Comey indicted again, the clown show continues

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has become the second Justice Department leader in seven months to secure an indictment against former FBI Director James Comey, a longtime target of President Donald Trump’s ire. And Trump is happy with Blanche's performance in the job, according to a person familiar with the discussions, reported NBC News.

Comey appeared briefly in court Wednesday on the latest charges. This time, the indictment accuses him of making a threat against the president when he posted a photo of seashells arranged to read “8647" on Instagram in May.

Comey's Instagram post. He later took it down.@comey via Instagram

The first indictment, under former Attorney General Pam Bondi, was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia over an allegation that Comey lied to Congress five years ago during remote testimony via Zoom. A judge dismissed that case, finding that the acting U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan — a Florida insurance attorney with no prior prosecutorial experience — was unlawfully holding her position and had no authority to seek the indictment in the first place. Comey maintains his innocence in both cases.

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Mangino discusses settlement of Ursuline High School civil rights suits

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Florida and Texas carry out executions on the same day

 The 9th and 10th Executions of 2026

Florida executed James Hitchcock, 70, by lethal injection on April 30, 2026, for the 1976 rape and strangulation murder of his 13-year-old step-niece Cynthia "Cindy" Driggers. It was Florida's sixth execution of 2026, reported Florida Today.

An hour later, Texas executed James Broadnax. He received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. It was the third execution in Texas this year. Texas and Florida are responsible for nine out of the ten executions this year, reported The Associated Press.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of execution request for Hitchcock earlier in the day.

In the early morning hours of July 31, 1976, Hitchcock raped Driggers, who was just three days shy of her 14th birthday, at his brother's home in Winter Garden and strangled her to death. In a confession to police, which he later recanted, Hitchcock said he killed the teen to keep her from telling her mother what he'd done.

Hitchcock's final words were, “Just to say goodbye to Joshua my friend. Thanks for all you’ve done." the Associated Press reported.

Hitchcock's death sentence was carried out at 6 p.m. in the execution chamber at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m.

He had a last meal that included chicken, salad, ice cream, pie and soda, Florida Department of Corrections spokesman Jordan Kirkland said during an afternoon news conference.

Following the execution, Cindy Driggers' family members spoke to the media, remembering Cindy and the toll of retrials and decades of waiting for justice. Several thanked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for signing Hitchcock's death warrant and finally receiving justice after 50 long years and expressed the need for executions to be expedited.

"I grew up watching my mother and her brothers and family endure the weight of this loss," Tanya Clement said while holding up a framed photo of her aunt Cindy. "The appeals, the retrials, three additional trials. These weren't just events in a case, they were part of my childhood. I witnessed the emotional toll firsthand, even at a young age, it became a defining part of who I am."

"Our family has been through so much, but we stand here together strong, united and unwavering for my aunt Cindy," she continued. "She is often spoken about, remembered deeply and I see pieces of her in my own children."

"Her presence lives on through all of us. Today we remember her, we honor her and today we are finally witnessing justice for her life – hard-found, long-awaited and she is never forgotten."

"First I want to focus on Cindy," her younger sister Lynn Cobb. "She was a beautiful, kind and sweet sister. Most saw her as shy and timid. She was so much more than that."

"We had dreams of airline stewardesses together where we were going to travel the world and experience it all together. God blessed us with 13 short years, our lives were better for it. Cindy added life, fun and dreams."

"Thank you, Gov. DeSantis, to you and your staff, that have listened and pushed for justice to be given for Cindy," she said.

"We now close this door on this chapter of our lives."

"I can breathe today, I am loving life," Chip Meadows, Cindy's cousin, said. "Free at last, free at last, our monster is dead. Free at last."

"There's not many people who would have made it through 50 years being drug through agony, frustration, anger," Cindy's cousin Ginie Meadows said. "You just can't find the words."

"The spirit of James Ernest Hitchcock need not be looking for the kingdom of God, because the gates into heaven are narrow. He will never, ever get through them. It is my hope, in fact, that his spirit has now arrived into the bowels of hell."

She also thanked DeSantis, saying, "With your signature on his death warrant, the 50-year saga of Hitchcock has now become history."

"I am believing in you, sir, to continue to make strides in honing in on the process of cleaning out death row," she said, adding that future governors "must be willing to follow the precedents as set forth by Gov. DeSantis concerning the signing and execution of death warrants for those that have earned them. If you are on death row, you've earned it."

"For those of you that just simply do not understand why this process is justified, I am certain that you do not know the agony and emotional turmoil and torture of having someone you love brutally murdered."

