Alabama
Judge orders new State Senate map after ruling found gerrymandering along racial lines
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A federal judge has ordered Alabama to use a new state Senate map in upcoming legislative elections after ruling that districts drawn by lawmakers illegally diluted the voting power of Black residents in the state’s capital city.
U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco, appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term, issued the ruling Monday putting a new court-selected map in place for the 2026 and 2030 elections. Manasco ruled in August that the state had violated the Voting Rights Act by “packing” Black voters into Montgomery’s Senate District 26 to limit their influence elsewhere. Manasco selected one of three proposed plans drawn by a court-appointed expert.
The order came from a 2021 lawsuit that argued the Alabama Senate district lines diluted the voting strength of Black citizens in Montgomery. The lawsuit maintained that in Montgomery, Black voters were unnecessarily packed into a single district, preventing them from influencing elections elsewhere, while white voters in the majority-Black city of Montgomery were “surgically” extracted into a neighboring district.
The selected map adjusts two Montgomery-area districts — District 26, now represented by Democratic Sen. Kirk Hatcher, and District 25, now represented by Republican Sen. Will Barfoot. Manasco said the remedial plan “unpacks District 26 by moving some Black voters from District 26 into the adjacent District 25.”
Court-appointed special master Richard Allen had cautioned in an earlier court filing that the plan only “weakly remedies” the Voting Rights Act violation. Manasco wrote the plan does enough to fix the violation while leaving most voters and district lines untouched.
The civil rights groups that had filed the lawsuit that led to the redistricting order had objected to the selected plan. Lawyers for plaintiffs said the plan creates an opportunity district in Senate District 25 “at the expense of the existing opportunity in SD26.”
They added that the analysis of past elections showed that Black candidates “almost never win in SD26.”
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen had also objected to the selected plan.
The ruling will not change the partisan power balance in the Alabama Senate, where Republicans hold 27 of the 35 seats.
Manasco had given Alabama lawmakers an opportunity to draw a new map, but Gov. Kay Ivey declined to call lawmakers into special session.
Wisconsin
Prosecutor: Plea talks underway with judge accused of helping immigrant dodge agents
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Plea negotiations with a Wisconsin judge accused of helping an immigrant evade federal agents are underway as her trial nears, the newly minted federal prosecutor overseeing the case said Tuesday.
Interim U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that attorneys are “discussing potential resolution” of the case against Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan, but her attorneys haven’t shown they’re willing to accept any offer.
A plea agreement would mark a surprising de-escalation by prosecutors in a case that has become a flashpoint in President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown. Schimel said plea negotiations are part of a “normal process to resolve a case and eliminate risk for both sides, to find a resolution that makes sense. That’s all.”
Dugan’s defense attorneys said she’s innocent and they’re preparing for a trial next month.
According to court documents, federal agents in April learned that an immigrant who was in the country illegally was scheduled to appear before Dugan in a state battery case. The agents traveled to the Milwaukee County Courthouse to apprehend the man, 31-year-old Eduardo Flores-Ruiz.
Dugan learned the agents were in the courthouse and showed Flores-Ruiz out of her courtroom through a private door. Flores-Ruiz was able to make his way outside, but agents captured him following a foot chase.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced Friday that he had been deported.
Dugan was arrested at the courthouse a week after the chase and a federal grand jury indicted her on charges of obstruction and concealing an individual to prevent arrest in May. Dugan has argued she did nothing wrong and she has complete authority over movement in her courtroom.
Her trial is set to begin Dec. 15. She could face up to six years in prison if convicted.
Dugan’s indictment has intensified the clash between the Trump administration and local authorities over the Republican’s sweeping immigration crackdown.
Democrats have accused the Trump administration of trying to make an example of Dugan to blunt judicial opposition to the crackdown. The administration has worked to vilify her on social media. FBI Director Kash Patel posted a photo on the social platform X of Dugan being led out of the courthouse in handcuffs. And the U.S. Department of Homeland Security posted on X last week that Dugan has taken the term “’activist judge’ to a whole new meaning.”
U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi on Monday appointed Schimel as the Eastern District of Wisconsin’s interim U.S. attorney. He replaces acting U.S. Attorney Richard Frohling, who brought the case against Dugan. Schimel served as Wisconsin attorney general from 2015 to 2019. Then-Gov. Scott Walker appointed him to a state judgeship after he lost reelection in 2018. He ran unsuccessfully for the state Supreme Court this past spring.
John Vaudreuil, a former U.S. attorney in Wisconsin’s Western District, said he was surprised that Schimel would comment publicly on plea negotiations, saying such discussions are private and announcing them could be seen as putting pressure on a defendant.
