Stay Outraged: Trump summarily attacks another boat in the Caribbean

A U.S. military strike killed three people and blew up a boat in the Caribbean Sea on Friday, the U.S. Southern Command said, raising the death toll in the Trump administration’s five-month-old campaign against suspected drug smugglers at sea to 133, according to The New York Times.

The attack was the first known strike in the Caribbean Sea since early November and the 39th disclosed by the U.S. government in the campaign, according to a tracker maintained by The New York Times.

The announcement on Friday was accompanied by an 11-second video clip that appeared to show a missile striking the middle of the boat as it traversed open waters, and destroying it.

The command said, citing unspecified intelligence, that the boat had been following “known drug-trafficking routes in the Caribbean” and that it was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.

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Sheriff: 'Guthrie will be found' has operation change form rescue to recovery?

 According to The New York Times:

Officers Block a Street: Late Friday, law enforcement officers came to a neighborhood about two miles from Nancy Guthrie’s home and closed off a street. The police operation is related to the investigation into her abduction on Feb. 1, a Pima County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman said.

Sheriff Discusses the Case: Chris Nanos, the Arizona sheriff leading the search for Nancy Guthrie, described investigators’ disappointment when learning a person they detained this week was not involved. But in an interview with The Times, he said DNA had been discovered on Ms. Guthrie’s property and sent for testing and expressed confidence that Ms. Guthrie would be found. Read more ›

Flood of Tips: The release of security video showing a masked man on Nancy Guthrie’s porch early on Feb. 1, the morning she disappeared, has opened a floodgate of possible leads to law enforcement. More than 4,000 calls were made to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department in the 24 hours after the images were made public this week. Read more ›

Oklahoma executes man involved in drive-by shooting

The 3rd Execution of 2026

Kendrick Simpson who admitted to killing two men in a drive-by shooting in 2006 was put to death February 12, 2026 in Oklahoma, reported The Associated Press.

Simpson, 45, was pronounced dead at 10:19 CST following a three-drug injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, prison officials said. He was convicted of killing Anthony Jones, 19, and Glen Palmer, 20, by firing into their car following an altercation at an Oklahoma City nightclub.

“I love y’all,” Simpson said to his family and members of his legal team while he was strapped to a gurney inside the death chamber. “Thank y’all for being here to support me.”

Simpson’s spiritual adviser, the Rev. Don Heath, read Scripture in the chamber during the execution, which lasted about 12 minutes. A doctor entered the room and declared Simpson unconscious about five minutes after the first drugs began to flow.

Simpson, who had fled to Oklahoma City from the devastated city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, admitted to the killings during a clemency hearing last month. He apologized to the victims’ families and to a third man who was in the vehicle when Jones and Palmer were shot.

Palmer’s sister, Crystal Allison, witnessed the execution and said she was disturbed to see Simpson smiling at his family members while strapped to the gurney.

“The same smile that had been tormenting me for 20 years, he still smiled that same smile laying on his deathbed,” she said.

Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a statement Thursday that justice had been served for Palmer and Jones.

“Their young lives were taken tragically and far too soon,” Drummond said. “I hope today brings some measure of peace to their families who have endured unimaginable pain for the past 20 years.”

Simpson had apologized to the victims’ families and accepted responsibility for the killings during last month’s clemency hearing.

“I don’t make any excuses,” Simpson said at the time. “I don’t blame others, and they didn’t deserve what happened to them.”

Despite his apology, the state’s five-member Pardon and Parole Board narrowly voted to deny Simpson clemency.

On Wednesday afternoon, the U.S. Supreme Court had no comment after rejecting a late appeal to block the execution.

Simpson’s attorneys had argued that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from chronic trauma in his childhood years growing up in a New Orleans housing project.

“Kendrick is a man worthy of your mercy and compassion,” his attorneys wrote in his clemency application. “The death penalty is supposed to be reserved for the worst of the worst offenses and offenders. Kendrick and his case represent neither.”

On the night of the killing in January 2006, prosecutors say, Simpson had placed an assault rifle in the trunk of a vehicle he and his friends drove to a club in northwest Oklahoma City. After an altercation at the club between Simpson and Palmer, prosecutors say, Simpson and his friends followed Palmer and Jones from a nearby gas station, and that Simpson pointed the gun out the window and fired about 20 rounds into their car. Both victims were shot multiple times.

The state uses the sedative midazolam, followed by vecuronium bromide to halt breathing and potassium chloride to stop the heart.

Simpson’s scheduled execution was to be the second of the year in the United States. Florida, which conducted a state record of 19 executions in 2025, put Ronald Palmer Heath to death with a three-drug injection on Tuesday for his conviction in the 1989 killing of a traveling salesman he and his brother met at a Gainesville bar.

A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025, with Florida leading the way with a flurry of death warrants signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second place with five executions each that year.

Florida is scheduled to carry out the next execution in the U.S. on Feb. 24, the planned lethal injection of Melvin Trotter for the killing of a grocery store owner during a robbery.

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THIEL COLLEGE Comment No. 2

Did the U.S. Supreme Court get it right when they decided Furman v. Georgia in 1972? The decision found that the death penalty was not cruel and unusual under the Eighth Amendment, but was unconstitutional arbitrary in its application. 

Florida executes a man for murder of traveling salesman

The 2nd Execution of 2026

Ronald Palmer Heath was convicted of killing a traveling salesman he and his brother had met at a bar became the first person executed in Florida this year, according to The Associated Press.

Heath, 64, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. on February 10, 2026 following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. Heath was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery with a deadly weapon and other charges in the 1989 killing of Michael Sheridan.

When the curtain to the execution chamber went up at the scheduled 6 p.m. start time, Heath was already strapped down with an IV inserted in his arm. Asked by the warden if Heath had any final statement, he said, ”I’m sorry. That’s all I can say. Thank you.”

As the drugs were being administered, Heath showed little outward reaction, closing his eyes and then appearing to fall asleep before becoming motionless. A medic was called in about 8 minutes after the drugs began, and Heath was declared dead 2 minutes after that.

It was the state’s first execution of 2026 and followed a record 19 executions in Florida last year. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis oversaw more executions in a single year in 2025 than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S. in 1976. The previous Florida record was eight executions set in 2014.

