Alabama executes man in 1992 death
ATMORE, Ala. – A man convicted of the 1992 rape and beating death of a woman received a lethal injection Thursday evening in Alabama’s first execution in more than two years.
Christopher Eugene Brooks, 43, was pronounced dead at 6:38 p.m. at the Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, authorities said. The procedure began several minutes after 6 p.m., shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court had denied a last-minute defense request for a stay.
Brooks was convicted of the capital murder of 23-year-old Jo Deann Campbell, a woman authorities say he first met when they worked at a camp in upstate New York.
Prior to a three-drug combination being administered, Brooks had some final words, saying: “I hope this brings closure to everybody.”
Missing copter crews now listed as dead
HONOLULU – The Marine Corps says the 12 Marines who were in two helicopters that crashed off Hawaii are considered dead.
The status of the missing Marines changed to deceased on Wednesday, after five days of searching for them. The Marine Corps says casualty assistance officers personally notified each family of the change.
The search began late Thursday when a civilian on a beach reported seeing the aircraft flying and then a fireball.
The Marines were alerted when the CH-53E helicopters carrying six crew members each failed to return to their base at Kaneohe Bay following a nighttime training mission. Hours later, a Coast Guard helicopter and C-130 airplane spotted debris 2½ miles off of Oahu.
22.3 million digit prime number found
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Mathematicians at the University of Central Missouri have discovered a record-setting prime number that’s so large it would take about 6,000 pages of paper to print.
The 22.3 million digit discovery is the 49th known Mersenne prime number and the fourth discovered at the university. Primes are numbers such as 3, 7 and 11 that are divisible only by themselves and 1 without leaving a remainder.
The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search says the number was independently verified. The cooperative relies on underused computing power to perform the calculations needed to find and verify Mersenne primes.
Associated Press