In Texas, James Broadnax, who claimed he wasn’t the shooter in a fatal robbery that killed two people nearly 18 years ago and who said prosecutors misused rap lyrics he wrote to secure his death sentence was also executed on April 30, 2026.

Earlier Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request by Broadnax’s attorneys to stop his execution.

He was condemned for the 2008 shooting deaths of two men outside a suburban Dallas music studio. Prosecutors say Broadnax and his cousin, Demarius Cummings, fatally shot and robbed Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler in the parking lot of Butler’s recording studio in Garland. Cummings was sentenced to life without parole.

Broadnax was defiant in a final statement in which he also sought forgiveness from the victims’ relatives. Seven relatives, including parents of each of the victims, were present.

“I prayed to God for your forgiveness,” he said, when asked by the warden if he had a final statement. “Despite what you think about me, I hope to God that prayer was answered. But no matter what you think about me, Texas got it wrong. I’m innocent, the facts of my case should speak for itself. Period,” he said.

The execution also was punctuated by screams of “I love you” from his wife, who also was among witnesses to the punishment. She was emotional at times during the procedure, leaning up to the death chamber window with arms spread, and had to be helped out of the prison.

As the lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began, Broadnax urged his supporters to keep fighting. “Don’t give up,” he said, and was stopped in another mid-sentence by a gasp. He shook his head briefly and all movement stopped. He was pronounced dead 21 minutes later, at 6:47 p.m. CDT.

Prosecutors said Broadnax, 37, confessed to the shooting, telling reporters during jailhouse interviews that “I pulled the trigger” and that he had no remorse.

His lawyers had focused his final appeals on two issues: Cummings had recently confessed to being the shooter; and Broadnax’s constitutional rights were violated because prosecutors eliminated potential jurors during his trial on the basis of race.

“I’m really gonna tell it like it’s supposed to be told, that it was me, that I was the killer. I shot Matthew Bullard, Steve Swan,” Cummings said recently from prison in a video created as part of the efforts to stop Broadnax’s execution.

His attorneys also alleged prosecutors dismissed all seven potential Black jurors on the basis of their race, “utilizing a spreadsheet during jury selection that bolded only the names of every Black juror,” according to court documents. One Black juror was later reinstated to the jury. Broadnax was Black.

In a 1986 ruling known as Batson v. Kentucky, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that excluding jurors because of their race violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Broadnax’s attorneys had argued in an earlier appeal that prosecutors had violated his constitutional rights by using some of the rap lyrics he wrote to portray him as a violent and dangerous person in order to secure a death sentence. A number of A-list rappers, including Travis Scott,T.I. and Killer Mike, had filed briefs at the Supreme Court in support of Broadnax’s appeal.

Theresa Butler, Matthew Butler’s mother, had asked that the execution proceed.

“This so called confession from cummings is just a stall tactic by Broadnax’s desperate defense team. Its all a lie,” Butler wrote in a post on social media.

Broadnax was the third person put to death this year in Texas and the 10th in the country. Texas has historically held more executions than any other state.

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Mangino discusses Purdue Pharma settlement on WFMJ-TV21

Watch my interview with Lindsay McCoy on WFMJ-TV21 about settlement of claims against drug maker Purdue Parma.

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The new 'magic shooting' is reminiscent of the 'magic bullet'

According to Garret Graff of Doomsday Scenario, a close reading of the Justice Department’s charges  against 31-year-old Cole Allen, the alleged attempted assassin, hint that he didn’t fire any weapon at all.

Reminiscent of the “magic bullet” of 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy -- this may one day be referred to as the "magic shooting."  Here is the wording of the indictment.

“At approximately 8:40 p.m., ALLEN approached a security checkpoint on the
Terrace Level of the hotel leading to the location of the dinner. ALLEN approached and ran through the magnetometer holding a long gun. As he did so, U.S. Secret Service personnel assigned to the checkpoint heard a loud gunshot. U.S. Secret Service Officer V.G. was shot once in the chest; Officer V.G. was wearing a ballistic vest at the time. Officer V.G. drew his service weapon and fired multiple times at ALLEN, who fell to the ground and suffered minor injuries but was not shot. ALLEN was subsequently arrested.”

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CREATORS: Qualified Immunity Gets Yet Another Boost From SCOTUS

Matthew T. Mangino
CREATORS
April 27, 2026

Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit that permitted a civil rights suit to move forward against a Vermont police officer who allegedly used excessive force against a woman during a 2015 demonstration at the governor's inauguration.

