Hi y’all. I’m Leada Gore, filling in for Ike Morgan for today’s Down in Alabama. Before we get going, there’s a bit of macabre history from Alabama today.

Alabama ties to Lincoln’s assassination

On Friday, July 7, 1865, four conspirators tied to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln were executed in Washington, D.C. The four included Mary Surratt, the first woman executed in the U.S. Also among them was Lewis Powell, and that’s where the Alabama connection comes in.

Lewis Powell was born in Randolph County on April 22, 1844, to a Baptist minister. His family moved to Florida, where Lewis joined the Confederate Army at 17. He later joined the Confederate Secret Service where he met John Surratt, who would later be involved in the conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln. Surratt was the one who introduced Powell to Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth.

Powell was assigned to take co-conspirator David Herold to help kill Secretary of State William Seward. George Atzerodt was assigned to assassinate Vice President Andrew Johnson and Booth was to assassinate Lincoln.

Powell and Herold were unsuccessful in their mission to assassinate Seward, though they did badly injure his son and Seward himself. After hiding out for several days, Lewis fled back to Mary Surratt’s boardinghouse where he was eventually arrested for his part in the plot.

Lewis, 21, was eventually found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and treason and sentenced to death by hanging. His final words to a Washington minister reflect his regret for his actions:

“My course is run,” Lewis said. “I know now how foolish, vain and wholly useless it is and must have been, and were I set at liberty this morning, I should hope to be dead by sunset, as all men must hereafter point at me as a murderer.”

Read more about Alabama’s ties to Lincoln’s assassination.

Snake kills power, power kills snake

Talk about something you don’t hear about every day.

Some areas of north Alabama were affected by a power outage Wednesday that was eventually traced to a snake.

The Marshall DeKalb Electric Cooperative, which serves about 19,000 customers, reported the outage shortly before noon.

Areas in and around Boaz were affected by the outage.

At first, the problem was believed to originate with TVA. Then, the cooperative notified its customers via social media that the culprit was closer to home. It turns out a snake made its way into the Albertville Primary Substation and knocked out the majority of its system.

Spoiler alert – it didn’t end well for the snake.

State awards $1 million to slain deputy’s estate

The state of Alabama will pay $1 million to the estate of slain Bibb County Deputy Brad Johnson, who was shot to death last year in the line of duty.

Johnson, 32, was killed June 29, 2022, when he and Deputy Chris Poole were chasing Austin Patrick Hall in a stolen vehicle. Authorities said Hall opened fire on them. Johnson died the following day. Poole survived.

Hall, now 27, was quickly arrested after the fatal shooting and was later indicted on five felonies.

Gov. Kay Ivey on Wednesday announced the settlement, saying, “Fundamental flaws in Alabama law granting correctional incentive ‘good time’ to inmates failed Deputy Johnson and his family.”

Tommy James, the attorney representing Johnson’s estate, said the settlement addresses allegations concerning the circumstances that led to Johnson’s death. Those allegations focus on Hall’s lengthy criminal history and the fact that he was out of jail despite his record, which included an escape while he was in a work release program.

James noted that Hall’s criminal record includes at least 46 charges and multiple jail stints.

You can read more on the case from Carol Robinson on AL.com.

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