By Brian Lyman | Editor
Alabama carried out an execution last night; new charges have been filed against SPLC and there’s an update on the state’s intervention in three school districts.
Jeremy Williams, 41, was executed by the state of Alabama Thursday after being convicted of the assault and murder of a five-year-old child in Russell County in 2021. (Alabama Department of Corrections)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
By Ralph Chapoco
The state of Alabama executed Jeremy Williams, 41, on Thursday night in the first execution of 2026. Williams was convicted of the rape and murder of a five-year-old in Russell County in 2021. He waived his appeals and asked for his execution to be expedited. Alabama has executed 13 people since 2023.
The headquarters of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama on February 8, 2023. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
By Ralph Chapoco
The U.S. Department of Justice Tuesday added new charges to its prosecution of the Southern Poverty Law Center and charged Heidi Beirich, who managed an informant program the SPLC once ran, in the case. DOJ alleges that the program, in which SPLC paid members of racist and extremist groups to disrupt their activities, amounted to support of those groups. SPLC said it would defend itself in court.
Alabama State Schools Superintendent Eric Mackey stands with students from Booker T. Washington K-8 School in Birmingham at the Alabama State Capitol after Gov. Kay Ivey's State of the State address on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (Estela Muñoz for Alabama Reflector)
By Andrea Tinker
Alabama State Superintendent Eric Mackey said Thursday that three school districts under state intervention had shown academic and financial progress over the year. The state took over Bessemer City Schools and Dallas and Sumter County Schools between 2023 and 2025, mostly over financial issues caused in part by population declines, particularly in Sumter. Mackey did not say when intervention in the schools might end.
ICYMI
More GOP party platforms include anti-IVF language. Is surrogacy next? | Kelcie Moseley-Morris, Stateline
Democrats push nearly 250 state bills opposing federal immigration efforts | Kevin Hardy, Stateline
DOJ targets three more states in effort to axe in-state tuition for immigrants | Shauneen Miranda, DC Bureau
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