According to court records, Heath and his brother Kenneth Heath met Sheridan at a Gainesville bar in May 1989. After hanging out at the bar for some time, the three men agreed to go somewhere else to smoke marijuana.

At some point, the brothers plotted to rob the other man, investigators said. Ronald Heath drove the group to a remote area, where Kenneth Heath pulled a handgun on Sheridan. The man initially refused to give the brothers anything, and Kenneth Heath shot Sheridan in the chest.

As Sheridan emptied his pockets, Ronald Heath began kicking the man and stabbing him with a hunting knife, prosecutors said. Kenneth Heath then shot Sheridan twice in the head.

The brothers dumped Sheridan’s body in a wooded area and returned to the Gainesville bar to take items from his rental car, according to the court record. It said the brothers made multiple purchases with Sheridan’s credit cards the next day at a Gainesville mall.

Ronald Heath was arrested several weeks later at his home in Douglas, Georgia, after investigators connected him to the stolen credit cards. Officers recovered clothing purchased with the stolen cards, as well as Sheridan’s watch, according to court records.

Kenneth Heath was also charged with Sheridan’s murder, but was sentenced to life in prison as part of a plea agreement.

More than a dozen family members of victims of Heath’s crimes witnessed his execution.

When Heath was 16, he was convicted of killing teenager Michael Green, and served 10 years in prison.

Days after Sheridan’s death, authorities also found the body of Tony Hammett. Heath was charged with Hammett’s killing, but the case never went to trial.

Sheridan’s brother, Thomas Sheridan, said during a news conference following the execution that his family, as well as the families of Green and Hammett, had been waiting for this day for more than three decades.

“Tonight, Ronald Palmer Heath was released to the custody of his new parole officer. As far as I’m concerned, any forgiveness is between him and God,” Thomas Sheridan said.

The Florida Supreme Court denied appeals filed by Ronald Heath last week. His attorneys had argued that Florida corrections officials had mismanaged its own death penalty protocols, that the state’s secretive clemency process blocked due process, that Heath’s incarceration as a juvenile stunted his brain development and that jurors did not recommend the death penalty unanimously.

On Tuesday morning, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Heath’s appeal.

A total of 47 people were executed in the U.S. in 2025. Florida led the way with a flurry of death warrants signed by DeSantis. Alabama, South Carolina and Texas tied for second with five executions each that year.

Two more Florida executions have already been scheduled for later this month and next month. Melvin Trotter, 65, is scheduled to die on Feb. 24, and the execution of Billy Leon Kearse, 53, is set to follow exactly a week later on March 3.

All Florida executions are carried out via lethal injection using a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Department of Corrections.

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CREATORS: Kidnappings Are Rare and Unpredictable

Matthew T. Mangino
CREATORS
February 10, 2026

The desperate search for Nancy Guthrie continues in Tucson, Ariz. Guthrie is the mother of NBC's "Today Show" co-anchor Savannah Guthrie. Guthrie has been missing for over a week, and concern grows about her physical health and the possibility of her kidnapping for ransom.

Kidnapping for ransom is a relic of a bygone era. The most notable kidnappings of the last century have been resolved in various ways, including returned unharmed, battered, deceased and incarcerated. With past kidnappings as a guide, it is anyone's guess as to the outcome of Guthrie's disappearance.

Maybe the most well-known kidnapping of the twentieth century was the abduction of Charles Lindbergh, Jr. The 20-month-old Lindbergh was abducted on March 1, 1932, from his crib in the family's posh New Jersey home.

Lindbergh's father, Charles Lindbergh, Sr., was an international celebrity as a result of completing the first nonstop solo transatlantic flight from New York to Paris. His celebrity made his family a target.

A ransom note was left in the child's crib, and several other notes were sent over several weeks. A ransom was paid in April, and the child was not returned. On May 12, the child's battered body was discovered on the side of a road by a truck driver not more than five miles from the Lindbergh home.

More than two years after Lindbergh's murder, a German immigrant, Bruno Hauptmann, was arrested. He was convicted of first-degree murder and executed in 1936.

Little more than 30 years later, Frank Sinatra, Jr. was kidnapped after a performance in Lake Tahoe in 1963. Sinatra was the 19-year-old son of the renowned singer and actor Frank Sinatra.

The kidnappers demanded a large sum of money. Frank, Sr., gathered the ransom of $240,000 and delivered the money as directed. His son was safely returned.

A police investigation revealed that Barry Keenan, Joe Amsler and John Irwin conspired to kidnap Frank Jr. for ransom. Apparently, Keenan was a former classmate of Frank Jr.'s sister Nancy Sinatra. The conspirators were convicted and sentenced to prison.

About 10 years later, John Paul Getty III, the grandson of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, was kidnapped in Rome, Italy. Getty's abductors had originally demanded $17 million. Getty's grandfather, once the richest man in the world, refused to pay.

After the refusal, Getty's severed ear was mailed to a newspaper. The family relented and paid a renegotiated ransom. Getty was released about five months after his kidnapping. After his return, Getty's life spiraled into alcohol and drug addiction. He overdosed in1981 at the age of 25, leaving him severely disabled for the rest of his life.

Patricia Hearst was kidnapped in 1974. She was the granddaughter of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. Her kidnapping did not unfold like other high-profile kidnappings.

Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). Initially, the SLA had offered to release Hearst if authorities would release a jailed SLA member. When the state of California refused, the SLA demanded that the Hearst family give every needy Californian $70 for food.

However, something strange happened while Hearst was in captivity. She became sympathetic to her captors; she joined the SLA and was involved in criminal activity, including a bank robbery where she appeared on video surveillance with an automatic weapon.

Hearst was later found by police. Instead of being reunited with her family, she was jailed. At her trial, the prosecution suggested that Hearst had willingly joined the SLA. However, she testified that she had been sexually assaulted and threatened with death while held captive.

In 1976, she was convicted of bank robbery and sentenced to 35 years in prison. Her sentence was commuted by former President Jimmy Carter, resulting in her release from prison. She was later pardoned by former President Bill Clinton.

Other than Sinatra, the kidnappings chronicled here — good, bad or tragic — were not resolved for months.

