California bans federal agents from using masks to hide their faces, law takes effect 1/1/26

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Saturday prohibiting federal agents from wearing identity-concealing masks during enforcement operations, a controversial practice that the expected contender for the Democratic nomination in 2028 likened to “a dystopian sci-fi movie.”

The legislation, which appears to be the first of its kind signed into law in the country, seeks to end a common practice among U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents that critics say erodes transparency, fosters fear and raises concerns that criminals could try to pose as federal officers. The Department of Homeland Security has maintained that using masks to shield ICE agents’ faces protects them against harassment and doxing.

“To ICE — unmask. What are you afraid of?” Newsom said during a news conference in Los Angeles on Saturday. “You’re going to go out. You’re going to do enforcement. Provide an ID. Tell us which agency you represent. Provide us basic information that all local law enforcement is required to provide.” [MORE]

2 NYPD Cops Might Lose Their Jobs after Video Shows them Fatally Shoot Win Rozari as He Posed No Deadly Threat. Still No Charges from Negro Rolebot Tish James, who Awaits Orders from Liberal Masters

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Two NYPD officers will face departmental misconduct charges in the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Win Rozario after he had called 911 during what his family said was a mental distress episode, a police department spokesman confirmed to ABC News.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch is charging officers Salvatore Alongi and Matthew Cianfrocco with using excessive force against Rozario when they shot him five times in March 2024.

Although the incident happened over one year ago in front of 2 witnesses and was captured on 2 body worn cameras, New York Attorney General Letitia James's office claims to still be investigating the incident. Said negro-rolebot servant for eltite white liberals has thus far failed to charge the cops with a crime.

Alongi and Cianfrocco were responding to a 911 call from Rozario, who was experiencing what his family said to be a mental distress episode, according to released body camera footage.

The mother and brother of Win Rozario, a Queens teen in mental distress, begged police officers not to shoot before they fired multiple fatal rounds at him, according to video released by state Attorney General Letitia James.  The distressing body camera footage was released less than a day after THE CITY reported the family was frustrated and had called on the police to release the videos and names of the officers.

The released footage shows the situation rapidly escalated, with officers Matthew Cianfrocco and Salvatore Alongi tasing and then fatally shooting Rozario, all within three minutes of arriving at the home.

The video shows that Rozari posed no imminent threat of deadly harm to the cops while he was in the kitchen and the cops shot him from another room. Certainly, after the first shot Rozari appeared to be immobilized - but the cops kept shooting.

Alongi and Cianfrocco tased Rozario before shooting him five times. [MORE]

An Off Duty White Cop in Philly Shot a Black Man to Death after He Pulled Over to Provide Roadside Assistance to the Cop's Broken Down Car. No Charges Filed by Liberal DA, Lawsuit Filed

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From [HERE] The family of a Black man who was shot and killed by an off-duty Philadelphia homicide detective last fall is suing the city and several police officers, claiming the shooting was unjustified and that the detective and his police colleagues have conspired to cover it up.

The detective was cleared of wrongdoing in July by the district attorney’s office, which offered no public explanation for its decision.

At 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 3, Robert Jones, 54, pulled up behind Philadelphia Police Det. Christopher Sweeney, who stopped his car in the turn lane in a residential area of north Philadelphia, according to the lawsuit filed on Aug. 27 in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas and obtained by Atlanta Black Star.

The family of Robert Jones is suing the city of Philadelphia and six of its police officers alleging he was unjustifiably killed by a homicide detective on Oct. 3, 2024. (Photos: Fox29 Video Screengrab)

Sweeney, a 14-year veteran of the police department, who is white, was off-duty and driving his personal vehicle, a Black Subaru, but was armed with his service gun, the complaint says.

Jones, who was trained to provide roadside assistance, was wearing a bright yellow reflective vest. His brother, Michael Jones, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the family, argues that Jones believed the vehicle in front of him was disabled and got out of his car and approached the driver, whom he believed to be stranded, to offer assistance.

Sweeney, sitting in the driver’s seat, then flashed his badge at Jones and yelled at him through the closed window that he was a police officer, the lawsuit says.

Jones was not armed and did not present any physical threat to Sweeney, the complaint alleges. Before he could respond to Jones, the officer shot him at point blank range through the window, incapacitating him. Then Sweeney continued firing at Jones, striking him multiple times throughout his body. Jones was rushed to a hospital but died soon thereafter.

Sweeney’s actions amounted to a violent, unprovoked assault and battery on Jones, and an unjustified and illegal use of force, the complaint contends.

