National Roundup

Arkansas
Inmate’s attorneys seek execution delay due to pandemic

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Attorneys for a federal inmate scheduled to be the first put to death in 17 years have asked a judge to delay his execution due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.

Attorneys for Daniel Lee, the first of four inmates set to be executed starting this month, asked a federal judge Thursday to delay his execution until spring 2021. Lee, convicted of killing an Arkansas family as part of a plot to establish a whites-only nation in the Pacific Northwest, is scheduled to be executed on July 13.

In their filing, Lee’s attorneys said the pandemic is preventing them from fulfilling their responsibilities to their client without putting themselves at risk of contracting the virus as cases surge throughout the country.

“The government’s insistence on pressing forward with his execution in the midst of this public health crisis is forcing counsel and others to assume grave, potentially fatal, health risks in order to be present at the execution or in the days leading up to it,” the filing said.

A Zen Buddhist priest, who is a spiritual adviser to another inmate set to be executed two days after Lee, has argued in a separate lawsuit the government is putting him at risk for the virus by moving forward with executions during the pandemic.

Alabama
Man pleads guilty in 1990 slaying after another man cleared

OZARK, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama man who was charged in a 1990 slaying in which another man was cleared has pleaded guilty in the killing.

Jeff Beasley, 54, pleaded guilty to murder in Ozark on Monday and received a 30-year sentence from Dale County Circuit Judge William H. Filmore, news outlets reported.

Beasley was arrested in January in the strangulation of 22-year-old Tracy Harris, whose body was found in the Choctawhatchee River about a week after she went missing in March 1990.

No one was arrested for decades until the victim’s husband, Carl Harris Jr., was charged with murder in 2016. He was about to stand trial in January until Beasley confessed to the killing.

Harris is now seeking $6 million from the city where he was charged. Prosecutor Kirke Adams expressed sympathy for Harris being wrongly arrested, but he said evidence had pointed toward him being responsible for the slaying.

Alabama
Ex-boyfriend charged in killing of police officer

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The former boyfriend of an Alabama police officer is charged with capital murder in her shooting death just weeks after a court ordered him to stay away from the woman, authorities and court records said.

Brandon Deshawn Webster, 24, is accused of killing detective Tanisha Pughsley at her home early Monday. Authorities described the slaying as occurring during a domestic dispute.

WSFA-TV reported that court records show Pughsley was granted a restraining order against the man last month. Pughsley alleged Webster would unexpectedly come to her house, and he once hit her on the head when she was holding her godchild, causing her to drop the child.

Webster was charged with killing Pughsley in violation of a protective order. He also was charged with murder during a burglary and attempted murder.

Court records were not available to show whether Webster had a defense attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Pughsley had been with Montgomery police since 2016.

West Virginia
City approves settlement for Black woman punched by officers

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Officials in West Virginia’s capital city have approved a settlement for a special needs Black woman who was punched by officers during an arrest last year.

The Charleston City Council voted Monday to approve an $80,000 settlement for Freda Gilmore, the Gazette-Mail reported. Attorneys for the city and Gilmore agreed to the settlement last week.

The Oct. 14 arrest in the parking lot of a Family Dollar store as officers responded to a report of an altercation prompted a use-of-force investigation and led the city’s mayor to call for changes.

Charleston Police Officer Carlie McCoy had nearly restrained Gilmore and was attempting to handcuff her when Officer Joshua Mena arrived on the scene. Dashcam video from Mena’s cruiser shows him leaving his vehicle, kneeing Gilmore in the head and punching her with a closed fist four times in the head.

The lawsuit accused both officers of striking Gilmore while she was defenseless and on the ground. The lawsuit also said Gilmore has an unspecified mental disability and special needs.

Gilmore told the Gazette-Mail that she requested to go to the hospital for her injuries but the officers refused.

The officers were placed on administrative leave after the arrest and then reinstated when an internal review found they followed department policy. Charleston Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin responded by saying the department’s use-of-force policy should be updated.

Goodwin told council members Monday that her administration has been meeting with advocacy groups since the incident to address the policy, as well as other community issues related to systemic racism.

Washington
Detective on leave over Facebook posts about protest

SEATTLE (AP) — The King County Sheriff’s Office said Monday it has placed a detective on leave as it investigates Facebook posts that ridiculed protesters who were struck by a car on a closed freeway, one fatally, over the weekend.

Detective Mike Brown has been with the sheriff’s office for more than four decades and has most recently been assigned to a protection detail for King County Executive Dow Constantine. The King County Sheriff’s Office said it was notified of the posts — including one that reportedly said “All lives splatter” — on Sunday and forwarded the matter to its internal investigations unit for an expedited review.

Brown has been relieved of all police powers during the investigation. It was not immediately clear whether he had obtained a lawyer. The King County Police Officers Guild did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

The sheriff’s office said the investigation would also looking into whether other employees liked or otherwise interacted with the posts.