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book "The Executioner's Toll," 2010, was released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewTMangino

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Analyst suggests spending "a lot" of money has altered the arch of violence

Jeff Asher, a crime-data analyst who frequently writes about the crime rates and runs the firm AH Datalytics, which powers the Real Time Crime Index, talked to New York Magazine about falling violent crime:

I would say that the thing that resonates strongest with me is that this has all been national in scope. It went up everywhere, and it’s going down pretty much everywhere. It’s happening in an environment where we didn’t see dramatic increases in policing, and we didn’t see huge increases in clearance rates — they plunged in 2020 and 2021 and have recovered since then, but that largely reflects the fact that we’ve just got fewer crimes, which usually means higher clearance rates. So there hasn’t been some massive improvement from law enforcement. A lot of times activists will talk about the root causes of crime — how you’ve got to fix poverty, you’ve got to fix education. We didn’t fix any of that. And the country is still awash in guns.

The trend started in 2023, so the “why” probably has its roots in things that happened in 2021 and 2022, because these things don’t usually change suddenly. So what are the explanations that fit? An article I wrote last summer focused heavily on investing in communities. We spent a lot of money on a lot of things, some of which had direct crime-fighting benefits to it, like the Department of Justice increasing its budget for grants by a billion dollars between 2021 and 2023 and 2024. A lot of those went to programs specifically designed to reduce violence, and a lot went to things that are not specifically directly tied to violence reduction but that we know have crime-fighting benefits: enormous increases in state- and local-government infrastructure, spending on streets and highways, on lighting, on neighborhood and social centers, on public-safety infrastructure. So a lot of money was available. We threw a lot of crap at the wall and we don’t know what stuck, but some of it undoubtedly stuck.

After writing that piece, I’ve been struck by other stuff that’s also plunging at the same rate. You look at drug overdoses, you look at traffic-accident deaths, alcohol deaths, suicides. And you look at something like carjackings, which I have a piece I’m going to run about in the next few weeks. Carjackings are down an insane amount. In Chicago, they’re down like 70 percent between 2021 and 2025. And carjackings are very specific, because they are, even more than murder, a young person’s crime. The average age of an offender is much younger than that of a shoplifting or a home burglary. So to see carjackings go up so much in 2020 and then plunge since 2022, 2023, suggests more of a societal change to me. You combine the drug-overdose deaths and the alcohol-related deaths and the murders and the carjackings, and it points to something that broke in the U.S. in 2020, and which is now healing. When I think about what’s driving this, it’s a combination of spending a lot of money on a lot of stuff, and some of it working, and that the thing that broke and caused all of this to go up is not as broken anymore.

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U.S. Speaker of the House: 'Imagine if we had to go through the process of getting a judicial warrant'

"Imagine if we had to go through the process of getting a judicial warrant."

                                                           -Speaker of the House Mike Johnson

Those are the complaining words of Johnson a Republican from Louisiana, who was voicing his support for the actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which now claims that its agents have the right to forcibly enter private homes without first obtaining a warrant signed by a judge, reported Reason. According to ICE, its agents may forcibly enter homes in certain immigration enforcement contexts based merely on a so-called "administrative warrant," which is not actually a warrant at all, but is rather just a piece of paper signed by someone in the executive branch.

To fully appreciate the inherent lawlessness of the Johnson view, simply replace the phrase "getting a judicial warrant" with any constitutional requirement that you like in the above-quoted statement. For example:

"Imagine if we had to go through the process of guaranteeing freedom of speech."

"Imagine if we had to go through the process of respecting the right to keep and bear arms."

"Imagine if we had to go through the process of paying just compensation when private property is taken for a public use."

You get the idea.

When a government mouthpiece complains that it would be too difficult to follow the commands of the Constitution in a given context, that's a dead giveaway that the government is already violating (or planning to violate) the commands of the Constitution in that context.

The principle that law enforcement must generally obtain a judicial warrant before entering a home is well-established in Fourth Amendment caselaw. In California v. Lange (2019), for example, the U.S. Supreme Court declared, "we are not eager—more the reverse—to print a new permission slip for entering the home without a warrant." At issue in that case was a decision by the California Court of Appeals which said that a police officer may always enter a suspect's home without a judicial warrant if the officer is in "hot pursuit" of the suspect and has probable cause to believe that the suspect has committed a misdemeanor.

But the Supreme Court overturned that lower court ruling because it violated the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. "When the totality of circumstances shows an emergency—such as imminent harm to others," the Court said, "the police may act without waiting." But "when the nature of the crime, the nature of the flight, and surrounding facts present no such exigency," the decision held, "officers must respect the sanctity of the home—which means they must get a warrant." Indeed, the opinion stated, "when the officer has time to get a warrant, he must do so—even though the misdemeanant fled."

The Lange decision also contained a helpful reminder of the warrant requirement's deep roots in Anglo-American jurisprudence by quoting from a venerable British common law judgment:

"To enter a man's house" without a proper warrant, Lord Chief Justice Pratt proclaimed in 1763, is to attack "the liberty of the subject" and "destroy the liberty of the kingdom." That was the idea behind the Fourth Amendment.

Which brings us back to Johnson, who whined, "imagine if we had to go through the process of getting a judicial warrant."

But if an ICE agent has the time to obtain a piece of paper signed by a superior in the executive branch before heading out to bust down somebody's front door, then that agent also has the time to obtain a real warrant signed by an actual judge. As the Supreme Court instructed in Lange, "when the officer has time to get a warrant, he must do so." The "sanctity of the home" demands it under our Constitution.

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Guthrie's alleged 'kidnapping' for ransom is a relic from a bygone era

“A true kidnapping for ransom is a throwback to the Lindbergh time,” former FBI agent Katherine Schweit told the USA Today, citing the 1932 kidnapping for ransom of Charles Lindbergh’s son. The “kidnapping” of Nancy Guthrie is unusual.

These days, most kidnappings are typically connected to domestic or family issues, human smugglers or mental illness. Cases targeting wealthy or famous individuals, though uncommon, garner outsized attention, such the 1974 abduction of William Randolph Hearst’s granddaughter. 

“They’re what movies are made of because they're dramatic and scary. You don't see them playing out in real life,” said Lance Leising, a former FBI agent. “Now you are, unfortunately, in a horrible way for the family and the victim.”

Guthrie was first reported missing by her family on Feb. 1, when she didn't show up for church. Her disappearance sparked a large search effort in the Catalina Foothills community, perched north of Tucson, and a criminal investigation by the Pima County Sheriff's Department and FBI. Sheriff Chris Nanos later said Guthrie was believed to be "taken from her home against her will.”

