George Hale
@georgehale
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Covering the federal death penalty for Indiana Public Media; @IndianaProSPJ board
Joined April 2008
In letter to @GovHolcomb, Indiana media groups condemn plans to exclude journalists from first state execution in 15 years
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Georgia Bagley just told us that the apologies Christopher Vialva and Brandon Bernard made in their final moments before being executed "helped very much to heal my heart," and that she forgives them.
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Standoff between Palestine solidarity protesters and state police on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington
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Spent some time reviewing my notes and @NPR coverage from the five most recent federal executions in Terre Haute, Indiana. The execution of Alfred Bourgeois last Friday stands apart from the others in several important ways. It didn't go well.
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That Alfred Bourgeois spent his final moments alive trying to convince me of his innocence is not something I'll soon forget. I don't know what it means, and I don't know what answer might make any single part of this any less disturbing. But I'll leave it there.
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The execution hasn't happened. They brought us back after security screening and returned our phones. It's not clear what happens next.
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The bill from @RepPressley and @SenatorDurbin would prohibit the imposition of the death penalty for any violation of federal law and require resentencing for those already on U.S. death row in Indiana.
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But I can't say what's happening. The media witnesses aren't doctors. And that's by design. The government could allow independent medical experts to observe each execution and report their observations afterwards. Instead, you're stuck with us.
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Protesters in Bloomington are forming a barrier to protect their Gaza solidarity encampment after Indiana University police started gathering across the street moments ago. A helicopter just showed up above us, too
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@DaliaHatuqa Once I received a package (months late, of course) with the words "for the Arabs" scrawled across the Bethlehem address in sharpie.
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One week to the day after witnessing the federal execution of Corey Johnson late on Jan. 14, I received a notification that I tested positive for COVID-19. (The test was two days earlier, on Jan. 19.)
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It took forever, for one thing: about 28 minutes. That's almost twice as long as it took to kill Brandon Bernard one day earlier using the same method, an overdose of pentobarbital. If Alfred Bourgeois was suffering that night, he suffered for a long time.
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"Brandon’s execution is a stain on America’s criminal justice system. But I pray that even in his death, Brandon will advance his commitment to helping others by moving us closer to a time when this country does not pointlessly and maliciously kill young Black men who pose no . .
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At 7:56 p.m., for example, I wrote, "NOT NATURAL MOVEMENT," referring to the way Alfred Bourgeois's torso appeared to be contracting uncontrollably not too long after the drugs began flowing. This went on for several minutes.
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Any struggle to breathe might in itself suggest Bourgeois was consciously experiencing flash pulmonary edema, an excruciating condition caused by fluid pouring into the lungs. It's a sensation akin to drowning, if you're conscious and feeling it.
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Breaking - Palestine solidarity protesters have established an encampment on campus at Indiana University in Bloomington to demand IU divest from Israeli apartheid
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No execution goes well from an inmate's perspective, obviously. But as in all deaths, natural or otherwise, some are objectively better than others. And Bourgeois' death was objectively worse than the others I've seen.
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All that's troubling enough. But one other event sort of took it to the next level, at least for me. Before the lethal injection drugs began flowing into his veins, Bourgeois forcefully denied each of the charges that ultimately brought us all together that night.
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According to this person granted anonymity for unclear reasons, the Biden administration is secretly pressuring Israel to restrain itself in Gaza. Its public statements, arms approvals and UN moves are all part of the ruse, I guess.
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Does this matter? It depends. Defense attorneys in September cited media witness descriptions of a similar (less severe, in my view now) reaction during the execution of William LeCroy. They argued it was evidence that LeCroy was consciously attempting to breathe.
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A rally for Rodney Reed today in Bastrop, TX. Sister @HelenPrejean just addressed the crowd by phone. Now hearing from Rodney himself.
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I made related notes each minute starting at 7:55 p.m. ("stomach rising," "stomach heaving"), at 7:56 p.m. ("stomach popping up," "heaving inside"), at 7:57 p.m. ("sucking inside middle," "still heaving") and ending at 7:58 p.m. All times are eastern U.S.
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I spoke to one of Bourgeois's attorneys earlier in the week. Victor Abreu didn't claim his client was innocent of abusing and murdering his young daughter. But he insisted Bourgeois was intellectually disabled. He said Bourgeois deserved a fair evaluation, at least.
