Southeast
Pro-Trump prison warden asks Biden to commute all death sentences before leaving
FIRST ON FOX: A pro-Trump former Florida prison warden who oversaw executions is urging President Biden to commute all federal and military death sentences before leaving office.
“I voted for President Trump in all of his campaigns, and I agree with him on most of his positions, but not the death penalty,” Ron McAndrew, former warden of the Florida State Penitentiary, wrote in a letter to the outgoing president. “I have written to President Trump personally to ask him to stop calling for more executions.”
McAndrew, a self-described “law-and-order guy,” Air Force veteran and pro-life Catholic, said that after overseeing three electric chair executions and witnessing five lethal injections, he grew to oppose the death penalty.
While he had reservations from the start, he told Fox News Digital that he saw a burst of flames from the head of Pedro Medina during his execution in 1997 on the electric chair. That incident became a watershed moment in Florida and other parts of the country that marked the beginning of the end of electrocution.
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Ron McAndrew, a former Florida prison warden, testifies during a 2019 hearing regarding a death row inmate. (Doug Engle/Ocala Star-Banner)
“A plume of smoke and then a flame that came down underneath the helmet and out right in front of my face, had it come a few inches further, it would have actually burned me,” he said.
Later, he said the stench was so overpowering that, “it was like we had gone to a human barbecue.”
State investigators found that Medina, a convicted murderer and Cuban refugee, had died instantly – but the incident traumatized McAndrew and at least two dozen other witnesses, he said.
The incident led Florida to adopt lethal injections instead, but he said that form of execution was no less disturbing for the prison workers who carried it out.
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Pedro Medina, a convicted killer, was sentenced to death and went to the electric chair on March 25, 1997. He was one of the last inmates electrocuted in this manner after his head burst into flames, filling the chamber with smoke and horrifying onlookers. (Archive PL / Alamy Stock Photo)
“The heaving of the chest is an example,” he told Fox News Digital. “You can see it if you’re up close, and you’re the executioner or a member of the team. You can see that they’re trying to break out of their own body, so to speak. But the witnesses don’t see this. They see it as, like, a clean, a sanitary form of killing someone.”
At one point, he said, he began seeing executed inmates in his sleep and drinking heavily – half a bottle of Johnnie Walker a night – as a result. Eventually, he was diagnosed with severe stress. Now he is a staunch supporter of abolishing the death penalty.
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“I feel compelled to say there is one thing in particular that I agree about with President Biden,” McAndrew wrote in his letter. “We share a strong opposition to the death penalty. President Biden has the power to show mercy through the process of executive clemency, and I urge that he do so expeditiously for everyone on the federal and military death rows.”
When asked why the worst of the worst killers on death row, including Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof and Pittsburgh synagogue gunman Robert Bowers, should have their lives spared, he questioned where we should draw the line and suggested incarcerating them all with no possibility of parole instead.
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“If this same inmate was doing life without possibility of parole, he’d be working between 40 and 60 hours per week whether he liked it or not,” he said. “He would be making a contribution…rather than being a burden on the taxpayers, sitting in a cell getting room service for 25 years.”
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Abraham Bonowitz, who co-founded the group Death Penalty Action with McAndrew, told Fox News Digital that capital punishment should not be a partisan issue.
“Capital punishment is government overreach at its worst,” he said. “Anyone who does not trust the government to tax us fairly or come up with a safe vaccine should have a hard time trusting government with the power to execute its citizens.”
He also extended the appeal to Elon Musk, the future co-head of a new Department of Government Efficiency, if Biden rejects the letter.
President Biden, not pictured, meets with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
“We’re excited to have a cabinet level official focused on government efficiency, because this is the first time anyone in the federal government is positioned to eliminate the death penalty by executive order,” Bonowitz said. “There is no current government program more wasteful, ineffective and inefficient than capital punishment.”
The letter comes as Trump has vowed to not only end Biden’s moratorium on capital punishment, but also to expand the list of crimes that can be punishable with execution to include child rape, human trafficking and the murder of U.S. citizens by illegal immigrants.
There are currently 40 inmates on federal death row, and they include domestic terrorists, drug kingpins and criminals who had witnesses against them killed.
Tsarnaev, who killed four and wounded hundreds; Roof, who killed nine at a Bible study; Bowers, who killed 11 at the Tree of Life Synagogue; and Kaboni Savage, a Philadelphia drug lord who killed 12 people – including four children linked to an informant – would all see clemency under the proposal.
President Biden listens as Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani speaks in the Oval Office of the White House on April 15, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The U.S. government has executed 50 inmates since 1927, according to the Bureau of Prisons, including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and Cold War spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. That is far fewer than the individual states, which have executed more than 1,500 condemned inmates in the last 50 years.
McAndrew also took issue with the special treatment death row inmates receive. Unlike other prisoners, they do not have to work a job behind bars and contribute, in some way, to their own “upkeep.” They have a TV, a private cell and are kept separate from the general population.
In places like California, where death row inmates are safe from execution due to a moratorium against capital punishment, they also have access to elite attorneys and all the time in the world to try and fight their circumstances.
The feds carried out death sentences for 13 federal prisoners during Trump’s first term, the most under any president in a century. Biden declared a moratorium on federal executions after taking office in 2021.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
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Southeast
Illegal immigrant arrested after showing up to Florida Border Patrol office for contract IT work
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FIRST ON FOX: An illegal immigrant who reported to a U.S. Border Patrol site in Florida to perform some Information technology contractual work was arrested when authorities were made aware of his citizenship status, officials said.
Angel Camacho, a Venezuelan citizen, reported to a USBP center in Dania Beach, Florida, Jan. 6 to do some IT work when U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials began vetting him, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Fox News Digital.