Three days later, on Feb. 2, ransom messages were delivered to several media outlets, demanding payment in Bitcoin. But with no further contact, the family posted social media videos urging anyone holding Guthrie to make contact. On Feb. 5, the FBI arrested Derrick Callella in California, who authorities say sent text messages referencing Bitcoin payments to Guthrie’s family shortly after they publicly pleaded for her safe return. He’s facing charges including with transmitting ransom-related communications, according to a criminal complaint.

On Feb. 6, the FBI announced it was examining a new ransom message without providing further details. Tucson TV station KOLD, which received both the most recent and one of the first potential ransom note, said the new note contains information that seemed intended to prove that the senders were the same. Still no suspects have been identified.

The latest Guthrie family posted a new Instagram video on Feb. 7.

"We received your message and we understand," Savannah Guthrie also said in the video.

Leising, the former FBI agent, said that "the 'understand' comment is obviously referring to something in the note that we are not privy to." He said that could be a nod to the kidnappers grievances or directions on how to deliver money, while the “celebrate” reference could refer to a resolution of some kind.

"I do think investigators are going on the assumption that she is still alive, however, there are indications in the family statement that indicates they are concerned that she is no longer alive," he said.

It marked the latest in a case in which law enforcement has been trying to determine the validity of the demand.

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Clintons call for public testimony before Congress regarding convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein

Former US president Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary are calling for their congressional testimony on ties to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein to be held publicly, to prevent Republicans from politicising the issue, reported The Guardian.

Both Clintons had been ordered to give closed-door depositions before the House of Representatives’ oversight committee, which is investigating the deceased financier’s connections to powerful figures and how information about his crimes was handled.

Democrats say the probe is being weaponised to attack political opponents of president Donald Trump – himself a longtime Epstein associate who has not been called to testify – rather than to conduct legitimate oversight.

House Republicans had previously threatened a contempt vote if the Democratic power couple did not show up to testify, which they have since agreed to do.

But holding the deposition behind closed doors, Bill Clinton said Friday, would be akin to being tried at a “kangaroo court”.

“Let’s stop the games + do this the right way: in a public hearing,” the former Democratic president said on X.

Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, said the couple had already told the Republican-led oversight committee “what we know”.

“If you want this fight ... let’s have it in public,” she said on Thursday.

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The President holds up funding for NYC infrastructure until Penn Station and Dulles Airport are renamed for Trump!!!

President Donald Trump told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer last month that he was finally prepared to drop his freeze on billions of dollars in funding for a major New York infrastructure project, CNN.

But there was a condition: In exchange for the money, Schumer had to agree to rename New York’s Penn Station and Washington’s Dulles International Airport after Trump.

The startling offer, which was described by two people familiar with the conversation, was swiftly rejected by Schumer, who told the president he didn’t have the power to deliver on such an unorthodox request.

In the weeks since, Trump has continued to withhold the more than $16 billion earmarked for the long-planned Gateway project connecting New York and New Jersey through a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River.

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Purges and mass resignations deplete U.S. Attorney's offices across the country

 The Justice Department is requiring all US attorneys to rapidly assign prosecutors for “emergency jump teams” supporting districts handling alleged assaults or obstruction of law enforcement, according to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg Law.

A senior official instructed leaders of the nation’s 93 US attorney’s offices Feb. 2 that they have until Feb. 6 to designate one or two assistant US attorneys who’d be available for short-term surges in unspecified areas needing “urgent assistance due to emergent or critical situations.” The memo coincides with media reports this week of a new round of mass resignations of federal prosecutors in Minneapolis.

Rather than deploying volunteers to meet the needs of Minnesota or other districts experiencing protests from White House-directed boosts in law enforcement, the “jump teams” are designed to establish a standing list of prosecutors available on a rotating basis, said Francey Hakes, the director of DOJ’s Executive Office for US Attorneys, in her emailed memo.

Hakes’ message signals the Trump administration’s attempt to offset career prosecutor attrition—a recurring pattern in liberal-leaning districts the White House has singled out with military and law enforcement deployments—with a nationwide pool of reinforcements on standby.

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Philadelphia wants to replicate record drop in shootings

 Mensah M. Dean writing for The Trace:

Last year, Philadelphia’s record-breaking decline in shootings outpaced that of every other large U.S. city. That progress hasn’t slowed down violence prevention groups like Men Who Care of Germantown, Inc., whose volunteers are still making their rounds.

“It hasn’t slowed down for us,” said Executive Director Joe Budd. “We still go to the street corners because the guys are still hanging on the corners. We still go and have conversations with them and bring resources to those guys to get them working and productive.”

Five days a week, volunteers stop by schools. Off campus, they regularly canvass their community, chatting up young people at rec centers and on street corners, Budd said. It’s a long-term approach designed to continue the city’s historic streak of decreasing violent crime. 

“We’re prevention. We’re engaging them where they are, building relationships and bringing resources to prevent them from even thinking about picking up a gun,” said Budd. “I don’t think we can slow down, because you don’t want the numbers to rise.”

Philadelphians, from City Hall to the communities plagued by the most gun violence, concur that even on the heels of a 24.5 percent drop in shootings last year, anti-violence intervention and prevention work must not slow down. Many believe that the drop, which went beyond undoing a COVID-era spike in violence, can be explained by across-the-board collaboration among city government agencies — like the city Police Department and other law enforcement partners — and grassroots community organizations, like Men Who Care of Germantown.

Those on the frontlines of violence reduction interviewed by The Trace said that in addition to continued collaboration, key to driving down shootings this year will be keeping community organizations funded and working on stopping violence before it starts.

Their observations come amid the Trump’s administration’s decision to freeze billions of dollars in grants to local governments and slash more than $800 million in funding to organizations working to combat violence, drug abuse, and other social ills. 

“We definitely need a sustainability plan which means continuous and more funding. The organizations that are doing the work need to be able to sustain these programs,” said Angenique Howard, executive director of Unique Dreams, which runs an evening resource center that attracts an average of 35 to 40 youth a day in the city’s Frankford section. “It’s one thing to have it year-to-year. But we need some sort of concrete contract.”