Still, he said that he’s not surprised negotiations are taking place. During his stint as U.S. attorney, his office extended offers in most cases as a professional courtesy even if it appeared there was no middle ground, Vaudreuil said.
Schimel is likely taking orders from the upper echelons of the U.S. Department of Justice on how to handle Dugan, making the chances of a resolution short of trial slim, he said.
“If the attorney general of the United States says it has to be a felony and it has to be jail time, I don’t suspect that’s where the defense is starting from,” Vaudreuil said. “When the case started, there were a lot of things said from on high that would make it difficult to come to a resolution of the case.”
Florida
State sets execution date for man who killed couple during home robbery
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of fatally shooting a man and woman during home invasion robbery and later confessing to three other killings is scheduled to be put to death in December under a death warrant signed Tuesday by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is setting a record pace for executions.
Frank Athen Walls, 58, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Dec. 18 at Florida State Prison. Walls would be the 19th person set for execution in Florida in 2025, with DeSantis overseeing more executions in a single year than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was set in 2014 with eight executions.
DeSantis signed the death warrant two days before the execution of Richard Barry Randolph. Another convicted killer, Mark Allen Geralds, is set to die Dec. 9.
Walls was convicted of two counts of murder, two counts of kidnapping, burglary and theft and sentenced to death in 1988. The Florida Supreme Court later reversed the conviction and ordered a new trial, where Walls was again convicted and sentenced to death in 1992.
According to court records, Walls broke into the Florida Panhandle mobile home of Eglin Air Force Base airman Edward Alger and his girlfriend, Ann Peterson, in July 1987. Walls tied the couple up, but Alger managed to break free and attack Walls. Walls cut Alger’s throat and them shot him in the head when the airman continued to fight. Walls then went to attack Peterson and shot her as she struggled.
Walls was arrested the day after the bodies were found when his roommate tipped off police about Walls’ odd behavior. During a search of the home, investigators reported finding items from the crime scene, and Walls later admitted to the killings.
After his conviction, DNA evidence linked Walls to the May 1987 rape and murder of Audrey Gygi. Walls pleaded no contest, avoiding another trial and possible death sentence. Walls also admitted responsibility for the killings of Tommie Lou Whiddon in March 1985 and Cynthia Sue Condra in September 1986 as part of a deal with prosecutors.
Attorneys for Walls are expected to file appeals to the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
So far 43 people have been executed in the U.S. in 2025. Florida leads the way with a flurry of death warrants signed by DeSantis. The state’s most recent execution was the Nov. 13 lethal injection of Bryan Frederick Jennings, who was convicted of raping and killing his neighbor.
Florida
Judge pushes for resolution in lawsuit over legal access at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge in Florida is pushing for a resolution in a lawsuit over whether detainees at an immigration center in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” are getting adequate access to attorneys.
U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell last Friday ordered a two-day conference to be held next month in her Fort Myers courtroom, with attorneys present who have the authority to settle. The judge asked for an update at a hearing next Monday.
The lawsuit filed by detainees against the federal and state governments over legal access is one of three federal cases challenging practices at the immigration detention center that was built this summer at a remote airstrip in the Florida Everglades by the administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
In a separate environmental lawsuit, a federal appellate court panel in September allowed the center to continue operating by putting on hold a lower court’s preliminary injunction ordering the facility to wind down by the end of October. The appeal was put on hold during the government shutdown but resumed last week.
A third lawsuit claims immigration is a federal issue and Florida agencies and private contractors hired by the state have no authority to operate the facility.
President Donald Trump toured the facility in July and suggested it could be a model for future lockups nationwide as his administration pushes to expand the infrastructure needed to increase deportations. While the facility was built and operated by the state and its private contractors, federal officials have approved reimbursing Florida for $608 million.
In the legal access case, attorneys representing detainees at the Everglades facility are seeking a preliminary injunction that will make it easier for their clients to meet and communicate with their individual attorneys.
They claim that detainees’ attorneys must make an appointment to visit three days in advance, unlike at other detention facilities where the lawyers can just show up during visiting hours; that detainees often are transferred to other facilities after their attorneys have made an appointment to see them; and that scheduling delays have been so lengthy that detainees are unable to meet with attorneys before key deadlines.
Florida officials said in a motion to dismiss that the case is now moot since the concerns initially raised by the detainees and their attorneys have been addressed. Any delays were due to trying to construct a facility for thousands of detainees in a remote area with little infrastructure, they said.
“In other words, there is no longer a live controversy,” Florida officials said in their court filing.
