Man convicted of 1982 murder executed in Florida
Kayle Bates was sentenced to death in 1983 for the murder of Janet Renee White, 24, who worked at an insurance company in Lynn Haven, Florida. White was attacked at her office by Bates after she returned from lunch and was stabbed to death in nearby woods.
Bates was executed at 6:17 p.m. (10:17 p.m. GMT) at the Florida State Prison, according to officials.
There have been 29 executions in the United States in 2025, the most since 2014, when a total of 35 inmates were also put to death. Twenty-four of this year's executions have been carried out by lethal injection, two by firing squad, and three by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a face mask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.
The use of nitrogen gas as a method of capital punishment has been denounced by UN experts as cruel and inhumane. Florida has carried out the most executions in 2025 with 10.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others – California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania – have moratoriums in place.
President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment, and on his first day in office called for an expansion of its use 'for the vilest crimes.'
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Arab News
an hour ago
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Meme-lord Gavin Newsom riles Republicans with Trump-trolling posts
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Arab News
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Texas Republicans approve Trump-backed congressional map to protect party's majority
Texas legislators on Wednesday passed a new state congressional map drawn at the behest of President Donald Trump to flip five Democratic-held US House seats in next year's midterm elections, after dozens of Democratic lawmakers ended a two-week walkout that had temporarily blocked passage. Republican legislators, who have dominated Texas politics for over two decades, have undertaken a rare mid-decade redistricting to help Trump improve their party's odds of preserving its narrow US House of Representatives majority amid political headwinds. The map, which will have to be reconciled with the state Senate's version, has triggered a national redistricting war, with governors of both parties threatening to initiate similar efforts in other states. Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom is advancing an effort to redraw his state's map to flip five Republican seats. Democratic-controlled California is the nation's most populous state while Republican-led Texas is the second most populous. The Texas map would shift conservative voters into districts currently held by Democrats and combine some districts that Democrats hold. Other Republican states — including Ohio, Florida, Indiana and Missouri — are moving forward with or considering their own redistricting efforts, as are Democratic states such as Maryland and Illinois. Redistricting typically occurs every 10 years after the US Census to account for population changes, and mid-decade redistricting has historically been unusual. Whenever the maps are drawn, in many states, lawmakers manipulate the lines to favor their party over the opposition, a practice known as gerrymandering. Texas Democrats on Wednesday raised multiple objections to and questions about the measure. Representative John Bucy, a Democrat, said from the House floor before passage of the bill that the new maps were clearly intended to dilute the voting power of Black, Latino and Asian voters, and that his Republican colleagues bending to the will of Trump was deeply worrying. 'This is not democracy, this is authoritarianism in real time,' Bucy said. 'This is Donald Trump's map. It clearly and deliberately manufactures five more Republican seats in Congress because Trump himself knows the voters are rejecting his agenda.' Republicans argued the map was created to improve political performance and would increase majority Hispanic districts. Bucy was among the Democrats who fled the state earlier this month to deny the Texas House a quorum. In response, Republicans undertook extraordinary measures to try to force the Democrats home, including filing lawsuits to remove them from office and issuing arrest warrants. The walkout ended when Democrats voluntarily returned on Monday, saying they had accomplished their goals of blocking a vote during a first special legislative session and persuading Democrats in other states to take retaliatory steps. Republican House leadership assigned state law enforcement officers to monitor Democrats to ensure they would not leave the state again. One Democratic representative, Nicole Collier, slept in the Capitol building on Monday night rather than accept a police escort. Republicans, including Trump, have openly acknowledged that the new map is aimed at increasing their political power. The party currently controls 25 of the state's 38 districts under a Republican-drawn map that was passed four years ago. Democrats and civil rights groups have said the new map dilutes the voting power of racial minorities in violation of federal law and have vowed to sue. Nationally, Republicans captured the 435-seat US House in 2024 by only three seats. The party of the president historically loses House seats in the first midterm election, and Trump's approval ratings have sagged since he took office in January.
