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U.S. WATCH
PENNSYLVANIA
Idaho Killings Suspect Agrees to Extradition
Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students, agreed to be extradited from Pennsylvania to Idaho, where he faces murder charges.
He signed a waiver in a Monroe County, Pa., court on Tuesday, agreeing to the extradition, court records show.
Mr. Kohberger, 28 years old, faces four counts of first-degree murder for the November deaths of Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Ethan Chapin, 20, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Madison Mogen, 21, according to police and prosecutors.
Jason LaBar, the chief public defender in Monroe County who represented Mr. Kohberger in the extradition hearing, has said Mr. Kohberger is eager to be exonerated. The court order says Mr. Kohberger has to be extradited within 10 days.
Idaho authorities haven’t said what evidence links Mr. Kohberger to the crimes or what his motive might have been. Officials in Idaho and Pennsylvania have said details about the investigation can’t be released until the suspect is in Idaho and presented with the probable cause affidavit.
—Suryatapa Bhattacharya
MISSOURI
State Executes Transgender Inmate
Missouri carried out the first known execution of a transgender person in the U.S. after Republican Gov. Mike Parson denied Amber McLaughlin‘s clemency petition.
Ms. McLaughlin was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 6:51 p.m. on Tuesday at the Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, Mo. She was found guilty in the 2003 murder of her ex-girlfriend Beverly Guenther.
“I am sorry for what I did,” said Ms. McLaughlin in her final statement. “I am a loving & caring person.” In a statement released before the execution, Gov. Parson said Ms. McLaughlin’s conviction and sentence had been examined multiple times under Missouri law. “McLaughlin stalked, raped, and murdered Ms. Guenther. McLaughlin is a violent criminal,” Gov. Parson said.
The Death Penalty Information Center said Ms. McLaughlin was the first openly transgender person to be executed in the U.S. Ms. McLaughlin transitioned while on death row.
Her attorney, Larry Komp, petitioned Gov. Parson for clemency to consider commuting her death sentence. Ms. McLaughlin’s lawyers referenced her abusive childhood and her remorse for the murder in the petition.
—Adolfo Flores OBITUARY
Apollo 7 Astronaut Cunningham, Age 90
Walter Cunningham, the last surviving astronaut from the first successful crewed space mission in NASA’s Apollo program, died Tuesday in Houston. He was 90.
NASA confirmed Mr. Cunningham’s death. His family said through a spokesman that he died in a hospital “from complications of a fall.” Mr. Cunningham was one of three astronauts aboard the 1968 Apollo 7 mission, an 11-day spaceflight that beamed live television broadcasts as they orbited Earth, paving the way for the moon landing less than a year later. It was NASA’s first crewed space mission since the deaths of the three Apollo 1 astronauts in a launchpad fire Jan. 27, 1967.
Mr. Cunningham, then a civilian, was on his mission with Navy Capt. Walter M. Schirra and Donn F. Eisele, an Air Force major. Mr. Cunningham was the lunar module pilot. Their spacecraft performed so well that the agency sent the next crew, Apollo 8, to orbit the moon as a prelude to the Apollo 11 moon landing in July 1969.
—Associated Press NEW HAMPSHIRE
Mayors Seek More Aid for Homeless
Two years after New Hampshire’s 13 mayors sent a letter to Gov. Chris Sununu asking for help with a strategy to assist the homeless, eight wrote back Tuesday requesting that federal funds be allocated for more shelter beds and resources, with an emphasis on women and youth.
They said the state’s systems of care for people experiencing or at-risk of homelessness aren’t meeting the needs of communities. The governor’s office said in 2022 the state made several unprecedented investments in affordable and emergency housing, and shelters, and that it has provided nearly 350 additional shelter beds statewide.
—Associated Press
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