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When the government deliberately takes the life of one of its own citizens, the absolute least the public should expect is to know how it's done. The @TDCJ denied every Texan that right tonight. They should be outraged that something like this is even possible.
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I'm a radio reporter and prefer to record. But the prison bureau doesn't allow microphones. They provide a pen and notepad. My handwriting isn't great, and it gets worse when I'm rushing. I usually capitalize important parts to avoid overlooking them later.
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India, now the global epicenter of the pandemic, is among dozens of nations backing a proposal to temporarily waive IP rights of major pharmaceutical companies so developing countries can produce a vaccine.
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. Edwards and her husband said they have lost their home, car, and health insurance. “The impact from a financial standpoint has been devastating,” Dave Edwards said. “It has drained her accounts, her savings — everything.”
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At last night's execution one of the two U.S. officials standing on either side of Corey Johnson didn't put on a mask the entire time. There wasn't even one on his body as far as I could tell. The one to the left briefly removed his to make a call but put it on afterwards.
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Not sure what I expected to feel leaving Terre Haute, Indiana, with no plans to return for the first time since summer. It's a bright winter day, creating this gorgeous drive home after last night's snow. And yet the world seems like such a darker, emptier place.
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" . threat to anyone, when we hold prosecutors to the highest standards of integrity in every case, and when our leaders exercise their moral authority where it is needed. -Robert C. Owen, attorney for Brandon Bernard.
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If you're going to read one thing about today's planned execution, I strongly suggest this painstaking investigation disguised as an op-ed by @ebruenig. She makes a compelling case that Corey Johnson is intellectually disabled. I'm one of five witnesses.
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It's sort of surreal to watch these U.S. officials openly defying safety protocols that the prison bureau insists it is following and enforcing for everyone involved in the executions. The facility has had some of the worst COVID outbreaks in the federal system.
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I'm proud to be one of the plaintiffs challenging a coercive Texas state law that requires government contractors to certify that they are not engaged in boycotts of Israel or territories controlled by Israel. #RightToBoycott
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Statement from Lisa Montgomery's attorney, as the execution now appears to be unstoppable: . "The craven bloodlust of a failed administration was on full display tonight. Everyone who participated in the execution of Lisa Montgomery should feel shame.".
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Risking arrest after yesterday's crackdown on a Gaza solidarity encampment, protesters are returning to Indiana University to demand divestment from Israeli apartheid. They're joined by an even larger faculty group denouncing IU's treatment of their students and colleagues
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Not surprised that the Fox News writeup of our mini-doc downplays its obvious conclusions: that federal death row inmate #LisaMontgomery suffers from profound mental illness after a lifetime of sexual abuse beginning in childhood. That is the story.
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They're taking our phones back. I think we're going to leave soon.
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He jumped out of a Terre Haute trash can and into our hearts -- one year ago today.
Five. More deadly storms hit the Midwest. Had to get home today. Wind got intense as I loaded up, and this guy ran over yelling to let him in the jeep. Couldn't refuse--I was scared, too. Recognize him? No collar or chip. Vet thinks he's 1. Hope to return to family if he has one.
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And it's not like these are people operating on the periphery. They're standing in front of a room packed with journalists, and they don't even pretend. I have seen this happen over and over - in September, in December and yet again last night.
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I'm outside at the protest site. @AdamPinsker is our media witness. The media vans usually pass by here before security screening. I was grateful last night to see a small crowd just off the road as we turned. They're the last people we see who aren't assisting in the execution.
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I've spent most of my adult life in the Middle East, and it's crazy-making to witness U.S. colleagues (rightly) sympathizing with innocents in Europe when so many of them have nothing but scorn for Arab and Muslim victims every damn time this happens to them, which is often.
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". a fair capital sentence is virtually impossible. Ultimately the fight should be waged not against particular injustices, but against the unjust system itself." Brilliant debut by @ebruenig for The Atlantic.
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Soon to federal death row, too.
I’m hearing that all or almost all the men on death row in Texas were recently issued tablets for emailing with family and friends. This is huge! Texas death row is frequently on lockdown solitary confinement with only rare access to the phone. These tablets will be a lifeline.
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The day I got my result, Jan. 21, I contacted the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. I suggested their staff get tested and to share my result with anyone I encountered. It seemed like the fastest way to notify their staff as well as the many journalists covering three executions that week.