After the shooting, police who responded to the scene fervently searched for a weapon to tie to Jones, with no success, the lawsuit says. Nearby surveillance cameras did not fully capture the shooting, law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Then the officers engaged “in a conspiracy to obfuscate the truth and shield Detective Sweeney from criminal liability while assigning blame to Robert Jones,” the complaint asserts.

Initially police created and supported Sweeney’s “false narrative that the shooting was the result of road rage incident in which Jones was the aggressor,” the lawsuit says, further arguing that police “manipulated the crime scene” so that Sweeney’s story that he was protecting himself would withstand scrutiny. The complaint does not provide any examples of such crime scene manipulation.

“They’re trying to save the officer and at the same time put a stain on my brother’s name,” Michael Jones told Fox 29 shortly after the killing, which provoked public protests against police handling of the investigation, including claims of police brutality.

In January, Tonya McLary, executive director of Philadelphia’s Citizens Police Oversight Commission, complained that four months after the incident police still had not provided the watchdog agency access to information that it needed to assess Sweeney’s shooting of Jones. Such cases can erode the public’s trust in law enforcement, she told The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in America.

Kevin O’Brien, one of Jones’ attorneys, acknowledged to the Philadelphia Inquirer that Sweeney may have mistakenly thought that Jones was armed when he opened fire.

“People make mistakes but that doesn’t mean taking someone’s life is justified,” said O’Brien. “And we certainly think the evidence will show that.”

The lawsuit accuses Sweeney of assault and battery, wrongful death and inflicting severe injuries on Jones prior to his death that caused him severe pain, anxiety, and horror. It accuses five unnamed police officers of conspiracy to cover up Sweeney’s alleged crimes, and names the City of Philadelphia as a co-defendant that managed the police department and employed the officers.

Hennepin County (MN) Attorney Mary Moriarty to Stop Prosecuting Cases Stemming from Non-Public Safety Traffic Stops Used Primarily to Control and Dominate Law Abiding Black People

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From [HERE] Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty has announced her office will halt prosecutions stemming from cases involving non-public safety traffic stops. 

This includes minor violations like a broken tail light or expired tabs, with the policy set to take effect on October 15.

In a statement, Moriarty says non-public safety traffic stops, also known as "pretext stops," do not protect the public and can harm marginalized members of the community.

"Speeding, distracted driving, driving under the influence, and blowing through stop signs threatens public safety and kills Minnesotans. We will continue to prosecute felony cases resulting from dangerous driving behavior,” Moriarty said in a statement.

She also claims pretext traffic stops can be a waste of resources and often fail to recover any meaningful evidence.

Moriarty cited data from the Minneapolis Police Department that shows in equipment and moving violations from 2017 and 2018, a gun was recovered less than 0.5% of the time.

"Why would we spend limited time and money on a tactic that fails 99 times out of a hundred?” she added. 

At a press conference Wednesday, Moriarty told FOX 9 there are exceptions to the police if the case presents a "compelling public safety interest,” citing an example where a gun that was recovered in the suburbs during a traffic stop was linked to a shooting in Minneapolis.

Prosecutors in Ramsey County made a similar policy change in 2021, following the deaths of Philando Castile and Daunte Wright. [MORE]

[2nd Class Citizenship in Liberal Cities] Government Data Shows Peoria Police Routinely Interfere w/Black People's Freedom of Movement; For Every White Driver Stopped, Cops Stop 8.2 Black Drivers

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The Peoria Police Department pulled over Black and Latino people at higher rates than White drivers last year, according to data compiled by the Illinois Department of Transportation and provided to the Journal Star by the Peoria chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

In 2024, 1,678 Black people were subject to traffic stops by Peoria police out of 3,017 total, with 8.2 Black people being stopped for every White person, according to IDOT data. That ratio is an increase from 2023, which saw 5.4 traffic stops involving Black people for every White driver pulled over. [MORE]

Trump/Media Upload Tyrant Paradigm Into Sheeple's Minds: 'The President is Authorized to Do Anything He Wants' w/Regard to War, Tariffs, Deportations, Crime etc, Giving Rise to a More Coercive System

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From [HERE] In separate attacks this month, the U.S. military blew up two speedboats in the Caribbean Sea, killing 14 alleged drug smugglers. Although those men could have been intercepted and arrested, President Donald Trump said he decided summary execution was appropriate as a deterrent to drug trafficking.

