Oct 18, 2024

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The state of Alabama put to death a convicted murderer Thursday evening by lethal injection, reports AL.com's Ivana Hrynkiw.

In 2016, Derrick Dearman used an axe and two guns to kill five members of a family, one who was pregnant. They were all family members of his girlfriend at the time.

His legal representation from the Equal Justice Initiative had raised concerns about Dearman's mental state and questioned the validity of his confession and the appropriateness of the death penalty.

Earlier this year, he fired his lawyers, ended his appeals and even sent a frustrated letter to the Alabama Attorney General’s Office asking why his execution was taking so long.

He said in a phone interview: “I am guilty, plain and simple. Everybody’s trying to talk me out of it. But I feel in my heart this is the right thing to do.”

Dearman is the fifth person to be executed in Alabama this year.

A 25-year-old man was arrested in Athens and is accused of fraudulently running up the price of bitcoin, reports AL.com's William Thornton.

Eric Council Jr. allegedly did this by hacking into the Securities and Exchange Commission's X account.

(Or, if you prefer, hacking into the other SEC's account on the social-media platform formerly known as Twitter.)

The indictment claims he conspired with others to take over the X account and post the message: “Today the SEC grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs for listing on all registered national securities exchanges.”

That may or may not mean anything to you, but it means a lot to bitcoin investors because the price immediately spiked more than $1,000 per bitcoin.

Authorities say Council used the identity of someone with access to the SEC's X account to take over that person's cellphone number. He's charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud.

A dry late summer is turning into a dry fall in Alabama.

AL.com's Leigh Morgan reports that nearly 90% of the state is seeing drought or at least abnormally dry conditions, according to U.S. Drought Monitor data.

The southern half of Baldwin County and a strip of the state bordering Georgia in the southern half of the state are the largest swaths of the state not under any drought condition.

But it's going to get drier before it gets better: No rain is expected to land anywhere on Alabama soil over the next week. And the Climate Prediction Center expects below-average precipitation into November.

Morgan Wallen is taking over next summer's Hangout Music Festival.

I don't mean in the metaphorical way that an overpowering music act might be a bigger deal than the festival itself. I'm being more literal than that.

AL.com's Lawrence Specker reports that next May 16-18, Hangout Fest will become "Sand in My Boots." That's a music festival named after Wallen's 2021 country hit. It'll be held on the Hangout Fest grounds in Gulf Shores. It's billed as an event that Wallen has a major hand in planning. The marketing language does use the term "multi-genre" to describe the artist lineup.

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