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So, I expected the bureau to email a quick note to its list of media credentialed for the three executions scheduled Jan. 12-15. They didn't. Instead, I soon received a response explaining that they only contact trace if the person shows symptoms within two days of any encounter.
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My colleague @AdamPinsker watched the U.S. government execute Dustin Higgs early Saturday, Jan. 16. A week later, Adam took a coronavirus test that came back positive. (He also took a rapid test 12 hours after Higgs' execution; it was negative.).
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A prison official just told us to be ready to leave at a moment's notice.
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I've witnessed four of the five most recent federal executions, which are all carried out in Terre Haute. My colleague @AdamPinsker has endured six. We both believe it's necessary to see exactly what happens when the government decides to take the life of one of its own citizens.
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That's the short-ish version of what happened, and didn't, when @AdamPinsker and I tested positive for COVID-19 after the Trump admin.'s last three executions. Luckily we both seem to have relatively minor cases and are back at work (from home). More here:
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Funny what happens when you force sick journalists to do your contact tracing. They end up telling all the media they know, as that's who they exposed. Only a matter of time until one decides to write about it. Could have been an email. Now it's a scandal.
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We won! #BDS #RightToBoycott.
#BREAKING: A federal court ruled that a 2017 Texas law blocking state contractors’ First Amendment right to boycott Israel is unconstitutional. The decision is a victory for the #FreeSpeech rights of all Texans.
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Despite receiving notice that a person with a confirmed positive COVID-19 case, just hours from becoming symptomatic, was inside the prison media center during an execution, the bureau told no one. At least none of the exposed media. They made that my job, even though I was sick.
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Given that the ones to contact were journalists covering executions, it was only a matter of time until someone reported it. The AP broke the story and kindly left our names out. But everyone there knows it's us. We did the notifying; the prison bureau kept the media in the dark.
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@DaliaHatuqa Oh, same here. I've got a photo somewhere. It was express mail, too. Made me imagine there's just some crate in TA where they toss the "Arab" mail until it fills up.
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The U.K. judge in the #AssangeCase cited conditions at the Terre Haute, Indiana penitentiary in her ruling against a U.S. request to extradite #Assange to the United States. Also Carswell in Texas, where Lisa Montgomery is being held.
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The prison bureau communicates almost exclusively via email. It selects, registers and background checks reporters electronically. Parking is set up weeks in advance. Guards check credentials, spokespeople hold printed lists of approved people. The bureau keeps track of everyone.
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I followed up and explained that while the result came on Jan. 21, minor symptoms appeared sooner -- within hours of Johnson's execution, which was after midnight on Jan. 16. They started 18 hours later. It wasn't more than two days since being at the prison. It was the same day.
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What he said. They moved all our bags and equipment across the room while we were going through security screening. The only posession we're allowed to retrieve right now is our phones. They gave us water, too.
This has happened a few times before with other executions this year. Basically the BOP puts media witnesses through security screening and if there is still a delay they bring them back to the media center so they can move quickly if the court allows the execution to proceed.
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Prison bureau people just emerged and said we could safely leave for 45 minutes if we wanted. They expect no updates for at least that long.
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A year ago tonight - the worst thing I've ever seen in my life.
At 7:56 p.m., for example, I wrote, "NOT NATURAL MOVEMENT," referring to the way Alfred Bourgeois's torso appeared to be contracting uncontrollably not too long after the drugs began flowing. This went on for several minutes.
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Help me decide. Do I . 1) Love and cherish and squeeze him forever and ever, or.2) Back to the pound
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There's compelling evidence that Corey Johnson's already low I.Q. is actually inflated, and it could mean the difference between life and death. @ebruenig sorts through the evidence in her latest column.
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Lawsuit filed by @AbolitionAshley today claims a high-ranking federal prison official has been reassigned after laughing and cheering on the executions of the death row inmates it was his job to help. @VicRyc.
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First sunrise over Bloomington's (rebuilt) Gaza solidarity encampment. Many more tents went up overnight. Indiana University police surrounded the camp early this morning but didn't otherwise interfere. Protesters say they'll remain on campus until IU divests from Israel.
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They're calling the media witnesses. No communication until we're back.
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By withholding press credentials, the prison bureau is effectively taking away the ability of untold numbers of listeners to hear directly from journalists they trust about consequential events happening in their backyards, and in their names.