To justify this unprecedented use of the U.S. military to kill criminal suspects, Trump invoked his “constitutional authority as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive” to protect “national security and foreign policy interests.” That assertion of sweeping presidential power fits an alarming pattern that is also apparent in Trump’s tariffs, his attempt to summarily deport suspected gang members as “alien enemies,” and his planned use of National Guard troops to fight crime in cities across the country.

Although Trump described the boat attacks as acts of “self-defense,” he did not claim the people whose deaths he ordered were engaged in literal attacks on the United States. His framing instead relied on the dubious proposition that drug smuggling is tantamount to violent aggression.

While that assumption is consistent with Trump’s often expressed desire to kill drug dealers, it is not consistent with the way drug laws are ordinarily enforced. In the absence of violent resistance, a police officer who decided to shoot a drug suspect dead rather than take him into custody would be guilty of murder.

That seems like an accurate description of the attacks that Trump ordered. Yet he maintains that his constitutional license to kill, which apparently extends to civilians he views as threats to U.S. “national security and foreign policy interests,” transforms murder into self-defense.

Trump has asserted similarly broad authority to impose stiff, ever-changing tariffs on goods imported from scores of countries. Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected that audacious power grab, saying it was inconsistent with the 1977 statute on which Trump relied.

The Federal Circuit said the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which does not mention import taxes at all and had never before been used to impose them, does not give the president “unlimited authority” to “revise the tariff schedule” approved by Congress. The appeals court added that “the Government’s understanding of the scope of authority granted by IEEPA would render it an unconstitutional delegation.”

Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act against alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua also has run into legal trouble. This month the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit concluded that Trump had erroneously relied on a nonexistent “invasion or predatory incursion” to justify his use of that 1798 statute. [MORE]

The Benefit of the Drug War to Trump-Bush

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From [HERE] From the standpoint of many US officials, one can easily see why they find the drug war advantageous. Like the drug lords and drug cartels, there is a huge drug-war federal bureaucracy that has grown dependent on the drug war. There are, for example, generous salaries for federal judges (plus lifetime appointments), federal prosecutors, DEA agents, court clerks and secretaries, law clerks, and others, all of which would dry up if the drug war were ended and drugs were legalized. Just like the drug lords and drug dealers, the last thing these federal bureaucrats want to do is let go of the source of their largess.

But there is another benefit to the drug war, one that President Trump is now using to expand his militarized police state across America. That’s the violence that necessarily comes with the drug war. Trump is using that violence as a way to complete the destruction of freedom in America.

Here is how the drug-war racket works.

The US government enacts drug laws that make it illegal to possess, ingest, or distribute drugs that have not been approved by the US government. It would be difficult to find a better example of the destruction of a free society than drug laws. With the enactment of such laws, the federal government is declaring to the citizenry: “You are the serfs and we are your masters. We, not you, will decide what you possess, ingest, and distribute. If you disobey our edicts, we will punish you with incarceration and fines.”

But that’s not the end of it. The drug war not only destroys individual liberty and sovereignty, it also produces a black market — that is, an illegal market. Notwithstanding the government’s drug laws, there are still a large number of Americans, for whatever reason, who wish to continue consuming drugs and who are willing to pay large amounts of money for them.

Thus, black-market sellers of drugs enter the illegal market to meet this demand. Angry and chagrined over this phenomenon, federal officials crack down by targeting both distributors and consumers with things like mandatory-minimum jail sentences, asset-forfeiture laws, no-knock raids, racist enforcement, killing of drug lords, burning of drug crops, and more. [MORE]

Judge Napolitano: Trump-Bush Claims he can Declare War on Any Person or Group and Summarily Kill them. Wrong. Under the Constitution, only Congress can Declare War

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From [HERE] The President of the United States did not take the Constitution seriously when he ordered the murders of 11 people who were riding in a speedboat in the Caribbean Sea on Sept. 1 around 1,300 miles from the U.S.

Afterward he said he did so because he believed that they were members of a “narco-terrorist gang” and were delivering illegal drugs to America. He also did so, he said, as a “message” to other drug dealers who should fear a similar fate.

The boat had no ability to reach the U.S. According to the former head of drug interdiction for the Department of Justice, this so-called boat gang is not known for trafficking in illegal drugs. The crimes that the president said these folks committed did not occur in the U.S., and if they had, do not permit the imposition of the death penalty.

He offered no evidence to support his claims and didn’t even suggest that the riders in the boat posed a threat to the American military personnel who killed them. He couldn’t say if anyone in the boat was an American.

