Florida Tea Party congressman to be in court on drug charge

U.S. Representative Trey Radel, a Tea Party Republican from Florida, is due to be arraigned Wednesday in a Washington, D.C., court on a misdemeanor charge of drug possession, according to court documents. The drug possession charge involved cocaine in an October 29 incident, according to several media reports citing a second D.C. Superior Court document. In a statement, Radel, 37, apologized to his family and constituents in southwest Florida, saying that he struggled “with the disease of alcoholism, and this led to an extremely irresponsible choice.” Radel, a freshman member of Congress who calls himself a “Hip Hop Conservative, Lover of #liberty” on his Twitter page, faces a possible six months in jail. Before running for Congress, Radel hosted a conservative TV and radio talk show in Florida.

U.S. judges grant Missouri convicted killer stay of execution

Joseph Paul Franklin is seen in a 2005 booking photo from the Missouri Department of Corrections(Reuters) – Two federal judges granted a serial killer stays of execution on Tuesday hours before he was to be put to death, allowing him to challenge Missouri's new lethal drug protocol and his mental competence, and the state immediately appealed the rulings. Joseph Paul Franklin, an avowed white supremacist, was convicted and sentenced to death for killing one man and wounding two outside a St. Louis-area synagogue in 1977. He was scheduled to be executed early on Wednesday at a Missouri prison. Franklin, 63, has been linked to the deaths of at least 18 other people.

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