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State police are back in Bloomington helping Indiana University officials demolish a Gaza protest camp for the second time in three days. IU police say 23 people are now in custody. The encampment is gone but organizers say they'll rebuild
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According to bureau policy, 10 spots are reserved for media. But tonight, they decided to fill only half of them despite high demand. They also kept reporters who cover executions full time, and know what they're looking for (see above), out of the room. Why?.
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Their names are Terre and Haute.
OMG - Hoosier turkeys! . And I’m the @npr reporter slated to be at the White House Friday. ‼️🎉 🦃.
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Hot takes about the supreme court's integrity being at risk all the sudden hit a bit different if you spent last year in Terre Haute, Indiana.
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Lots of improvisation in snowy Terre Haute pushing info. to Indiana @NPR stations. @AdamPinsker and I just recorded a devastating interview with Dustin Higgs' sister Alexa. She's been in weekly contact with her brother for the past 20+ years. Tonight she expects to watch him die.
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Three people I haven't been able to reach are (I believe) staff members of the "execution team." They were exposed for long periods the night of Corey Johnson's execution. They include the driver of one of the media vans and (I believe) a guard in the execution chamber. No names.
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"If there is any silver lining to Trump’s execution spree, it is that it has reinvigorated momentum against the death penalty." -@LilianaSegura.
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Just watched @AnnCoulter storm off stage at Indiana University while being booed for interrupting a student trying to ask her a question.
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A group of demonstrators just crossed the road in front of the prison entrance. They're singing and reading the names of people recently executed.
I'm outside at the protest site. @AdamPinsker is our media witness. The media vans usually pass by here before security screening. I was grateful last night to see a small crowd just off the road as we turned. They're the last people we see who aren't assisting in the execution.
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A year ago tonight, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated an injunction blocking the first federal execution in two decades. U.S. agents then put to death three men in a single week, equal to the number executed in all the years between 1963 and 2020. And they were just getting started.
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The U.S. Dept. of Justice still has every intention of killing Lisa Montgomery today at a federal facility in Indiana. There's a stay of execution in place but prison bureau officials view last-minute litigation as a formality. Business as usual here in Terre Haute.
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Just in - U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana issues a preliminary injunction prohibiting the U.S. from killing Corey Johnson and Dustin Higgs unless and until it implements several measures to prevent spreading COVID-19.
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As suspected, CT lab equip testing company Absolute Standards, Inc. provided #pentobarbital for 2020-21 Trump admin federal execution spree in Terre Haute, says @iamjohnoliver citing source to @csmcdaniel and govt records on Last Week Tonight
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@yashar Going to be later than 6 p.m., if it happens. They haven't started screening media witnesses. That usually begins an hour or so beforehand. We're just sitting here.
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The vans carrying media witnesses drove by a small crowd of demonstrators moments ago. Unless there's some new obstacle or delay, the next stop is likely the federal execution chamber. If so, U.S. agents will soon move to kill Montgomery with an overdose of pentobarbital.
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Haven't heard anything more from prison officials re: Brandon Bernard's execution, which was scheduled to begin half an hour ago. Delays aren't unusual, although others have taken place on time since the 2020 execution spree began. Hard to attach much meaning either way.
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"A pastor praying aloud, holding a dying man’s hand, would bring too much flesh, too much humanity, into the thing. Execution theater is all about maintaining the illusion of mechanism." @ebruenig on why our home state won't accommodate spiritual advisors:.
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Still verified by @NPRmageddon.
George Hale. Reporter for WFIU News and host of the Buried podcast. @georgehale @WFIUnews @BuriedRadio @KETRradio #NPRmageddon
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(I removed the name of a media specialist from the above email. I don't believe they had anything to do with these decisions. We've had major differences about other issues over the past six months. But I really think they tried to keep us safe. They always wore masks, at least.).
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Here's the full memo from Attorney General Merrick Garland imposing a moratorium on federal executions - all of which are carried out in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Imposes a Moratorium on Federal Executions; Orders Review of Policies and Procedures.
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A few details. A BOP ststement says Montgomery was pronounced dead at 1:31 a.m. A witness says the execution began about 1:18 a.m. Two witnesses say she mumbled "no" (they think) when asked if she had last words. Both say her response was unclear. One says she appeared confused.
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Off to the #SXSW premiere of @JuliaBacha's powerful documentary about our legal battle to protect the free speech rights of all Americans. Check out one of the screenings if you're here. (And say hey!).#RightToBoycott #BDS
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