Salon.com > Michael Graczyk

Ex-President George H.W. Bush leaves the hospital

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 19:36:00 +0000

HOUSTON (AP) — Former President George H.W. Bush was released from a Houston hospital Monday after spending nearly two months being treated for a bronchitis-related cough and other health issues, a family spokesman said.

Bush, 88, the nation's oldest living former president, was admitted to Methodist Hospital Nov. 23 including a week in intensive care last month.

"I am deeply grateful for the wonderful doctors and nurses at Methodist who took such good care of me," Bush said in a statement released by spokesman Jim McGrath. "Let me add just how touched we were by the many get-well messages we received from our friends and fellow Americans. Your prayers and good wishes helped more than you know, and as I head home my only concern is that I will not be able to thank each of you for your kind words."

Bush already had been in the hospital about a month for treatment of the persistent cough in December when his office disclosed he was in intensive care because physicians were having difficulty controlling a fever that developed after the cough was mostly resolved.

On Dec. 29, Bush's office said the former president had improved and was transferred back to a regular hospital room. Since then, his condition has continued to improve and he has been undergoing physical therapy to rebuild his strength.

US Supreme Court refuses to block Texas execution

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 13:30:00 +0000

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas man whose lawyers said was mentally ill and incompetent for execution was headed to the death chamber Wednesday night for killing a 12-year-old girl more than a decade ago, after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an 11th-hour appeal.

Jonathan Green, 44, was sentenced to death for the abduction, rape and strangling of Christina Neal, whose body was found at his home in June 2000. Christina's family lived across a highway from Green in Dobbin, about 45 miles northwest of Houston.

It appeared the Supreme Court cleared the way for his execution earlier Wednesday when it rejected an appeal from his attorneys just as the window for the lethal injection opened at 6 p.m. However, the punishment was delayed Wednesday night by another appeal that finally was refused less than two hours before the midnight expiration of the death warrant neared.

The high court's initial one-paragraph order denying a stay of execution came after a federal appeals court, acting on an appeal from Texas state attorneys, rescinded a reprieve from a judge earlier this week.

Green's attorneys argued he was mentally incompetent for the death penalty, saying he suffered from hallucinations, leading to the reprieve from a federal district judge in Houston.

Veteran officer, gunman die in Texas shootout

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 07:45:00 +0000

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — A routine serving of an eviction notice to a man living near the Texas A&M University campus turned deadly for Brazos County Constable Brian Bachmann when the resident opened fire on him, leading to the death of the law enforcement officer and another man before the gunman was killed.

The spasm of deadly violence Monday left a neighborhood shaken, a tight-knit law enforcement community in mourning and the family of 35-year-old gunman Thomas Alton Caffall anguished and "distraught by the havoc that he has caused."

Just after noon, College Station police began fielding frantic 911 calls reporting shots being fired. Officers responding saw the 41-year-old Bachmann down on the lawn and also were taking gunfire.

For nearly 30 minutes police exchanged shots with Caffall, 35.

By then, Bachmann, a police instructor, one-time Officer of the Year and a married father of two, had been mortally wounded. So was Chris Northcliff, 43, of College Station, who was outside and apparently caught up in the gunfire.

So was Caffall.

Police wouldn't speculate on what sparked the deadly outburst, which is the latest shooting nationwide resulting in multiple deaths in recent weeks.

Texas execution halted amid Supreme Court review

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 12:14:00 +0000

A black man convicted of a double murder in Texas 16 years ago was at least temporarily spared from lethal injection when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review his lawyers' claims that race played an improper role in his sentencing.

The court on Thursday halted the execution for Duane Buck, 48, two hours into a six-hour window when he could have been taken to the death chamber. Texas officials, however, did not move forward with the punishment while legal issues were pending.

Buck was sentenced to death for the fatal shootings of his ex-girlfriend and a man in her apartment in July 1995. His attorneys had asked both the Supreme Court and Texas Gov. Rick Perry to halt the execution because of a psychologist's testimony that black people were more likely to commit violence. Buck's guilt is not being questioned, but his lawyers contend the testimony unfairly influenced the jury and Buck should receive a new sentencing hearing.

The nation's highest court, without extensive comment, said it would review an appeal related to that testimony. The decision meant Perry did not have to act on a request from Buck's lawyers that the governor use his authority to issue a one-time 30-day reprieve.

Texas executes man convicted in 1998 double murder

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 10:34:00 +0000

A man convicted of fatally shooting two people inside a Houston drug house has been executed in Texas.

The lethal injection of 32-year-old Milton Mathis was carried out Tuesday evening, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected arguments that he was mentally impaired and ineligible for execution.

Mathis was condemned for the December 1998 shooting that killed 24-year-old Travis Brown III and 31-year-old Daniel Hibbard. It also paralyzed then-15-year-old Melony Almaguer.

Almaguer and her husband witnessed Mathis' execution from behind a window at the state's death chamber in Huntsville. Mathis told Almaguer he never meant to hurt her. He also said the system failed him.

He began snoring as the drugs were administered. He was pronounced dead at 6:53 p.m.

Mathis was the sixth person executed in Texas this year.

Witness says Fort Hood gunman shot at random

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 17:15:00 +0000

A gunman appeared to be trying to hit anyone who moved -- not any specific person -- as he fired upon Army personnel and civilian workers in a deadly rampage at Fort Hood last November, a military court heard Monday.

Pvt. Justin Johnson said he was chatting with his mother on his cell phone as he waited to undergo pre-deployment medical exams when the shooting began. He threw himself down and started to crawl.

The gunman "was aiming his weapon on the ground and he started shooting, and he was hitting people that were trying to get away," Johnson told the Article 32 hearing via video link from Kandahar in Afghanistan.

"It didn't seem like he was targeting a specific person, sir. He was just shooting at anybody."

Johnson, who was shot three times in the attack and still has a bullet wedged in his lungs, could not identify the shooter.

In the first week of testimony, several witnesses said they made eye contact with Maj. Nidal Hasan, a 40-year-old American-born Muslim, and identified him as the gunman in the Nov. 5 shootings at the Texas Army post.

The hearing is to determine if Hasan will stand trial on 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder in the worst attack on an American military base.