When he was asked for the legal authority for these killings, President Donald Trump replied that these folks were waging war on the U.S., and, because he is the president of the United States, he can do as he wishes to them.

These are constitutionally ignorant, morally repugnant, profoundly erroneous responses from a person who has taken an oath to uphold the Constitution.

Here is the backstory. [MORE]

UN experts say Murderous US strike on vessel violated Right to Life

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United Nations human rights experts said Tuesday that a US strike on a vessel alleged to be operated by “narco-terrorists” violated the right to life. The statement follows the deadly incident in which two civilian boats were attacked on the high seas.

The experts said the vessel strikes were conducted without sufficient evidence that loss of life was necessary, or that less lethal means had been attempted. They warned that the action may constitute extrajudicial killing under international human rights law.

They said the attacks followed a classified order signed by the US President in August 2025 authorising military force in foreign territory or international waters against Latin American drug cartels designated by Washington as terrorist organisations.

The UN experts stressed that under international law, “the use of potentially lethal force is only permitted in personal self-defence or defence of others against an imminent threat to life.” They noted there was “no evidence” of an armed attack that would justify national self-defence and stressed that the law of the sea requires a law-enforcement rather than a military approach. The experts urged the US to conduct a full, independent investigation into the killings.

The US justified the strikes by referring to the vessels’ alleged role in narcotics trafficking. President Donald Trump said on social media that US forces conducted a “SECOND Kinetic Strike against positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists” in international waters, killing three men he described as terrorists. He warned, “If you are transporting drugs that can kill Americans, we are hunting you.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X that the vessel was operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization and warned that similar actions could follow. [MORE]

Emails Show Fauci Told Colleagues to Delete COVID-Related Communications

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Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) called on Dr. Anthony Fauci to testify before the U.S. Congress after Paul released several emails from 2020 that show Fauci instructing colleagues to delete messages after reading them.

The email directives, which may violate federal law, contradict Fauci’s congressional testimony last year, when he repeatedly denied deleting official records or engaging in “attempts to obstruct the Freedom of Information Act and the release of public documents.”

Paul published the emails on Wednesday in a series of X posts.

He also posted a copy of a letter he sent to Fauci on Tuesday, asking Fauci to turn over documents and other records and to state his availability to testify before Congress this year.

The emails show that Fauci, who directed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) from 1984 to 2022, asked colleagues on at least two occasions to delete messages, a possible violation of federal records laws.

The emails also disclose Fauci’s discussions with key public health figures about how to “get ahead of the science and the narrative” during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The emails exchanged ideas on how to promote the “zoonotic” — or natural origin — theory of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. [MORE]

Psyopsy: Like the Failed Re-Creation of Kamala Harris, Massa Media Attempts to Retroactively Impose Icon Status on Charlie Kirk, an Unfamous Person, Unknown Outside of MAGA w/Few Known Accomplishments

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RIP: The Resume of Charles James Kirk (October 14, 1993 – September 10, 2025)

FUNKTIONARY explains:

public opinion – a contrived notion ostensibly of what “people” think other “people” are thinking without really thinking. 2) manufactured consent by the agents and dupes of Corporate State media. Public opinion is manufactured in this society to defend the spin—i.e. the political position of those in power. Are you contemptuous of the contrived, hyped, manipulated, orchestrated and outright fallacious centralized media memetics as portrayed to the credulous consumer through façade, illusion and collusion? Survey says: “You can live without public opinion.” (See: MEDIA, Psyopsy, Metaprogram, Propaganda, Public Relations, Culture, Primary Program, Reversibility Thinking, Paradigm, Brand, Reality-Boxes, FRAMES, Predictive Programming, Conditioning, Indoctrination, Beliefs & Semantic Reality)

psyopsy – performing an analysis of what caused one who is mentally dead and culturally comatose to reach such a state or fate. Psyopsies can be performed only on the living dead. Those who are living another’s script (“reality”) are candidates.

Coin-Operated Corpse Bernie Sanders Takes a Break from Pretending that Deadly COVID Shots are "Vaccines" to Acknowledge the IsrAlien Genocide, 1 Year After the Fact

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Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) said Wednesday that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza — becoming one of the highest-profile elected U.S. officials to do so and marking the first time he has used the term to describe Israel’s nearly two-year military campaign in the enclave, which has come under growing international criticism.

In an op-ed published on his website, Sanders wrote: “The intent is clear. The conclusion is inescapable: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.”