Detective Jacob Zorn was sued by Shela Linton. The Vermont Capitol was closed for the inauguration. Protesters showed up anyway and were told by police that they had to leave or they would be arrested for trespassing. The protesters were unfazed and the police moved in.

Zorn asked Linton to stand up. According to the U.S. Supreme Court opinion, Zorn took Linton's arm, put it behind her back, placed pressure on her wrist and lifted her to her feet. Linton sued Zorn for using excessive force under the federal civil rights statute — Title 42 of the U.S. Code 1983 — alleging a state actor violated her constitutional rights.

Section 1983 grew out of the Civil Rights Acts of 1871. The Act was passed after the Civil War to prevent public officials and the Ku Klux Klan from violating the constitutional rights of former slaves.

Section 1983 provided relief — in the form of money damages — to claimants whose constitutional rights had been violated by a police officer or public official acting under state authority. The Act provides that a wrongdoer "shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law."

About 100 years after the Civil Rights Act, the Supreme Court established qualified immunity, a potential defense to wrongdoers. About a decade later, the high Court further refined qualified immunity. The Court ruled a state actor would be immune from liability if, at the time of the harm, the conduct "was not clearly established" as a civil rights violation. The Court continued, "An official could not reasonably be expected to anticipate subsequent legal developments, nor could he fairly be said to 'know' that the law forbade conduct not previously identified as unlawful."

The 2nd Circuit Court reasoned that its 2004 decision in a case involving the arrest of anti-abortion protesters at a women's health center in Connecticut "clearly establish(ed)" that the tactics that Zorn had used in arresting Linton, "such as a rear-wristlock on a protestor who is passively resisting arrest constitutes excessive force and is therefore violative of that arrestee's Fourth Amendment rights." Therefore, the court of appeals concluded that law enforcement officials like Zorn would have been on notice that they could be held personally liable for such conduct.

The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed. The high court held, according to SCOTUSblog, that government officials are entitled to qualified immunity "unless they could have 'read' the relevant" cases governing their behavior before acting "and 'know(n)' that it proscribed their specific conduct." The Court found that the 2004 case on which the court of appeals relied "did not clearly establish that Zorn's specific conduct violated the Fourth Amendment."

The Supreme Court has yet again made it more difficult to establish qualified immunity, providing further protection to police officers who harm individuals by violating their constitutional rights. The standard of "clearly established" unlawful conduct is clearly getting more and more beyond the reach of most claimants.

In 2018, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that a decision favoring the police tells officers that "they can shoot first and think later and it tells the public that palpably unreasonable conduct will go unpunished."

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book, "The Executioner's Toll," 2010, was released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewTMangino

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PA House Committee moves two bills to abolish death penalty

A Pennsylvania House committee passed a pair of bills that would abolish capital punishment in the commonwealth, potentially ending decades of limbo in which death sentences have been handed down but not carried out, reported PennLive.com.

Both bills passed the House Judiciary Committee on party-line votes, with the Democratic majority in favor and Republicans opposed.

But the measures also illustrate the somewhat unusual ideological alliance that has long existed when it comes to eliminating the death penalty. One bill is authored by one of the House’s most progressive Democrats, Chris Rabb.

The other is authored by one of its most conservative Republicans, Russ Diamond. The bill has several GOP co-sponsors, although none of the conservatives who support abolition sit on the judiciary committee.

“There are no take-backs,” with the death penalty, Rabb said Monday. “It’s irreversible, it’s expensive, and our government does not have the moral authority to put people to death. I’m glad there are people across the ideological spectrum who understand this.”

“I approached this issue from a conservative point of view,” Diamond said. That includes believing in the sanctity of life from conception to death and the promise of Christian redemption, he said.

“I also believe that our criminal justice system is the self-defense mechanism for a civilized society, but there’s no element of self-defense in executing someone already in captivity,” Diamond said. “Permanent incarceration satisfies our collective need for self-defense.”

In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision that forced most states to rewrite their death penalty statutes. Pennsylvania re-established the death penalty in 1978, but since that time has executed only three people, the most recent in 1999.

Prosecutors can still seek the death penalty, and since 1985, 482 death warrants or death notices have been issued in Pennsylvania, according to data from the state Department of Corrections.

In the majority of cases, death sentences are stayed or overturned by an appeals court. In the handful of situations where appeals have been exhausted, the governor has issued a reprieve to prevent execution.

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