Nation in brief: Pilot in triangle to leave NASA
The space shuttle pilot at the center of a bizarre love triangle that included a former astronaut who now faces attempted kidnapping charges is leaving the space agency, NASA said Friday.
Cmdr. Bill Oefelein will leave NASA on Friday, nearly four months after authorities believe his cooled relationship with Lisa Nowak led her to drive 900 miles from Houston to Florida and confront her romantic rival.
NASA requested a reassignment, and the Navy agreed, said Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Doug Gabos.
Spokesman Jim Rostohar declined to comment on the reason behind Oefelein’s reassignment.
WASHINGTON
Prosecutor seeks prison for Libby
Former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby has shown no remorse for corrupting the legal system and deserves to spend 2 1/2 to three years in prison for obstructing the CIA leak investigation, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said Friday.
Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney and an assistant to President Bush, is the highest-ranking White House official convicted since the Iran-Contra affair two decades ago.
In court documents, Fitzgerald rejected criticism from Libby’s supporters who said the leak investigation had spun out of control. Fitzgerald denied the prosecution was politically motivated and said Libby brought his fate upon himself.
Libby’s lawyers have not filed their sentencing documents yet but are expected to ask that he receive no jail time.
COLUMBUS, Ohio
Inmate’s execution takes 16 minutes
The 16 minutes it took Christopher Newton to die once chemicals began flowing into his veins was the longest stretch that any of the state’s inmates executed since 1999 has endured, an Associated Press review shows.
During that span Thursday – more than twice as long as usual, and 5 minutes longer than the state’s previous longest on record – Newton’s stomach heaved, his chin quivered and twitched, and his 6-foot, 265-pound body twice mildly convulsed within the restraints.
The execution team at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville stuck Newton at least 10 times with needles to find suitable veins for the shunts where the chemicals are injected. He died nearly two hours after the scheduled start of his execution.
Newton’s unusual amount of movement and the time it took him to die raised new questions Friday among death penalty critics alarmed by the problems that delayed his execution.
Newton had insisted on the death penalty as punishment for choking and beating Jason Brewer, 27, his cellmate at the Mansfield Correctional Center, over a chess game in 2001.