Judge orders new State Senate map after ruling found gerrymandering along racial lines
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A federal judge has ordered Alabama to use a new state Senate map in upcoming legislative elections after ruling that districts drawn by lawmakers illegally diluted the voting power of Black residents in the state’s capital city.
U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco, appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term, issued the ruling Monday putting a new court-selected map in place for the 2026 and 2030 elections. Manasco ruled in August that the state had violated the Voting Rights Act by “packing” Black voters into Montgomery’s Senate District 26 to limit their influence elsewhere. Manasco selected one of three proposed plans drawn by a court-appointed expert.
The order came from a 2021 lawsuit that argued the Alabama Senate district lines diluted the voting strength of Black citizens in Montgomery. The lawsuit maintained that in Montgomery, Black voters were unnecessarily packed into a single district, preventing them from influencing elections elsewhere, while white voters in the majority-Black city of Montgomery were “surgically” extracted into a neighboring district.
The selected map adjusts two Montgomery-area districts — District 26, now represented by Democratic Sen. Kirk Hatcher, and District 25, now represented by Republican Sen. Will Barfoot. Manasco said the remedial plan “unpacks District 26 by moving some Black voters from District 26 into the adjacent District 25.”
Court-appointed special master Richard Allen had cautioned in an earlier court filing that the plan only “weakly remedies” the Voting Rights Act violation. Manasco wrote the plan does enough to fix the violation while leaving most voters and district lines untouched.
The civil rights groups that had filed the lawsuit that led to the redistricting order had objected to the selected plan. Lawyers for plaintiffs said the plan creates an opportunity district in Senate District 25 “at the expense of the existing opportunity in SD26.”
They added that the analysis of past elections showed that Black candidates “almost never win in SD26.”
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen had also objected to the selected plan.
The ruling will not change the partisan power balance in the Alabama Senate, where Republicans hold 27 of the 35 seats.
Manasco had given Alabama lawmakers an opportunity to draw a new map, but Gov. Kay Ivey declined to call lawmakers into special session.
Wisconsin
Prosecutor: Plea talks underway with judge accused of helping immigrant dodge agents
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Plea negotiations with a Wisconsin judge accused of helping an immigrant evade federal agents are underway as her trial nears, the newly minted federal prosecutor overseeing the case said Tuesday.
Interim U.S. Attorney Brad Schimel told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that attorneys are “discussing potential resolution” of the case against Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan, but her attorneys haven’t shown they’re willing to accept any offer.
A plea agreement would mark a surprising de-escalation by prosecutors in a case that has become a flashpoint in President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown. Schimel said plea negotiations are part of a “normal process to resolve a case and eliminate risk for both sides, to find a resolution that makes sense. That’s all.”
Dugan’s defense attorneys said she’s innocent and they’re preparing for a trial next month.
According to court documents, federal agents in April learned that an immigrant who was in the country illegally was scheduled to appear before Dugan in a state battery case. The agents traveled to the Milwaukee County Courthouse to apprehend the man, 31-year-old Eduardo Flores-Ruiz.
Dugan learned the agents were in the courthouse and showed Flores-Ruiz out of her courtroom through a private door. Flores-Ruiz was able to make his way outside, but agents captured him following a foot chase.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced Friday that he had been deported.
Dugan was arrested at the courthouse a week after the chase and a federal grand jury indicted her on charges of obstruction and concealing an individual to prevent arrest in May. Dugan has argued she did nothing wrong and she has complete authority over movement in her courtroom.
Her trial is set to begin Dec. 15. She could face up to six years in prison if convicted.
Dugan’s indictment has intensified the clash between the Trump administration and local authorities over the Republican’s sweeping immigration crackdown.
Democrats have accused the Trump administration of trying to make an example of Dugan to blunt judicial opposition to the crackdown. The administration has worked to vilify her on social media. FBI Director Kash Patel posted a photo on the social platform X of Dugan being led out of the courthouse in handcuffs. And the U.S. Department of Homeland Security posted on X last week that Dugan has taken the term “’activist judge’ to a whole new meaning.”
U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi on Monday appointed Schimel as the Eastern District of Wisconsin’s interim U.S. attorney. He replaces acting U.S. Attorney Richard Frohling, who brought the case against Dugan. Schimel served as Wisconsin attorney general from 2015 to 2019. Then-Gov. Scott Walker appointed him to a state judgeship after he lost reelection in 2018. He ran unsuccessfully for the state Supreme Court this past spring.
John Vaudreuil, a former U.S. attorney in Wisconsin’s Western District, said he was surprised that Schimel would comment publicly on plea negotiations, saying such discussions are private and announcing them could be seen as putting pressure on a defendant.
