Local
Georgia goes through with death penalty for convicted murderer
Kenneth Fults was executed via lethal injection on April 12, nearly 20 years after killing his 19-year-old neighbor. In 1996, Fults allegedly broke into his Cathy Bounds’ trailer, taped her eyes shut, placed a pillow over her head, and shot Bounds five times in the back of her head. According to the AJC, the execution comes after the State Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected Fults’ appeal to the Supreme Court. Kenneth Fults is the fourth man to be executed in Georgia this year.
National
Woman is facing charges after live-streaming rape
An 18-year-old girl and a 29-year-old man were charged Wednesday with “kidnapping, rape, sexual battery and pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor” following a rape that was live-streamed using the app Periscope, CNN reported. Marina Alexeevna was at a house party in Columbus, Ohio in late February, when Raymond Boyd Gates began to sexually assault the 17-year-old girl. Alexeevna, instead of intervening to help the girl, began “Periscoping” the assault. “If convicted, Lonina and Gates could each face sentences of more than 40 years,” the prosecutor, Ron O’Brien, said in a statement.
International
Series of Japanese earthquakes leaves several dead
A 7.0 magnitude earthquake shook Kumamoto, Japan on April 15, one day after a 6.2 magnitude earthquake ratted the same location, The Weather Channel reported. Approximately 25 people have died and hundreds more are injured. Fires sparked up throughout the southern region, and multiple buildings collapsed as aftershocks continued to shake the southern Japanese island of Kyushu. Officials for Japan’s Meteorological Agency did not implement a tsunami warning, as no imminent threat of a tsunami was possible.
