC staffing levels under scrutiny as barges arrive to help salvage ops

Barges are expected to arrive in the D.C. area on Saturday to help with salvage operations from Wednesday’s deadly plane crash at Regan National Airport (DCA) as questions remain as to how an Army Black Hawk helicopter could have collided with an American Airlines plane midair, killing 67 people. 

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member Todd Inman said Friday the barges will help with salvage operations to ensure the remaining victims are recovered. He said their remains would immediately be turned over to them and the D.C. Medical Examiner’s Office for identification and then returned to their families. 

At least 40 bodies had been pulled from the Potomac River on Friday. Both black boxes have been recovered. 

NTSB investigators examine the so-called black box recovered from the American Airlines plane that crashed with a U.S. Army Black hawk helicopter near Washington, D.C, Thursday, Jan.30, 2024.  (NTSB)

DC PLANE CRASH INVESTIGATORS RECOVER AMERICAN AIRLINES BLACK BOXES AFTER MIDAIR COLLISION

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A new report by the New York Post suggests that the Black Hawk was flying nearly twice as high as it should have been and that the helicopter was not equipped with a new technology that would have alerted air traffic control to its dangerously deviated path. Meanwhile, a preliminary report indicated that staffing levels at the time of the collision were “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic.”

The Black Hawk chopper was flying more than 300 feet above the Potomac River at the time of the deadly smash, even though aviation guidelines require helicopters on that route to stay below 200 feet, the outlet reports. 

The news would corroborate President Donald Trump’s view that the military aircraft was traveling too high. 

“The Black Hawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200-foot limit,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday. “That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???”

Trump on Thursday signed an executive order calling for an immediate assessment of aviation safety.

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Flight paths

A graphic of the two flight paths.  (Fox News)

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who chairs the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which oversees the aviation industry, said he’s been briefed by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and detailed the sequence of events that resulted in Wednesday’s deadly midair collision.

“Flight 5342 was initially scheduled to land on Runway 1 at Reagan but was redirected to Runway 33,” he wrote on X. “Meanwhile, the helicopter was traveling along Route 1 before being shifted to Route 4.”

“We know that air traffic control confirmed with the helicopter crew that they had visual contact with the plane. Controllers then instructed the helicopter to move behind the plane,” he added. “However, instead of complying, the helicopter moved in front of the aircraft. The two aircraft collided mid-air, resulting in a catastrophic explosion.”

In an episode of “The Verdict” podcast, Cruz said the collision may have been avoided if the Army had outfitted the Black Hawk with an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast device, a relatively new technology that allows air traffic control operators to see an aircraft’s altitude.

“The Black Hawk helicopter had a transponder, so it was appearing on radar. It did not have technology called ADS-B, which is technology that pings the location of an aircraft, and it does so using GPS rather than radar,” he said. “ADS-B is more accurate and more reliable than simply a transponder that is pinging on radar.” 

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General view of the tower at Reagan National Airport where an American Airlines jet collided with a Black Hawk Wednesday

A general view of the control tower at Reagan National Airport, Friday, January 31, 2025. Flights have resumed since the tragic crash on Wednesday night where an American Airlines jet collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter. (Leigh Green for Fox News Digital)

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER LEFT EARLY FROM WORK BEFORE CRASH: REPORT

Meanwhile, a preliminary  FAA report indicated that a single air traffic controller was monitoring both airplanes and helicopters at the time of the devastating crash.

Staffing levels at the time of the collision were “not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” the New York Times reports, citing the report. Additionally, a tower supervisor allegedly let another air traffic controller leave work early Wednesday night. The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) calls for one controller to monitor planes, while another monitors helicopters.

The Times report said the tower at the airport was nearly a third below targeted staff levels, with 19 fully certified controllers as of September 2023, citing the most recent Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan, an annual report to Congress that contains target and actual staffing levels.

The targets set by the FAA and the controllers union call for 30.

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Five current and former controllers told the outlet that the controller in the tower should have more proactively directed the helicopter and the plane to fly away from each other. Instead, the controller asked the helicopter to steer clear of the plane.

Another New York Times report suggests that more than 90% of the country’s 313 air traffic control facilities operate below the staffing levels recommended by the FAA.

Photos of victims following the collision between an American Airlines jet and a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter

Photos of some of the victims following the collision between an American Airlines jet and a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter (Getty Images)

The New York Times reported that as of January, 285 facilities were below levels set by the FAA and the union that represents controllers. In at least 73 facilities, at least a quarter of the workforce is missing.

The Army has named the other soldiers killed in the collision. They were identified as Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland, and Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia.

The family of the third solider killed in Wednesday’s deadly midair collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is requesting their identity not be publicly released, the Army said Friday.

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The doomed American Airlines plane was carrying more than a dozen people returning from a training camp following the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas, where the flight originated. Those victims included Spencer Lane and Jinna Han, both 16, who were promising skaters at The Skating Club of Boston in Norwood, Massachusetts, as well as Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov who together won a 1994 world championship in pairs figure skating.

Emergency response units search the crash site of the American Airlines plane on the Potomac River

The American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas collided in midair with a military helicopter while approaching Ronald Reagan National Airport. According to reports there were no survivors amongst the 67 people on board both aircraft.   (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration will restrict helicopter traffic around DCA, effective Friday.

The decision was made with the support of Trump and in consultation with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, according to a post on X from Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy.

“Today’s decision will immediately help secure the airspace near Reagan Airport, ensuring the safety of airplane and helicopter traffic,” Duffy wrote.

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The restricted area includes Memorial Bridge to South Capitol Street Bridge, excluding the Tidal Basin, Haines Point to Wilson Bridge and over the top of DCA.

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