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Amazon Says It Will Lay off 14,000 Employees as It Invests in AI

admin - Latest News - October 28, 2025
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In one of the largest layoffs in Amazon’s history, the company is announcing it will eliminate 14,000 roles. In a statement, Amazon points to AI, saying the company needs to be lean and remain more “nimble” in the age of generative artificial intelligence, calling it “the most transformative technology since the internet.” NBC’s Christine Romans reports for TODAY.



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November 1, 2025
Nov. 1, 2025, 11:53 AM EDTBy The Associated PressTravel delays were adding up at airports across the U.S. on Friday as the government shutdown drags on, putting even more pressure on air traffic controllers who have been working without pay for a month.U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been warning that travelers will start to see more flight disruptions the longer controllers go without a paycheck.“Every day there’s going to be more challenges,” Duffy told reporters Thursday outside the White House after a closed-door meeting with Vice President JD Vance and aviation industry leaders to talk about the shutdown’s impact on U.S. travel.The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday reported staffing shortages that were causing flight delays at a number of airports, including in Boston, Phoenix, San Francisco, Nashville, Houston, Dallas and the Washington, D.C. area. Airports serving the New York City area — John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport — were also experiencing delays averaging around two hours, according to the FAA.U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy outside the White House on Oct. 30.Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images“Currently nearly 50 percent of major air traffic control facilities are experiencing staffing shortages, and nearly 90 percent of air traffic controllers are out at New York–area facilities,” the FAA said in a statement posted on X on Friday evening.Staffing shortages can occur both in regional control centers that manage multiple airports and in individual airport towers, but they don’t always lead to flight disruptions. According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, flight data showed strong on-time performance at most major U.S. airports for the month of October despite isolated staffing problems that surfaced throughout the month.But Cirium said the data also showed a “broader slowdown” Thursday across the nation’s aviation system for the first time since the shutdown began on Oct. 1, suggesting staffing-related disruptions may be spreading.According to Cirium, many major U.S. airports on Thursday saw below-average on-time performance, with fewer flights departing within 15 minutes of their scheduled departure times. Staffing-related delays at Orlando’s airport on Thursday, for example, averaged nearly four and a half hours for some time. The data does not distinguish between the different causes of delays, such as staffing shortages or bad weather.Last weekend, a shortage of controllers also led to the FAA issuing a brief ground stop at Los Angeles International Airport, one of the busiest in the world. Flights were held at their originating airports for about two hours Sunday until the FAA lifted the ground stop.Most controllers are continuing to work mandatory overtime six days a week during the shutdown, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said. That leaves little time for a side job to help cover bills, mortgage payments and other expenses unless controllers call out.Duffy said controllers are also struggling to get to work because they can’t afford to fill up their cars with gas. Controllers missed their first full paychecks on Tuesday.“For this nation’s air traffic controllers, missing just one paycheck can be a significant hardship, as it is for all working Americans. Asking them to go without a full month’s pay or more is simply not sustainable,” Nick Daniels, president of NATCA, said Friday in a statement.Some U.S. airports have stepped in to provide food donations and other support for federal aviation employees working without pay, including controllers and Transportation Security Administration agents.Before the shutdown, the FAA was already dealing with a long-standing shortage of about 3,000 air traffic controllers.The Associated PressThe Associated Press
November 3, 2025
Nov. 3, 2025, 5:00 AM ESTBy Bridget Bowman and Adam EdelmanThe candidates for governor in New Jersey and Virginia crisscrossed their states in the final weekend of the 2025 campaign season, ahead of the first big elections since President Donald Trump’s victory in 2024. The races will be the early tests for major questions facing both political parties after 2024, from how to navigate the high cost of living to how to appeal to increasingly swingy Latino voters, as well as which side is energized going into the 2026 midterms. Republicans face a familiar challenge of turning out Trump’s coalition when he is not on the ballot, while Democrats are looking for a boost after a demoralizing election last year. In Virginia, former Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger has consistently led her Republican opponent, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, in polling and fundraising throughout the entire campaign. A more competitive race has formed in New Jersey, according to recent polling, where Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill is facing Republican Jack Ciattarelli, a former state legislator. Jack Ciattarelli and Mikie Sherrill.USA Today Network fileBoth Sherrill and Spanberger were elected to Congress in the party’s 2018 midterm blue wave during Trump’s first term, and they lived together while serving in the House. The former roommates are now looking to lead their party’s electoral pushback against Trump following his return to the White House. “In 2025, it really feels like the important fight is at the state level in these governor’s offices, because with the president having the presidency, the GOP having the Senate and the House, and even co-opting the Supreme Court, the last bastion feels like governors races and governors standing in the breach,” Sherrill