Autopsy Shows Man Killed by National Guard in Memphis Was Shot in Back

© George Walker Iv/Associated Press

© George Walker Iv/Associated Press
Officials said Tyrin Johnson turned toward guard members with gun while running as report shows he was shot in back
Tennessee national guard members assigned to a federal anti-crime taskforce in Memphis fatally shot an armed 20-year-old man in the back, according to an autopsy report obtained by the Associated Press, contradicting police accounts that said the man was facing the troops when they fired.
Authorities have said that Tyrin Johnson turned toward guard members with a gun while running from them in the early morning hours after the Fourth of July holiday in Memphis when he was fatally shot in the chest.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Evaniel Johnson via AP

© Photograph: Evaniel Johnson via AP

© Photograph: Evaniel Johnson via AP

© Will Crooks for The New York Times
Dolly Parton was one of the greatest singer-songwriters in country music and a pioneer for women throughout her career. The Guardian US's deputy arts editor Owen Myers reflects on a career and legacy whose impact transcends generations
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Getty Images

© Photograph: Getty Images

© Photograph: Getty Images

© JHVEPhoto/Getty Images

© Landon Edwards for The New York Times

© Wade Payne/Associated Press
Authorities say man, 50, shot wife in Louisiana and put her body in car before driving and being stopped in Tennessee
A man in Louisiana killed his wife and then took her body on a driving tour through several states before he was arrested in Tennessee, authorities allege.
The suspect’s macabre purported odyssey began in Baton Rouge when, according to Louisiana investigators, Tyronne Brazille, 50, shot dead his wife, Lanessa Bradford, also 50, during an argument at the city’s Independence Community Park.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Shelicka Decker via Instagram

© Photograph: Shelicka Decker via Instagram

© Photograph: Shelicka Decker via Instagram
The progressive candidate won a Democratic congressional primary after boldly staking positions on voting rights, datacenters and the US war machine
Justin Pearson made national headlines as one of the “Tennessee Three” – the state lawmakers expelled from the capitol protesting for gun control after a deadly school shooting. Three years later, the state representative won a Democratic congressional primary after boldly staking positions on some of America’s most contentious fault lines: voting rights, datacenters and the American war machine.
“Republicans are responding to elected officials who stand up to billion-dollar datacenters, and the billionaires who own them. Democrats are responding to a vision of Medicare for All, ending genocide,” said Pearson. “The confluence that is happening between those issues, is [that] who profits off of war are the same people who are profiting off of polluting our communities and stealing our drinking water for their datacenters that replace our jobs.”
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Katina Zentz/San Antonio Express-News via Getty Images

© Photograph: Katina Zentz/San Antonio Express-News via Getty Images

© Photograph: Katina Zentz/San Antonio Express-News via Getty Images
Rare scheduling in Oklahoma, Tennessee and Alabama underlines the renewed appetite in US for state killings
Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez was put to death by the state of Oklahoma, in the first of three executions scheduled for Thursday in a rare triple procedure that underlines the renewed appetite in the US for state killings.
Just one hour later, Darrell Hines was put to death by the state of Tennessee, and at 6pm local time in Alabama, that state executed Jeremy Williams.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Sue Ogrocki/AP

© Photograph: Sue Ogrocki/AP

© Photograph: Sue Ogrocki/AP

© Dave Martin/Associated Press
On 13 August, three states are set to carry out executions by lethal injection. It’s the first time since 2010 that three people will be put to death on the same day in the US. In Tennessee, the execution of Darrell Hines is in the spotlight, because the last lethal injection in the state was botched. Ed Pilkington speaks to Kai Wright about the doctor at the center of that botched execution, whose identity was revealed inadvertently last year. Ed explains how his reporting has lifted the lid on a role that is usually hidden away from public view, and what it tells us about the American death penalty today
Unmasked: the doctor who helps put prisoners to death
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Grid

© Photograph: Grid

© Photograph: Grid