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1Judge lifts stay of execution for serial killer
Joseph Paul Franklin
2A federal appeals court lifted the stay of
execution (a delay in carrying out a court order)
for white supremacist serial killer Joseph Paul
Franklin early Wednesday morning -- moving the
man blamed for 22 killings closer to death. The
next step for Franklin's attorneys would be to
appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. He is
challenging Missouri's decision to use the drug
pentobarbital in its lethal injection protocol,
arguing it would violate the Constitution's ban
on cruel and unusual punishment. There is "a
high risk of contamination and prolonged,
unnecessary pain beyond that which is required to
achieve death. Franklin is on death row for the
1977 murder of Gerald Gordon outside a synagogue
in St. Louis. He's been blamed for a total of 22
killings between 1977 and 1980 in a bid to start
a race war.
3In Other News
- A male student at Virginia's Liberty University
was shot and killed early Tuesday by an emergency
services officer after an altercation at a
women's dorm, Lynchburg police said. Police and
paramedics responded to the residence hall near
the main campus at 407 a.m. The victim, who has
not been identified pending notification of his
family, was shot during a fight with the
university officer, police said. It was unclear
if the student was armed. Police said that the
shooting was an isolated incident and that the
campus was open. - Look to the heavens along the East Coast on
Tuesday night, and you might be able to see the
Air Force blast 29 satellites into orbit at once.
The 29 satellites, the most ever launched at one
time, will be aboard a single Minotaur I rocket
scheduled to lift off from NASA's Wallops Flight
Facility in Virginia at 730 p.m. They include
the main payload, the Air Force's Space Test
Program Satellite-3, and 28 tiny satellites
called CubeSats.