Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Georgia Court Allows Execution

The Georgia Supreme Court cleared the way yesterday for the execution of convicted murderer Jack Alderman, even as other states have halted capital punishment to allow the nation's top court to decide whether lethal injection violates the Constitution. Since the U.S. Supreme Court decided in September to hear a challenge to lethal injection, most states that use the method have put executions on hold. Some, such as Georgia, have pressed ahead.

Alderman's attorneys had sought to delay his Friday execution until the U.S. Supreme Court considers an appeal from a pair of Kentucky death row inmates who contend that lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment. Alderman was sentenced to die for the 1974 slaying of his wife.

The oxygen-depleted "Dead Zone" in the Gulf of Mexico cannot be remedied unless federal and state agencies cooperate to reduce agricultural nutrient and urban storm-water runoff along the 2,300-mile Mississippi River, according to a report from the National Academy of Sciences. Though the river passes through 10 states, the report says there is no one agency, coalition or comprehensive strategy overseeing its health.

The portrayal of Hurricane Katrina victims who did not leave New Orleans before the storm as lazy and reliant on government aid is inaccurate, according to a study by a Georgia State University sociology professor. Using results from a poll conducted in Houston area shelters by The Washington Post and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation just two weeks after the storm, Timothy Brezina found that nearly 70 percent of the Katrina evacuees who were surveyed were employed before the storm, with half holding full-time jobs. Sixty percent were looking for jobs at the time of the poll.

-- From Staff Reports and News Services