While acknowledging Israel’s right to defend itself following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack, Sanders said that “over the last two years, Israel has not simply defended itself against Hamas” but has “waged an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people.”

His statement comes a day after a United Nations commission said Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Sanders wrote that he agreed with the finding, in a change of course after he had refrained from labeling Israel’s conduct “genocide,” including during a July interview with CNN when he called it a “legal term” and said it was more important to end the “horror” in Gaza than to define it. [MORE]

Political Silence: Trump and Media QUIET after a Heterosexual, White Man Murdered 3 White Cops in an All White PA Town [NonWhites Function as a Negative Reference Group Vital to the Racist Self-Image]

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Racists are obsessed with crime statistics in Black communities. According to the Sentencing Project, “Researchers have shown that crime reporting exaggerates crime rates and exhibits both quantitative and qualitative racial biases. This includes a tendency to exaggerate rates of black offending and white victimization and to depict black suspects in a less favorable light than whites.“Under the pretense of being concerned about the well-being of Black people, MASSA media in urban areas in particular, sensationalize crime with overblown coverage and hyper alertness. To be explicitly clear, it is a guise because we live in a system of racism/white supremacy in which most white people (or the most powerful white people) seek to dominate or control non-white people with master-servant relations in all areas of people activity and who project and maintain unequal power and conditions in a white over Black system. Racists, either self-described as liberal or conservative, have no intention of changing this arrangement because they are the permanent enemy of non-white people. RACIST liberals and conservatives spare no cost when it comes to placing Black people in greater confinement.

NOT A FALSE FLAG. From [HERE] Detectives arrived at the home of Matthew Ruth Wednesday afternoon, searching for him in connection to a stalking case — a visit authorities say took place only a couple of hours before he ambushed and killed three police officers.

Ruth, who was killed in return fire by police, lived at a home on Hall Drive in Penn Township, York County, according to court documents. Neighbors say he lived there with his parents.

After communicating with Ruth's family and learning that Ruth wasn't at the home, police said the detectives then went to the residence of his ex-girlfriend, who had identified Ruth as the man spotted the evening prior on a trail camera peering into her mother's home in North Codorus Township with an AR-15 slung across his body.

That residence is where the ambush occurred on Wednesday, shortly after 2 p.m.

"The door was open and upon immediately opening the door, the actor repeatedly fired at the officers with multiple rounds from an AR-15 style rifle with the suppressor," said York County District Attorney Tim Barker during a Thursday news conference.

Three Northern York County Regional Police Department detectives, identified as Det. Sgt. Cody Becker, Det. Mark Baker and Det. Isaiah Emenheiser, were fatally shot. Another detective with the same department was seriously injured, as was a sheriff's deputy assisting with the arrest.

In the hours following the shooting, police swarmed the neighborhood where Ruth lived, startling neighbors as investigators collected evidence at the home.

One neighbor said he was surprised to see Ruth as the suspected gunman in the police killings, but not that he'd been involved in a crime.

IF THESE MURDERS OF POLICE OFFICERS INVOLVED ANYONE BLACK OR A NON-WHITE MIGRANT OR TRANS,‘ MEDIA COVERAGE AND NEUROPEON COMMENTARY WOULD BE OMNIPRESENT & NON-STOP

Dr. Amos Wilson asks and then answers, ‘ What does White America have to gain from choosing to perceive Black males as stereotypically criminal? By socio-psychologically inducing Black males into criminality. . . .?

Alleged Black criminality, while evoking White American fear and loathing, reassures them of their vaunted self-worth, their assumed innately superior moral standing, of their selfcongratulatory self-constraint in contrast with presumed Black American unworthiness, innate inferior moral standing, inherent criminality, lack of self-constraint and self-control. White America's self-appreciation is enhanced as it insatiably feeds on overblown reports about Black criminality while denying its own incomparable criminal record, and its own racist-imperialist incubation and giving birth to the very same criminal forces which now threaten to destroy it.

Black criminals function as a negative reference group vital to maintaining the White American self-image. The Black criminal is used to support the White American community's self-serving, self-justifying judgments of itself. White America's preoccupation with Black criminality betrays its own need for reassurance; betrays its own basic insecurity regarding its projected moral purity. Consequently, the higher the incidence of reported Black criminality, the more exceptionally righteous White America feels itself to be. The more righteous it feels itself to be the more intensely and guiltlessly it promulgates and justifies its domination and exploitation of African peoples at home and abroad. The alleged innate criminality of Black America, particularly of Black males, and their actual high level of self-destructive criminality remain incontrovertible psycho-political necessities if the White American-Eurocentric culture of inequality is to be self-justifiably continued without end. In the context of this collective necessity, more Blacks are arrested, charged, tried, convicted, and sentenced to longer prison terms for allegedly committing the same type of crimes as Whites. Many are arrested, charged, tried, convicted and sentenced to long prison terms merely for committing the crime of being Black in America.