Fewer shots fired

Mayor Cherelle Parker has ramped up community policing since taking office in January 2024, city officials have noted, which means that more officers are walking beats from the troubled streets of Kensington to east Market Street in the heart of Center City. At the same time, the city spent $25 million last year to fund dozens of grassroots community groups’ crime prevention initiatives.   

Violent crime since then has dropped significantly. Philadelphia ended 2025 with 222 homicides, a 17.5 percent decline compared to 2024 and the fewest since 1966, according to the Philadelphia Police Department. Philly saw 24.5 percent fewer shootings from 2024. There were 13.1 percent fewer shooting victims, 20.24 percent fewer robberies with guns, and 12.85 percent fewer aggravated assaults with guns.

So far, that trend is continuing into 2026. Through January 25, there were fewer homicides than at the same time last year. There were nine homicides, down from 13 at the same time last year. There had been 37 slayings on this date in 2021, the year the city recorded the most killings in its history, the data shows.

While a report from the Pew Charitable Trusts late last year lauded the city’s progress, it also acknowledged that parts of Philadelphia remain persistently violent. An analysis from The Trace’s Gun Violence Data Hub reached the same conclusion. 

“The greatest number of gun violence victimization occurred in North, West, and Southwest Philadelphia, areas which also have the lowest median household income, lowest quality of life indicators, and highest concentration of vacant land and buildings,” the report from Pew Charitable Trusts said. “So, while homicides are down citywide, men of color and residents in disadvantaged neighborhoods continue to face an outsized risk of violence.” 

Budd said such realities drive his organization to foster relationships with young people. 

“Our motto is, ‘Catch ‘em before the streets catch ‘em,’” he said. “If they’re in our path we can follow them, conceivably, from third grade to college. Once we build those relationships we can change their mindsets about gun violence and about how to deal with any type of issues that come up surrounding violence and conflict resolution. Those are the types of things we try to do to keep them from picking up a gun.”

Mark Wainwright, founder and CEO of It Takes a Village to Feed One Child, said addressing basic human needs — including making sure young people in low-income, high-crime areas have enough to eat — is part of the solution. His nonprofit, which he founded in 2017, is funded by the federal and state government. It Takes a Village provided more than 250,000 meals a month at over 100 community centers last year. He projects that it will provide more than 350,000 meals a month at 150 centers this year. 

“When children have proper nutrition their motor skills are better, their social and development stills are better,” Wainright said. “They are more positive in the community, and holistically, they want to do better.”

Word of the year: Collaboration  

During her State of the City address in late December, Parker seized on the Pew report’s findings that the city had the largest drop in homicides compared to 20 other cities.

“None of this is happening by accident,” Parker told an enthusiastic audience at Temple University. “Yes, we’re laser-focused on our comprehensive public safety strategy. … But it’s coupled with close and daily collaboration between our Philadelphia Police Department, our Office of Public Safety, and our community-based partners.”

Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said in an interview that officers also recognize and appreciate community-driven work toward safety.

“Order maintenance is one of the biggest things that reduces crime. That’s when the community keeps things in order, they make sure things are being done effectively. They make sure that the block is being kept safe,” he said. “Sometimes, we don’t give the community enough credit.”

A five-year strategic plan, which is scheduled to be revealed in several weeks, will provide further guidance on community partnerships, he said. The last time the department had a similar report was in 1986, he added. “We’re at a great place right now, we have the wind at our back, and we’re going to keep pushing.”

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner had a similar theory about the cause of Philly’s progress.

“It’s because of good coaches, it’s because of good clergy, it’s because of good neighbors, it’s because of good mentors, it is because of good community-based organizations, and it is because of people in government who actually invest in human beings,” he said at a recent news conference.

Krasner noted that police are making more arrests, thanks in part to technological advances including cameras, license plate readers, and cellphone geolocation. The falling number of open shooting cases has allowed police detectives to spend more time on fewer cases, resulting in stronger cases, he said.

Budd, whose group has worked with Krasner’s office over the years, said he’s set a goal to spend more time this year helping other violence prevention groups establish themselves.

“If they want to mirror our program, we’re open to showing people how to do what we do,” he said. “There’s about 22 schools in the Northwest, and there’s no way we can service all of those schools.”

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Federal government usurps state authority in violation of the 10th Amendment

On Jan. 12, one particularly crucial case was filed by the state of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, arguing that the federal Metro Surge operation—deploying thousands of ICE and other federal agents to the Twin Cities—violates the 10th Amendment, writes IIya Somin at Lawfare. That amendment states that “powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” In a series of decisions supported primarily by conservative justices, such as Printz v. United States (1997) (written by conservative icon Justice Antonin Scalia), the Supreme Court has held that the federal government cannot “commandeer” state and local officials to do the federal government’s bidding, or to help enforce federal laws.

Control over state and local government personnel is one of the powers reserved to the states by the 10th Amendment. In addition, as legal scholar Michael Rappaport has shown, the original meaning of the Constitution indicates that such control is a basic element of the sovereignty inherent in being a state in the first place.

Minnesota and the two Twin Cities are among the jurisdictions that have “sanctuary policies” restricting state and local law enforcement assistance to federal immigration enforcement operations. Sanctuary jurisdictions have, for good reason, concluded that their law enforcement resources are better used to combat violent and property crime, rather than helping deport undocumented immigrants. As Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey puts it, “The job of our police is to keep people safe, not enforce fed immigration laws. I want them preventing homicides, not hunting down a working dad who contributes to [Minneapolis] & is from Ecuador.” The latter actually have much lower crime rates than native-born citizens, and many of those the administration seeks to deport have no criminal records at all. Local and state participation in deportation efforts also makes it more difficult to combat crime by poisoning relations between law enforcement agencies and minority communities.

Part of the purpose of the federal “surge” is to coerce Minnesota jurisdictions into giving up their sanctuary policies and using their resources to assist federal deportation efforts. As federal District Judge Katherine Menendez noted in a hearing in the case on Jan. 26, Trump administration officials have repeatedly indicated that this is one of their objectives. Attorney General Pam Bondi suggested as much in a Jan. 24 letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. A Jan. 16 White House statement explicitly indicates that Minnesota’s “sanctuary defiance” is “responsibl[e] for the enhanced enforcement operations in Minnesota.” A recent statement by Trump “border czar” Tom Homan indicates that the administration will not withdraw immigration enforcement officers from Minnesota unless state and local governments curb sanctuary policies and extend “cooperation” to federal immigration enforcers.

