Oregon: Teen saves baby after 3 people electrocuted in front of her home – National & International News – FRI 19Jan2024

Oregon: Teen saves baby after 3 people electrocuted in front of her home. 

Alabama inmate asks appeals court to halt gas execution next week. 

Israel: Minister speaks out after reports Netanyahu nixed hostage deal. 

NATIONAL NEWS

Oregon: Heroic teen saves baby after 3 people electrocuted in front of her home

On Wednesday, Majiah Washington, 18, of Portland, OR, witnessed a horrifying scene outside her home. A young couple was struggling to rescue their 9-month-old baby after a powerline fell on top of their car following an ice storm. The baby’s father succeeded in getting the baby out when he slipped and fell. His foot touched the powerline and he died instantly. Then the baby’s mother, who was 6-months pregnant, came to help, and met a similar fate, as did the mother’s 15-year-old brother. 

Washington had called 911 after the father fell dead. She then witnessed the mother and her brother try and fail to rescue the baby. “I didn’t know what to think. It just all happened so fast,” Washington said, “I was concerned about the baby. No one was moving”. Then she saw the baby move its head. “The only thing I could think about was that he was still here. He had moved his head and I didn’t want him to possibly fall somehow … and touch the wire,” Washington said.

Washington said “I slid down there, kind of crouched,” towards the lifeless body of the the father, still clutching his baby. “I kind of touched him with my hands and then I just kind of grabbed the baby out of his hands and made my way back up the hill”.

Don’t be a hero

While Washington’s actions were heroic and selfless, none of this is recommended. Others in this story paid the ultimate price for their heroism. Washington said that 911 operators warned her of the danger, but she decided to act anyway. While Rick Graves of Portland Fire and Rescue praised Washington’s heroism, he said he couldn’t explain how Washington, who briefly made contact with the father’s body, and the baby weren’t also electrocuted. 

The baby’s mother Tajaliayh Briggs, 21, her brother Ta’Ron Briggs, 15, and the baby’s father, who has not been named, are three of at least 50 people who have died as a result of the severe weather across the US this week. Over 66 million people in the US are still under winter weather alerts. Parts of the South, including Mississippi and Alabama, are expected to experience below-freezing temperatures tonight and over the weekend. Pay attention to local conditions and stay safe. 

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Alabama inmate asks appeals court to halt gas execution next week

Attorneys for convicted contract killer Kenneth Smith are asking the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to halt Smith’s execution with nitrogen gas, set to take place next Thursday, Jan. 25. The last-minute appeal comes after a recent lower court ruling allowing the execution to go ahead despite concerns over the efficacy, effects and safety of the previously untried method.

Previously, Smith’s spiritual advisor, Dr. Jeff Hood, shared his concerns about his own safety while ministering to Smith during the execution. Hood said he was asked to sign a release and that prison officials told him he would have to stand at least three feet away from Smith during the execution. This was because the state couldn’t be sure that Smith’s mask wouldn’t leak and endanger Hood. There are also questions as to whether other witnesses to Smith’s execution will be safe.

Earlier this week, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement saying that Smith’s execution would “amount to torture”.  The statement said that despite assertions from the Alabama Department of Corrections, there was “no scientific evidence to prove” that execution by nitrogen hypoxia would not cause “grave suffering”. In fact, the UNHCHR said they were concerned that the method “would result in a painful and humiliating death” for Smith. 

This will be the second time that the State of Alabama has attempted to execute Smith. In November 2022, the state had Smith strapped to a gurney for four hours while they tried and failed to put him to death using lethal injection.

Smith interviewed on NPR

Last month, Smith called in for an interview with NPR’s Chiara Eisner. Eisner asked Smith how his experience anticipating next week’s execution compared to his experience last time. Smith stated he was still suffering PTSD due to his previous experience:

I was strapped down, couldn’t catch my breath. I was shaking like a leaf. I was absolutely alone in a room full of people, and not one of them tried to help me at all, and I was crying out for help. It was a month or so before I really started to come back to myself.

Smith said that his anxiety this time around is even greater:

Everybody is telling me I’m going to suffer, so I’m absolutely terrified

The Alabama Department of Corrections came in for some scrutiny after having botched both Smith’s execution and another inmate’s, Jimmy Barber. Barber was successfully put to death July 27, 2023 after the Supreme Court vacated a stay on his execution imposed by the 11th Circuit. ADOC conducted an internal review of its execution practices after the two botched executions. Smith also shared that this review gave him no confidence that this execution would go any more smoothly than his last. 

Dudes put out, what was it, a one-page statement about my review? Who reviewed it? Did they review their damn selves? That’s the fox guarding the hen house.

Eisner asked Smith if there was anything he wanted people to know from his unique perspective as a person who has survived execution and is now facing it again:

Yes, ma’am. It’s the mental trauma side of all of this. I’ve been doing time for 35 years now, and I’ve tried to place myself in my brothers’ shoes when they’re around the corner and going through this. But nothing prepares you for it. The anxiety and stuff starts building up before you ever get your date. And now that you’re approaching that time, the anxiety starts to build. And, yeah, there is a mental trauma there that I never realized until I went through that.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Israel: Minister speaks out after reports Netanyahu nixed hostage deal 

Gadi Eisenkot, former chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces and current member of Israel’s unity War Cabinet, has publicly broken ranks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his prosecution of the military campaign in Gaza. There have been reports of bickering within the War Cabinet for weeks, but Eisenkot’s public statements are significant because he is a respected voice in Israel. Meanwhile, even the most generous recent polls show Netanyahu’s support in Israel as being under a third, while others have it in single digits.

In a televised interview yesterday, Eisenkot, who lost a son and a nephew in the fighting in Gaza last month, told the Israeli public:

“Whoever speaks of absolute defeat [of Hamas] is not speaking the truth. That is why we should not tell stories… Today, the situation already in the Gaza Strip is such that the goals of the war have not yet been achieved.”

This was a thinly-veiled jab at Netanyahu who only hours before had given an address in which he rejected a 2-state solution for Palestine, and also vowed to continue the war in Gaza until “complete victory” over Hamas was achieved.

In that same address, Netanyahu outright rejected any possibility of holding elections during the war, which he has vowed to continue for months. Eisenkot directly rejected this, saying that Israel should hold elections “in the coming” months to restore faith in its government. 

Anger over Netanyahu thwarting hostage-for-ceasefire deal

Eisenkot also said that “the hostages will only return alive if there is a deal, linked to a significant pause in fighting”. He added that any suggestion that the hostages could be rescued through military actions rather than through a ceasefire deal with Hamas “is to spread illusions”.

The timing of Eisenkot’s interview is noteworthy. Earlier this week, Israeli news outlets, citing anonymous government sources, reported that members of the War Cabinet – namely Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Ministers Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot – had negotiated a deal for the release of more Hamas hostages. In exchange, Israel would agree to a prolonged ceasefire and release thousands of Palestinian prisoners (many of whom are held with no due process). According to the reports, Netanyahu unilaterally undercut the deal by hardening the terms of Israel’s bargaining position.  

Netanyahu’s obstruction of this deal, which was all but finalized, caught fellow members of the War Cabinet by surprise, some of whom confronted him angrily. 

Eisenkot’s interview did not address these reports specifically, but it’s clear from his comments that frustrations with Netanyahu are bubbling over. An unknown number of Israeli hostages, possibly more than 60, have already died in captivity. Many of them have apparently died as a direct result of IDF military actions in the Gaza Strip. The longer the war goes on, the more are likely to die. But Netanyahu sees prolonging and expanding the war as key to his political survival.