The White American community's need to stereotypically perceive Blacks as innately criminal, coupled with its socioeco­nomic power to control the availability of resources and their renumerative allocation, confers on it the power of creating or controlling circumstances conducive to the satisfaction of its hegemonic requirements. Under these circumstances, the need of the collective White ego to project an image of endemic Black criminality in order to maintain its power status quo, is tanta­mount to the creation of Black criminality, particularly of the self-destructive kind. [MORE]

Despite the Supreme Court’s Prohibition on Executing Intellectually Disabled People, Florida Authorities are Scheduled to Murder Victor Jones in 12 Days (a Black Man who Killed a White Couple)

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From [HERE] Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida has signed more death warrants this year than any of his predecessors.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2002 deci­sion in Atkins v. Virginia estab­lished that the Eighth Amendment pro­hibits exe­cut­ing peo­ple with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty. The Court lat­er clar­i­fied that rigid IQ cut­offs were not per­mis­si­ble and also required states to con­sid­er mean­ing­ful evi­dence of intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty, includ­ing sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly valid expert tes­ti­mo­ny and adap­tive func­tion­ing deficits. Despite this unequiv­o­cal con­sti­tu­tion­al pro­tec­tion, two death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers — David Pittman and Victor Jones—face exe­cu­tion this month in Florida. Attorneys for both men argue they are peo­ple with intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ties that should be exempt from exe­cu­tion and pro­tect­ed under Atkins. 

Pittman was murdered last night by government authorities.

Much like Mr. Pittman, Victor Jones, who was sen­tenced to death in 1993 for the 1990 mur­ders of his two employ­ers, has been denied relief in low­er courts regard­ing his intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty claim and is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on September 30, 2025. At tri­al, the court found three aggra­vat­ing fac­tors and reject­ed every mit­i­gat­ing fac­tor pre­sent­ed by defense coun­sel. Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s rul­ing in Atkins, Mr. Jones was able to secure an evi­den­tiary hear­ing to demon­strate he met the stan­dards out­lined in that case. The State argued that because Mr. Jones’ IQ was test­ed and found to score above the hard­line thresh­old of 70, he did not qual­i­fy for relief, and the cir­cuit court agreed. After the state’s rul­ing in Hall, Mr. Jones again peti­tioned the courts for relief, but they sum­mar­i­ly denied his claims based on pri­or tes­ti­mo­ny from the Atkins hear­ing, despite its reliance on out­dat­ed medical science. 

During post-con­vic­tion pro­ceed­ings, Mr. Jones’ sis­ter and cousin described in detail the pain and abuse they all suf­fered at the hands of Laura Long, an aunt who raised them.” Both Mr. Jones’ sis­ter and cousin described beat­ings in which Mr. Jones was made to first undress, not­ing that Ms. Long would call him ​“slow” and ​“stu­pid,” and beat him for get­ting bad grades. They also tes­ti­fied that Ms. Long’s son, who was ten years old­er than Mr. Jones, would beat them as well. This infor­ma­tion was nev­er pre­sent­ed to a jury. 

His tri­al jury also nev­er learned that as a young teenag­er, Mr. Jones was con­fined to Okeechobee School for Boys on four sep­a­rate occa­sions between 1975 and 1978. While at Okeechobee, Mr. Jones suf­fered neglect, phys­i­cal and sex­u­al abuse by state employ­ees, and wit­nessed bru­tal­i­ty against his peers. Mr. Jones was beat­en sev­er­al times with thick leather straps, wit­nessed the gang-rape of his peers, and to avoid sex­u­al vio­lence, he had to fight off oth­er boys, which land­ed him in soli­tary con­fine­ment. As a result of the abuse he wit­nessed and expe­ri­enced, Mr. Jones devel­oped Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), sui­ci­dal ideations, and a drug depen­den­cy. Though Mr. Jones told oth­ers, includ­ing author­i­ty fig­ures and adults about Okeechobee, no one believed him — includ­ing his pros­e­cut­ing attor­ney. Throughout his tri­al and appel­late pro­ceed­ings, the state of Florida has con­sis­tent­ly argued that evi­dence of Mr. Jones’ abuse and the men­tal health effects of that abuse was not cred­i­ble or believ­able. Without hear­ing the evi­dence of Okeechobee and his child­hood abuse, his jury returned two ver­dicts for death. Mr. Jones’ cur­rent coun­sel con­tends that had the tri­al jury heard this evi­dence it would not have sen­tenced him to death. 