In addition, Bondi’s letter demands access to Minnesota’s voter rolls, linking those to the surge. That demand constitutes additional intrusion onto state autonomy in violation of the 10th Amendment. The Elections Clause of the Constitution explicitly gives states primary control over elections. While Congress can enact legislation imposing restrictions on state autonomy, no such legislation authorizes Bondi’s demands here, and courts have repeatedly rejected the administration’s demands for voter data from state governments, which one recent ruling described as “unprecedented and illegal.” With the notable exception of Homan’s comments, these and other statements fall short of demanding an explicit quid pro quo. But they provide strong evidence that the operations in Minnesota are intended to coerce the state into surrendering its autonomy on immigration and other issues.

The Minnesota case is not exactly analogous to previous anti-commandeering rulings by federal courts. But that is in part because it represents an even more blatant violation of the 10th Amendment. In Printz and other cases, such as New York v. United States (1992) and Murphy v. NCAA, the Supreme Court struck down congressional legislation requiring states to help enforce various types of federal laws, or to enact legislation of their own. In a series of decisions during the first Trump administration, and continuing in the second, numerous lower federal courts ruled that the president cannot order states to aid in immigration enforcement actions, and cannot withhold federal funds from sanctuary jurisdictions in cases where doing so would be “coercive” or Congress had not authorized immigration-related conditions on recipients.

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No firing squad for the state of Indiana

 A bill that would have authorized a firing squad to carry out the death penalty in Indiana failed to pass out of the House this week, reported WFYI. 

Democrats and Republicans joined together to oppose the legislation. 

Lawmakers in the House and Senate have introduced bills allowing the death penalty to be carried out by firing squad, in part because of the difficulty of obtaining the drug the state currently uses - pentobarbital. It is also expensive and has a limited shelf life.

Some states have moved to allow death by firing squads, including South Carolina, but those executions haven’t been without problems. Last year, a man executed by firing squad may have suffered before dying after the shooters missed his heart. 

“Just because lethal injection has been problematic doesn't mean Indiana or any other state is going to perform flawlessly when it comes to things like firing squad,” said Robert Dunham, Director of the Death Penalty Policy Project. 

Dunham has been watching as the bill moved through the legislature and even came to testify against the Senate version of the measure.

“One of the questions you have to ask before Indiana talks about changing its method of carrying out executions is whether Indiana should be carrying on executions at all,” Dunham said. 

Lawmakers appear to be asking the same question. 

Rep. Matt Pierce (D-Bloomington) said he opposes the death penalty altogether - not just the manner in which it is carried out. 

“Do we really think that the government and our criminal justice system is infallible?” Pierce asked. “That we can actually perform an execution and not risk killing an innocent person?”

Lawmakers' concerns with the death penalty took center stage throughout Wednesday's session. Another bill makes changes to evaluations of whether the defendant in a death penalty case has an intellectual disability. That bill passed shortly before the firing squad bill failed.

Speaking on the intellectual disability bill, Rep. Robert Morris (R-Fort Wayne), said he was happy with the work done by author Rep. Garrett Bascom (R-Lawrenceburg) on the issue. 

“I look forward to continued discussion with him to actually abolish the death penalty as a whole,” Morris said. 

Lawmakers had added provisions to the bill around media representation at executions and a requirement that a licensed psychologist would need to be in attendance to provide mental health services for executioners with any issues related to their participation. 

Representative Jim Lucas (R-Seymour) seemed frustrated that many lawmakers rose to voice their opposition, not just to the bill, but to the death penalty altogether. 

“I respect and truly appreciate everyone’s passion and emotion on this issue. But the actual issue is not the death penalty,” he said. “That’s been decided, over 200 years ago.”

The bill failed by not having a constitutional majority, which means it could come up for a vote again before Monday’s deadline. 

 A Senate version of the bill is effectively dead. 

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Surprise: Two years after Louisiana lawmakers voted for longer sentences prison costs surge

Two years after Gov. Jeff Landry and state lawmakers voted to ensure people convicted of crimes serve more of their prison sentences, the governor’s staff says state incarceration expenses are surging. reported the Louisiana Illuminator.

Landry’s team presented a budget proposal Friday that includes an $82 million year-over-year increase in state funding for its corrections system, which pays for nine prisons as well as the parole and probation system. State spending on Louisiana State Penitentiary, the maximum security prison in Angola, would go up at least $17.5 million alone, according to Landry’s budget presentation.

The change equates to an 11% hike from current state funding in the corrections budget and would bring yearly state general funding spent on those services from $716.5 million to $798.2 million starting July 1.

Gary Westcott, secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections, said some of the increase can be attributed to criminal sentencing changes Landry and the Louisiana Legislature have imposed.

At the beginning of his term in 2024, the governor called a special session for lawmakers to enact tough-on-crime legislation aimed at making sure people with criminal convictions spend more time in state prisons. One measure more than doubled the minimum amount of time people were required to stay incarcerated from 35% to 85% of their full prison sentence.

Another law change now limits people from having their prison stay fully reduced for the time they spend sitting in jail before they are convicted or plead guilty. Additionally, Landry and lawmakers abolished almost all access to parole and the number of people being released via parole has dropped to its lowest level in 20 years, according to ProPublica.

Critics of the new sentencing process expected it to increase the state’s prison population, which appears to be happening. Since Landry has taken office, the number of state inmates in Louisiana has grown by approximately 2,000 people to 30,100 overall, according to statistics on the corrections department’s website.

Angola’s prison population has gone up 426 people since 2024, according to the prison system. It now stands at 4,258, not including those being held in the federal immigration detention camp opened on the prison’s grounds last year.

The $17.5 million increase Landry has proposed for Angola’s budget next year includes a planned expansion separate from the immigration detainee camp. The governor wants to put 688 more state inmates on the sprawling 18,000-acre campus following the rehabilitation of older buildings on the grounds. The extra prisoners will require Angola to hire 150 more staff members.

In an interview, Westcott said many of the 688 additional people at Angola are expected to already be part of the state inmate population. They would normally be held as state prisoners in local jails, but those facilities are becoming overcrowded following Landry’s sentencing changes. Sheriffs are asking for state inmates to be moved from parish lockups into state facilities because they lack space to house them, Westcott said.

