The nation in brief – Arkansas Online

Pastor ruling delays Alabama execution

ATMORE, Ala. -- An Alabama inmate won a reprieve from a planned lethal injection after the U.S. Supreme Court said the state must allow his personal pastor in the death chamber.

Thursday's scheduled execution of Willie B. Smith III was called off by Alabama officials after the justices maintained an injunction issued by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, saying he could not be executed without his pastor present in the chamber.

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Samantha Rose said the execution would not proceed given the ruling. Alabama has maintained that non-prison staff members should not be in the room for security reasons.

Justice Elena Kagan wrote in an opinion joined by three other justices, including Amy Coney Barrett, that "Alabama has not carried its burden of showing that the exclusion of all clergy members from the execution chamber is necessary to ensure prison security."

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Smith was convicted of abducting a woman at gunpoint from an ATM in 1991, stealing $80 from her and then taking her to a cemetery where he shot her in the back of the head.

The case was the latest in a series of legal fights over personal spiritual advisers at executions. If the execution had gone forward, it would have been the first by a state in 2021 and one of the few at the state level since the start of the covid-19 pandemic last year.

Year's Mardi Gras message: Stay away

Crowds usually welcome and even encouraged in tourist-dependent New Orleans in the days leading up to Mardi Gras are being warned to stay away as the final weekend of the 2021 season began Friday amid efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Police Chief Shaun Ferguson held a news conference with state police and the New Orleans sheriff to drive home the point, saying a bar closure order that took effect Friday would be enforced through Fat Tuesday, the end of the annual pre-Lenten festivities.

All parades in the city have been canceled.

Mardi Gras celebrations last year are now believed to have contributed to an early surge of infections in Louisiana.

Ferguson emphasized that Bourbon Street would be closed to cars and pedestrians from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. each day, with access limited to residents, business employees, hotel guests and restaurant patrons. Restaurant capacity will be limited as it has been throughout the pandemic. And bars, including those that have temporary food permits enabling them to operate as restaurants, will be closed -- not just in the French Quarter but throughout the city -- until Ash Wednesday.

Mississippi kills, revives Rx pot tax bill

JACKSON, Miss. -- The Mississippi Senate did an about-face on a proposal to set a 7% sales tax on medical marijuana, first killing a bill and then reviving it hours later in an unusual session after midnight.

The first vote happened Thursday night, and the second one happened early Friday.

Mississippi residents voted by a wide margin in November to adopt Initiative 65, a constitutional amendment that authorizes medical marijuana in the state.

The initiative requires the state Health Department to create a program so marijuana can be available later this year to people with "debilitating" medical conditions. The long list includes cancer, epilepsy and sickle cell anemia.

However, the Mississippi Supreme Court is set to hear arguments April 14 in a lawsuit that is seeking to block the medical marijuana program.

Republican state Sen. Kevin Blackwell of Olive Branch said his proposal would be a backup in case a court blocks Initiative 65. The proposed sales tax is a new aspect, though. Initiative 65 did not include a tax.

Members of the state Board of Health said Feb. 3 that regulations for a medical marijuana program in Mississippi would be in place by a July 1 deadline, but they cautioned that it's unclear how soon marijuana might be available to patients.

Assange extradition still Justice's plan

The U.S. Justice Department is still seeking to move forward with the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whose transfer to the United States to face espionage charges was blocked by a British court.

British Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled last month that while the case against Assange was sound, his fragile mental health put him at "substantial risk" of committing suicide in a U.S. prison.

Justice Department spokesman Mark Raimondi confirmed that the United States has appealed Baraitser's ruling, meeting a Friday deadline. The filing is not public.

Assange is accused of helping former Army private Chelsea Manning obtain and leak classified information on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Freedom of the Press Foundation and other civil liberties organizations also wrote asking the Biden administration to abandon the prosecution.

Under the Trump administration, officials argued that Assange was not a journalist but a freelance intelligence operative who sought to undermine the United States for political reasons.

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The nation in brief - Arkansas Online