Still, he said that he’s not surprised negotiations are taking place. During his stint as U.S. attorney, his office extended offers in most cases as a professional courtesy even if it appeared there was no middle ground, Vaudreuil said.
Schimel is likely taking orders from the upper echelons of the U.S. Department of Justice on how to handle Dugan, making the chances of a resolution short of trial slim, he said.
“If the attorney general of the United States says it has to be a felony and it has to be jail time, I don’t suspect that’s where the defense is starting from,” Vaudreuil said. “When the case started, there were a lot of things said from on high that would make it difficult to come to a resolution of the case.”
Florida
State sets execution date for man who killed couple during home robbery
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A man convicted of fatally shooting a man and woman during home invasion robbery and later confessing to three other killings is scheduled to be put to death in December under a death warrant signed Tuesday by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is setting a record pace for executions.
Frank Athen Walls, 58, is scheduled to die by lethal injection Dec. 18 at Florida State Prison. Walls would be the 19th person set for execution in Florida in 2025, with DeSantis overseeing more executions in a single year than any other Florida governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. The previous record was set in 2014 with eight executions.
DeSantis signed the death warrant two days before the execution of Richard Barry Randolph. Another convicted killer, Mark Allen Geralds, is set to die Dec. 9.
Walls was convicted of two counts of murder, two counts of kidnapping, burglary and theft and sentenced to death in 1988. The Florida Supreme Court later reversed the conviction and ordered a new trial, where Walls was again convicted and sentenced to death in 1992.
According to court records, Walls broke into the Florida Panhandle mobile home of Eglin Air Force Base airman Edward Alger and his girlfriend, Ann Peterson, in July 1987. Walls tied the couple up, but Alger managed to break free and attack Walls. Walls cut Alger’s throat and them shot him in the head when the airman continued to fight. Walls then went to attack Peterson and shot her as she struggled.
Walls was arrested the day after the bodies were found when his roommate tipped off police about Walls’ odd behavior. During a search of the home, investigators reported finding items from the crime scene, and Walls later admitted to the killings.
After his conviction, DNA evidence linked Walls to the May 1987 rape and murder of Audrey Gygi. Walls pleaded no contest, avoiding another trial and possible death sentence. Walls also admitted responsibility for the killings of Tommie Lou Whiddon in March 1985 and Cynthia Sue Condra in September 1986 as part of a deal with prosecutors.
Attorneys for Walls are expected to file appeals to the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
So far 43 people have been executed in the U.S. in 2025. Florida leads the way with a flurry of death warrants signed by DeSantis. The state’s most recent execution was the Nov. 13 lethal injection of Bryan Frederick Jennings, who was convicted of raping and killing his neighbor.
Florida
Judge pushes for resolution in lawsuit over legal access at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge in Florida is pushing for a resolution in a lawsuit over whether detainees at an immigration center in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” are getting adequate access to attorneys.
U.S. District Judge Sheri Polster Chappell last Friday ordered a two-day conference to be held next month in her Fort Myers courtroom, with attorneys present who have the authority to settle. The judge asked for an update at a hearing next Monday.
The lawsuit filed by detainees against the federal and state governments over legal access is one of three federal cases challenging practices at the immigration detention center that was built this summer at a remote airstrip in the Florida Everglades by the administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
In a separate environmental lawsuit, a federal appellate court panel in September allowed the center to continue operating by putting on hold a lower court’s preliminary injunction ordering the facility to wind down by the end of October. The appeal was put on hold during the government shutdown but resumed last week.
A third lawsuit claims immigration is a federal issue and Florida agencies and private contractors hired by the state have no authority to operate the facility.
President Donald Trump toured the facility in July and suggested it could be a model for future lockups nationwide as his administration pushes to expand the infrastructure needed to increase deportations. While the facility was built and operated by the state and its private contractors, federal officials have approved reimbursing Florida for $608 million.
In the legal access case, attorneys representing detainees at the Everglades facility are seeking a preliminary injunction that will make it easier for their clients to meet and communicate with their individual attorneys.
They claim that detainees’ attorneys must make an appointment to visit three days in advance, unlike at other detention facilities where the lawyers can just show up during visiting hours; that detainees often are transferred to other facilities after their attorneys have made an appointment to see them; and that scheduling delays have been so lengthy that detainees are unable to meet with attorneys before key deadlines.
Florida officials said in a motion to dismiss that the case is now moot since the concerns initially raised by the detainees and their attorneys have been addressed. Any delays were due to trying to construct a facility for thousands of detainees in a remote area with little infrastructure, they said.
“In other words, there is no longer a live controversy,” Florida officials said in their court filing.