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While Trump hinted at an ICE de-escalation, federal agents were told they have broader power to arrest without a warrant

Amid tensions over President Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota and beyond, federal agents were told this week that they have broader power to arrest people without a warrant, according to an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo reviewed by The New York Times.

The change expands the ability of lower-level ICE agents to carry out sweeps rounding up people they encounter and suspect are undocumented immigrants, rather than targeted enforcement operations in which they set out, warrant in hand, to arrest a specific person.

The shift comes as the administration has deployed thousands of masked immigration agents into cities nationwide. A week before the memo, it came to light that Todd M. Lyons, the acting director of the agency, had issued guidance in May saying agents could enter homes with only an administrative warrant, not a judicial one. And the day before the memo, Mr. Trump said he would “de-escalate a little bit” in Minneapolis, after agents fatally shot two people in the crackdown there.

The memo, addressed to all ICE personnel and signed on Wednesday by Mr. Lyons, centers on a federal law that empowers agents to make warrantless arrests of people they believe are undocumented immigrants, if they are “likely to escape” before an arrest warrant can be obtained.

ICE has long interpreted that standard to mean situations in which agents believe someone is a “flight risk,” and unlikely to comply with future immigration obligations like appearing for hearings, according to the memo. But Mr. Lyons criticized that construction as “unreasoned” and “incorrect,” changing the agency’s interpretation of it to instead mean situations in which agents believe someone is unlikely to remain at the scene.

“An alien is ‘likely to escape’ if an immigration officer determines he or she is unlikely to be located at the scene of the encounter or another clearly identifiable location once an administrative warrant is obtained,” Mr. Lyons wrote.

The Times shared a description of the memo’s contents with several former senior ICE officials from the Biden administration. Claire Trickler-McNulty, a former senior adviser at ICE, called the new definition “an extremely broad interpretation of the term ‘escape.’”

“It would cover essentially anyone they want to arrest without a warrant, making the general premise of ever getting a warrant pointless,” she added.

Mr. Lyons’s memo explicitly portrays the revised interpretation of “likely to escape” as a change from how ICE had “previously applied the phrase.” But Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said that “this is not new.”

“This is simply a reminder to officers,” she wrote in a statement, to keep “detailed records on their arrests.”

The Trump administration has pushed ICE to significantly increase arrests per day as part of its mass deportation campaign. The agency has carried out more indiscriminate sweeps — like rounding up people in Home Depot parking lots looking for work — rather than targeted operations in which agents set out, warrant in hand, to arrest specific people.

Such roundup operations could still involve administrative warrants if supervisors on the scene quickly fill out the paperwork, known as a Form I-200. The change lowers the standard for arrests even without a supervisor’s approval.

Mr. Lyons’s memo lists factors agents can consider when deciding whether the standard has been met, including whether someone obeys commands or tries to evade them; has access to a car or other means to leave; has identification or work authorization documents agents suspect are fraudulent; or provides “unverifiable or suspected false information.”

The memo tells agents who make warrantless arrests to fill out a form afterward that documents the factors they considered in determining that someone was “likely to escape.” That includes situations in which agents set out to arrest a particular person and then take others in the vicinity into custody. Mr. Lyons called that group “collateral aliens.”

“If an immigration officer encounters and arrests multiple collateral aliens, his or her analysis as to the likelihood of escape must be specific to each alien arrested,” the memo said. “That one collateral alien is likely to escape does not necessarily mean another collateral alien is also likely to escape.”

But this kind of assessment requirement only goes so far: The memo stresses that “particular factors may be common to multiple aliens arrested at the same time.”

During the first Trump administration, a class-action lawsuit claimed that agents had been illegally profiling in traffic stops as a pretext for warrantless arrests. In 2022, the Biden administration agreed to a settlement that included a three-year nationwide policy. Plaintiffs last year accused the second Trump administration of violating the agreement, prompting litigation.

The policy standard in the 2022 settlement included factors that resembled Mr. Lyons’s list. But it also included “ties to the community (such as a family, home or employment) or lack thereof, or other specific circumstances that weigh in favor or against a reasonable belief that the subject is likely to abscond.”

But Mr. Lyons’s memo noted that when agents encounter people they suspect are in the country illegally, the agents are not likely to be able to know much about them. “This on-the-spot determination as to the likelihood of escape is often made with limited information about the subject’s identity, background or place of residence and no corroboration of any self-serving statements made by the subject,” he wrote.

Scott Shuchart, a former head of policy at ICE during the Biden administration, said the memo would open the door to more frequent warrantless arrests.

“This memo bends over backwards to say that ICE agents have nothing but green lights to make an arrest without even a supervisor’s approval,” he said. The memo, he warned, said that “even that supervisor’s note can almost always be sidestepped so long as the officer can say anything remotely plausible about the person being arrested possibly leaving the area.”

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No death penalty for Mangione

A Manhattan federal judge ruled that prosecutors would not be able to seek the death penalty at the trial of Luigi Mangione, the 27-year-old man accused of assassinating UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive in 2024.

The judge, Margaret Garnett of Federal District Court, said the case would still proceed to trial on other counts, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole, in the killing of the executive, Brian Thompson.

Judge Garnett said in her opinion that two stalking charges against Mr. Mangione, one of which carried a maximum sentence of death, did not meet the legal definition of a crime of violence, and had to be dismissed.

“Consequently," the judge wrote, “the chief practical effect of the legal infirmities” of the two counts and the court’s decision that they must be dismissed “is solely to foreclose the death penalty as an available punishment.”

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Former Illinois deputy sentenced to 20 years for killing woman who called 911

A former Illinois sheriff’s deputy was sentenced to 20 years in prison for fatally shooting Sonya Massey, a Black woman who had dialed 911 to report a possible prowler outside her Springfield home, reported The Associated Press.

Sean Grayson, who is white, was convicted in October of second-degree murder in a police brutality case that prompted protests over systemic racism and led to a U.S. Department of Justice inquiry. Grayson, 31, testified at trial that he feared Massey was about to scald him with a pot of steaming hot water that she had removed from the stove.

Grayson, who has been incarcerated since he was charged, received the maximum possible sentence.