Gov. DeSantis signed Mr. Jones’ exe­cu­tion war­rant less than eight months after sign­ing a bill that sets aside $20mil­lion to com­pen­sate indi­vid­u­als who were sent to Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys and Okeechobee between 1940 and 1975 who suf­fered from men­tal, phys­i­cal, or sex­u­al abuse at the hands of state-employed offi­cials. By sign­ing this leg­is­la­tion, Gov. DeSantis acknowl­edged the wrong­do­ing of the state and trau­mat­ic effects of both Dozier and Okeechobee. An inves­ti­ga­tion by The Marshall Project found that at least 34 for­mer res­i­dents of Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys were even­tu­al­ly sen­tenced to death in Florida. One of these indi­vid­u­als, Michael Bell, was exe­cut­ed in May 2025, despite fed­er­al courts nev­er hear­ing his claims. 

In January 2025, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office for­mal­ly rec­og­nized in a let­ter to Mr. Jones that he is a mem­ber of the class of boys who were abused at Okeechobee. The let­ter states in part, ​“Please know that we are sor­ry to hear about the cir­cum­stances that prompt­ed you to apply for com­pen­sa­tion,” which was even­tu­al­ly sent to his account in prison. Mr. Jones’ coun­sel argues that the let­ter from AG Moody’s office should pre­clude the state from con­tin­u­ing to pro­mote the the­o­ry that his claims of abuse are not cred­i­ble. Noting the lim­it­ed nature of the aggra­vat­ing fac­tors found at tri­al, attor­neys for Mr. Jones argue his case requires relief because a rea­son­able prob­a­bil­i­ty exists that in con­junc­tion with new evi­dence of his men­tal health issues and low IQ, the let­ter from January 2025, would lead a jury to sen­tence him to life impris­on­ment. Mr. Jones’ final war­rant-relat­ed appeals remain pend­ing in the Florida Supreme Court. 

Autopsy Shows that the Lethal Injection Given to Byron Black by Tennessee Authorities Causes Pul­monary Ede­ma While Awake, Leading to Great Pain and a Feeling of Suf­fo­ca­tion like Water Boarding

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From [HERE] Byron Black was exe­cut­ed in Tennessee by lethal injec­tion on August 5, 2025. During his exe­cu­tion, Mr. Black unex­pect­ed­ly and repeat­ed­ly groaned over the course of sev­er­al min­utes and audi­bly told his spir­i­tu­al advi­sor that he was in pain. An autop­sy released September 10, 2025, pro­vides some expla­na­tion. It found evi­dence of ​“pul­monary con­ges­tion and ede­ma”– defined as an abnor­mal buildup of flu­id in the lungs which can pro­duce sen­sa­tions of ​“doom, pan­ic, drown­ing, and asphyx­i­a­tion” accord­ing to Dr. Mark Edgar, a pathol­o­gist and autop­sy direc­tor at the Mayo Clinic in Florida until his death ear­li­er this year. 

“It’s hurt­ing so bad.” 

MR. BYRON BLACK, FIVE MIN­UTES INTO HIS EXE­CU­TION WITH PEN­TO­BAR­BI­TAL ON AUGUST 5, 2025

Mr. Black’s suf­fer­ing was not unprece­dent­ed. In 2016, Dr. Edgar and Dr. Joel Zivot, then both at the Mayo Clinic, began exam­in­ing autop­sy reports of exe­cut­ed pris­on­ers and noticed that many of the pris­on­ers’ lungs were twice as heavy as they should have been. After gath­er­ing more records, they found pul­monary ede­ma in approx­i­mate­ly three-quar­ters of the peo­ple who had been exe­cut­ed. Their work led to a 2020 National Public Radio analy­sis of more than 200 autop­sies of death-row pris­on­ers exe­cut­ed using lethal injec­tion. That study found that 84% showed evi­dence of pul­monary ede­ma, a con­di­tion in which a person’s lungs fill with flu­id, cre­at­ing the feel­ing of suf­fo­ca­tion or drown­ing that some experts have likened to water­board­ing. Their find­ings were con­sis­tent irre­spec­tive of the state that car­ried out the exe­cu­tion or the drug pro­to­col employed. Autopsy results showed the pres­ence of pul­monary ede­ma in lethal injec­tions involv­ing sodi­um thiopen­tal, pen­to­bar­bi­tal, mida­zo­lam, and etomidate. 