During its investigation, it was revealed Camacho was in violation of U.S. immigration laws, authorities said.
Angel Camacho reported to a Florida U.S. Border Patrol center to perform contractual work when he was arrested, a Department of Homeland Security official said. (Getty Images )
“CBP vets all external visitors before allowing them to enter secure facilities to ensure safety and operational integrity,” DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement.
“During the vetting process, CBP uncovered this individual was a tourist visa overstay in the country for over five years.”
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This photo shows a U.S. Border Patrol patch on a border agent’s uniform in McAllen, Texas, Jan. 15, 2019. (Suzanne CordeiroAFP via Getty Images)
Camacho was arrested and transferred to ICE custody, Bis said.
His criminal history includes theft and resisting a Florida Highway Patrol officer, officials said. Federal authorities have nabbed several illegal immigrants in the process of trying to obtain employment in law enforcement and education.
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One Sierra Leone citizen was recently arrested as he was training to become a Pennsylvania corrections officer.
Another illegal immigrant, Ian Roberts, served as the former superintendent of Iowa’s largest district, Des Moines Public Schools, before he was arrested by ICE.
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A Georgia high school teacher was arrested Wednesday after allegations of inappropriate contact between a teacher and a minor student surfaced at Lee County High School.
Danielle Weaver, 29, of Leesburg, is charged with child molestation and improper sexual contact by an employee, agent or foster parent, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI).
Lee County High School requested the Leesburg Police Department investigate the allegations on Feb. 3, and the GBI was called to assist the following day.
Danielle Weaver, 29, of Leesburg, Ga., is charged with child molestation and improper sexual contact by an employee. (Lee County Sheriff’s Office)
Investigators identified Weaver as the “subject,” and identified the victim as a student under 18 years old at Lee County High School, according to officials.
GBI agents continued the investigation along with the Leesburg Police Department, and arrest warrants were obtained for Weaver on Tuesday.
A Google Maps street view photo of Lee County High School in Leesburg, Ga. (Google Maps)
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Weaver turned herself in to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday, and was later released on bond, according to a report from WALB News.
This investigation is active and ongoing, according to the GBI.
The incident allegedly happened at a high school in Georgia. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
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Once complete, the case file will be given to the Southwestern Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for prosecution.
Leesburg is located in South Georgia, and is about an hour and a half north of Tallahassee, Florida.
Lee County High School’s communications team did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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Southeast
Federal court clears way for Ten Commandments to be displayed in Louisiana public school classrooms
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A federal appeals court cleared the way Friday for a Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms, lifting a lower court block and reigniting debate over religion in public education.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit voted 12-6 to lift a block first imposed in 2024, finding it was too early to determine the constitutionality of the law. Critics argue the requirement violates the separation of church and state, while supporters say the Ten Commandments are historical and foundational to U.S. law.
The court said in the majority opinion that it was unclear how schools would display the poster-sized materials, noting that the law allows additional content, like the Mayflower Compact or the Declaration of Independence, to appear alongside the Ten Commandments.
The majority wrote that there were not enough facts to “permit judicial judgment rather than speculation” when evaluating potential First Amendment concerns.
A federal appeals court on Friday lifted a lower court block on Louisiana’s Ten Commandments classroom law, bringing the measure closer to taking effect. (John Bazemore/AP)
In a concurring opinion, Circuit Judge James Ho, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, wrote that the law was constitutional and “consistent with our founding traditions.”
“It is fully consistent with the Constitution, and what’s more, it reinforces our Founders’ firm belief that the children of America should be educated about the religious foundations and traditions of our country,” Ho said, adding that the law “affirms our Nation’s highest and most noble traditions.”
Circuit Judge James L. Dennis, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, wrote in a dissenting opinion that displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms would amount to “exposing children to government‑endorsed religion in a setting of compulsory attendance.”
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A federal appeals court ruling on Feb. 20 allows Louisiana’s Ten Commandments classroom mandate to proceed for now. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images)
“That is precisely the kind of establishment the Framers anticipated and sought to prevent,” he added.
The ACLU of Louisiana and other groups representing the plaintiffs said they would pursue additional legal challenges to block the law.
“Today’s ruling is extremely disappointing and would unnecessarily force Louisiana’s public school families into a game of constitutional whack-a-mole in every school district,” the groups wrote in a joint-statement. “Longstanding judicial precedent makes clear that our clients need not submit to the very harms they are seeking to prevent before taking legal action to protect their rights.”
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Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry praised the appeals court decision on Feb. 20 allowing the Ten Commandments classroom law to move forward. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, file)
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry on Friday praised the court’s decision, writing on Facebook, “Common sense is making a comeback!”
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill issued a statement following the ruling, saying schools “should follow the law.”
“Don’t kill or steal shouldn’t be controversial. My office has issued clear guidance to our public schools on how to comply with the law, and we have created multiple examples of posters demonstrating how it can be applied constitutionally,” she said.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said schools should follow the Ten Commandments display law after a federal appeals court lifted a lower court block on Feb. 20. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
Joseph Davis, an attorney representing Louisiana in the case, celebrated the court’s decision.
“If the ACLU had its way, every trace of religion would be scrubbed from the fabric of our public life,” he said in a statement. “That position is at odds with our nation’s traditions and our Constitution. We’re glad the Fifth Circuit has allowed Louisiana to display the Ten Commandments in its public school classrooms.”
Friday’s ruling came after the full court agreed to reconsider the case, months after a three-judge panel ruled the Louisiana law unconstitutional.
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A similar law in Arkansas faces a federal court challenge, while Texas implemented its own Ten Commandments classroom requirement last year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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