He apologized in court, saying he wished he could bring Massey back and spare her family the pain he caused. His attorney sought a sentence of six years, noting that Grayson has late stage colon cancer that has spread to his liver and lungs.

“I made a lot of mistakes that night. There were points when I should’ve acted, and I didn’t. I froze,” Grayson said. “I made terrible decisions that night. I’m sorry.”

‘It rocked the country’

Massey’s parents and two teenage children, who lobbied for the maximum sentence, said their lives had changed dramatically since her death. Her children said they had to grow up without a mother, while Massey’s mother said she lived in fear.

“I cry every day,” Massey’s mother, Donna Massey, said.

“I’m afraid to call the police in fear that I might end up like Sonya,” she told the court.

State’s Attorney John Milhiser argued that Massey would still be alive if someone else from the sheriff’s department had responded to her 911 call.

“Sonya Massey’s death rocked her family, but it rocked the community, it rocked the country,” State’s Attorney John Milhiser said. “We have to do whatever we can to ensure it never happens again.”

The family reacted with a loud cheer — “Yes!” — after Judge Ryan Cadagin read the sentence. He admonished them for the outburst.

“Twenty years is not enough, but they did what they could do,” Massey’s 16-year-old daughter Summer told reporters after the hearing.

With a day shaved off his sentence for every day of good behavior, plus credit for nearly 19 months already spent behind bars, Grayson could be released in just under 8 1/2 years.

The day of the shooting

In the early morning hours of July 6, 2024, Massey — a 36-year-old single mother who struggled with mental health issues — summoned emergency responders because she feared there was a prowler outside her Springfield home.

According to body camera footage, Grayson and sheriff’s Deputy Dawson Farley, who was not charged, searched outside Massey’s home before meeting her at her door. Massey appeared confused and repeatedly said, “Please, God.”

The deputies entered her house, Grayson noticed the pot on the stove and ordered Farley to move it. Instead, Massey went to the stove, retrieved the pot and teased Grayson for moving away from “the hot, steaming water.”

From this moment, the exchange quickly escalated.

Massey said: “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.”

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Texas carries out first execution of 2026

 The 1st Execution of 2026

A Texas man who at one time escaped from custody and was on the run for three days after being sentenced to death for fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend nearly 27 years ago was the first person executed in the U.S. this year, reported NBC News.

Charles Victor Thompson was condemned for the April 1998 shooting deaths of his ex-girlfriend, Glenda Dennise Hayslip, 39, and her new boyfriend, Darren Keith Cain, 30, at her apartment in the Houston suburb of Tomball.

Thompson, 55, was pronounced dead on January 28, 2026 at 6:50 p.m. Central Time  following a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. 

In his final words, Thompson asked the families of his victims to find it in their hearts to forgive him, adding, "that you can begin to heal and move past this."

"There are no winners in this situation," he said after a spiritual adviser prayed over him for about 3 minutes and shortly before a lethal dose of pentobarbital was administered. He said his execution "creates more victims and traumatizes more people 28 years later."

"I'm sorry for what I did. I'm sorry for what happened, and I want to tell all of y'all, I love you and that keep Jesus in your life, keep Jesus first," he added.

As the injection began taking effect, Thompson gasped loudly, then took about a dozen breaths that evolved into three snores. Then all movement ceased and he was pronounced dead 22 minutes later.

"He's in hell," one of the witnesses, Dennis Cain — whose son was killed — said after Thompson was declared dead by a physician.

Thompson is the first person put to death this year in the United States. Texas has historically held more executions than any other state, though Florida had the most executions in 2025, with 19.  

Prosecutors say Thompson and Hayslip had been romantically involved for a year but split after Thompson "became increasingly possessive, jealous and abusive."

According to court records, Hayslip and Cain were dating when Thompson came to Hayslip's apartment and began arguing with Cain around 3 a.m. the night of the killings. Police were called and told Thompson to leave the apartment complex. Thompson returned three hours later and shot both Hayslip and Cain, who died at the scene. Hayslip died in a hospital a week later.

"The Hayslip and Cain families have waited over twenty-five years for justice to occur," prosecutors with the Harris County District Attorney's office said in court filings.

Texas death row inmate Charles Victor ThompsonTexas Department of Criminal Justice via AP

Thompson's attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay his execution, arguing Thompson wasn't allowed to refute or confront the prosecution's evidence that concluded Hayslip died from a gunshot wound to the face. Thompson's attorneys have argued Hayslip actually died from flawed medical care she received after the shooting that resulted in severe brain damage sustained from oxygen deprivation following a failed intubation.

About an hour before the scheduled 6 p.m. execution, the U.S. Supreme Court — without explanation — issued a brief order rejecting Thompson's final appeal. On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had denied Thompson's request to commute his death sentence to a lesser penalty.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday denied Thompson's request to commute his death sentence to a lesser penalty.

"If he had been able to raise a reasonable doubt as to the cause of Ms. Hayslip's death, he would not be guilty of capital murder," Thompson's attorneys said in court filings with the Supreme Court.

Prosecutors said a jury has already rejected the claim and concluded under state law that Thompson is responsible for Hayslip's death because it "would not have occurred but for his conduct."

Hayslip's family had filed a lawsuit against one of her doctors, alleging medical negligence during her treatment left her brain dead. A jury in 2002 found in favor of the doctor.

Thompson had his death sentence overturned and had a new punishment trial held in November 2005. A jury again ordered him to die by lethal injection.

Shortly after being resentenced, Thompson escaped from the Harris County Jail in Houston by walking out the front door virtually unchallenged by deputies. Thompson later told The Associated Press that after meeting with his attorney in a small interview cell, he slipped out of his handcuffs and orange jail jumpsuit and left the room, which was unlocked. Thompson waived an ID badge fashioned out of his prison ID card to get past several deputies.

"I got to smell the trees, feel the wind in my hair, grass under my feet, see the stars at night. It took me straight back to childhood being outside on a summer night," Thompson said about his three days on the run during a 2005 interview with the AP. He was arrested in Shreveport, Louisiana, some 200 miles away, while trying to arrange for wire transfers of money from overseas so he could make it to Canada.

Thompson was drunk and talking on a pay phone outside a liquor store, authorities said.

Police acting on a tip Sunday found Charles Victor Thompson, 35, standing outside a liquor store in Shreveport, La., said Harris County Sheriff's Lt. John Martin.

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