Prior to Mr. Black’s exe­cu­tion, his attor­neys flagged that a sin­gle-drug pen­to­bar­bi­tal exe­cu­tion raised the risk that he would suf­fer from pul­monary ede­ma in vio­la­tion of the Eighth Amendment pro­hi­bi­tion on cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment. But the state’s expert tes­ti­fied in hear­ings pri­or to his exe­cu­tion that Mr. Black would lose con­scious­ness under the pen­to­bar­bi­tal quick­ly — with­in 20 sec­onds. Witnesses to Mr. Black’s exe­cu­tion not­ed that he was still awake and a groan­ing in appar­ent pain five min­utes after the start of the exe­cu­tion, say­ing ​“It’s hurt­ing so bad.” 

Even with the release of Mr. Black’s autop­sy, his attor­neys are still seek­ing addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion. Speaking to the Nashville Banner about ques­tions still unan­swered by the autop­sy, attor­neys for Mr. Black not­ed that the report ​“fails to doc­u­ment the con­di­tion of the veins … [and] to doc­u­ment the EKG results.” His attor­neys are also con­cerned about the admin­is­tra­tion of the pen­to­bar­bi­tal, includ­ing whether prison staff were able to locate a vein, or if they inject­ed the drug into his mus­cle, some­thing that would have cre­at­ed a wound at the injec­tion site. Mr. Black’s team has filed free­dom of infor­ma­tion act requests of the Tennessee Department of Corrections which they expect to be answered by December. 

Crump Demands Authorities to Release the Public's Surveillance Video of the Delta State Hanging Incident to Trey Reed's Family

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From [HERE] Attorney Ben Crump is demanding that all video footage pertaining to the Delta State incident be shown to family.

On Monday, the body of Demartravion “Trey” Reed, 21, a Black student at Delta State, was found hanging from a tree on the university’s campus.

At a Wednesday press conference, authorities said there is footage of the incident.

“There are videos,” said Pike Peeler, Delta State’s Director of Public Safety, at a press conference on Wednesday. “They are in the hands of the investigative team.”

In a press release, Ben Crump, who has been retained by Reed’s family, said that all video footage in the investigation of Reed’s death should be shown to his family.

In an official statement from the Bolivar County Coroner’s Office, which was released late Monday evening, Coroner Randolph Seals said that based on their preliminary examination, Reed was not suffering from any lacerations, contusions, compound fractures, broken bones, or injuries consistent with assault.

Seals also stated that, at this time, there is no evidence to suggest Reed had been physically attacked before his death.

However, Crump says that Reed’s family has raised concerns after receiving what he says are conflicting accounts and incomplete information about the circumstances of his death.

Crump says he, the family, and their civil rights partners will also commission a separate, independent autopsy. This, he says, “to verify the findings of the state medical examiner and ensure no question goes unanswered.”

Preliminary results of Reed’s autopsy should be available within the next 24 hours, Director Peeler said during the Wednesday press conference at Delta State.

NAACP alleges state withheld millions that could have helped Jackson’s water system

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The NAACP sued Mississippi last week, alleging that state officials withheld millions of federal dollars while knowing the City of Jackson’s water system was on the edge of failure.  

A 38-page lawsuit contends that Mississippi “knowingly and intentionally” created policies that stopped Jackson from receiving millions of dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds in May 2021.

The lawsuit, which names the State Treasurer, the head of the Department of Environmental Quality, and the Executive Director of the Department of Finance and Administration, claims state leaders denied the citizens of Jackson equal protection under the law in violation of the 14th Amendment.

With 122,000 black residents, the lawsuit claims the unequal access to funding amounted to race-based discrimination.

“With discriminatory purpose, the state of Mississippi enacted facially discriminated against the City of Jackson by requiring that funds awarded to Jackson and only Jackson were to be held by the Mississippi Treasury in a Capital City Water/ Sewer Projects Fund. S.B. 2822 provided no clear guidance as to what Jackson would have to do to receive those monies. No other municipality was singled out in this way or had its ARPA award withheld,” the lawsuit reads. [MORE]