told NBC News in a Friday interview. While Democrats have brought some high profile surrogates to their states, Republicans have largely campaigned on their own. Trump has not campaigned in person either state, despite endorsing Ciattarelli. (Trump has not endorsed Earle-Sears.)But the president is holding two telephone rallies Monday night for candidates in New Jersey and Virginia.Both Spanberger and Sherrill had some help from former President Barack Obama at rallies on Saturday. Obama appeared with Sherrill in Newark, the state’s largest city, amid some concerns about Black voter turnout. In Virginia, Obama rallied supporters in Norfolk and encouraged them to send a message to the rest of the country. “Lord knows we need that light. We need that inspiration.” Obama said at both rallies. “Because, let’s face it, our country and our politics are in a pretty dark place right now.”Obama told voters in both states they have the opportunity to “set a glorious example for this nation.” Other prominent Democrats — including potential future presidential contenders — hit the campaign trail in both states in the final days. In New Jersey, the state’s two Democratic senators, Cory Booker and Andy Kim, campaigned for Sherrill, along with Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego and Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy. Their weekend events followed other top Democrats’ forays into the state, including former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin. Many of the same names crossed through Virginia as well. In Virginia, Spanberger continued her closing statewide bus tour — which had kicked off on Oct. 25 — making stops on Saturday in Norfolk, alongside Obama, and on Sunday in the Washington, D.C., suburbs. On Monday, she’s scheduled to hold a trio of final-day events in the region of her old Richmond-area congressional district.Abigail Spanberger on Capitol Hill in 2024.Mariam Zuhaib / AP fileHer closing message has centered on her campaign-long focus on economic and affordability issues, as well as a sharp rejection of Trump’s policies and the chaos she said they’ve created in Virginia’s economy.“With the political turmoil coming out of Washington right now, this election is an opportunity,” she said during her Norfolk speech.“In Virginia, we need a governor who will recognize that Virginians are struggling to afford the rising costs in health care, housing and energy,” she added.Polls in Virginia have consistently shown Spanberger leading. Early voting kicked off in the commonwealth more than six weeks ago, and as of Saturday, more than 1.43 million people had already voted — nearly 44% of total turnout in the 2021 governor’s race.While Republicans did not see the same quantity of high-profile surrogates on the trail in the final days, Earle-Sears had support from popular Gov. Glenn Youngkin.Earle-Sears held campaign events on Saturday in Abingdon, a heavily Republican area in southwest Virginia, and in Loudoun County. Youngkin, the term-limited Republican governor, appeared at those events, alongside the rest of the Republican ticket — John Reid, the lieutenant governor nominee, and Jason Miyares, the incumbent attorney general. The same lineup appeared at Earle-Sears campaign events on Sunday in Prince George and Hanover, near Richmond. Earle-Sears was slated to hold more events Monday in Roanoke and in Virginia Beach and Manassas, where Republican National Committee chair Joe Gruters was also scheduled to join. Winsome Earle-Sears in Richmond, Va., in 2022.Steve Helber / AP fileIn recent days, Earle-Sears has put a focus on attacking Spanberger over years-old violent texts from Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones, as well as efforts by legislative Democrats to redraw Virginia’s congressional maps.But over the weekend, Earle-Sears revisited a message that had been a focus earlier in her campaign: emphasizing the accomplishments of Youngkin’s administration and telling voters that electing her would mark a continuation of his record, including growing the private sector of the economy.“This election is about our future,” Earle-Sears said in Abingdon. “We’ve had four glorious years where we’ve been making jobs left and right … We’ve already had so many successes, but there’s more that can happen.”Ciattarelli also embarked on a bus tour to rally his supporters in New Jersey over the weekend. Asked after he cast his ballot on Friday if any big names would join him on the trail, he told reporters, “Jack Ciattarelli.” This is Ciattarelli’s third run for governor after losing the 2017 GOP primary and becoming the GOP nominee in 2021, when he lost a surprisingly close, 3-point race to Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy. Ciattarelli said Friday that this year feels different.“The issues I was talking about in ‘21 were percolating. Today, they’re at a complete boil. We’ve got an affordability crisis, a public safety crisis, a public education crisis, a housing crisis, including over-development,” Ciattarelli said. “There’s a lot less indifference this time around,” Ciattarelli later added. “Back in ‘21 I had too many people inside New Jersey, including Republicans, and people around the country who didn’t think I had a shot in hell. They now know differently because of our performance in 21.”Public polls have shown a competitive campaign in New Jersey, although the state of the race has varied depending on the survey. On Thursday alone, five independent polls came out showing Sherrill ranging from a 9-point advantage to a negligible 1-point edge.Both Ciattarelli and Sherrill have also made their closing pitches on the airwaves in ads highlighting the state’s high cost of living — part of more than $100 million in ads in the race, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. Since the June primary, Democrats have spent nearly $64 million on ads through Election Day, while Republicans have spent more than $42 million. “I’ll serve you as governor to drive your costs down,” Sherrill says in her closing TV ad. “On day one, I’m declaring a state of emergency on utility costs to lower your family’s bills. And when I’m governor, no sales tax increases, period. And I’ll fight for your family just as hard as I fight for mine.” Ciattarelli used one of his closing spots to cast himself as the “change” candidate, tying Sherrill to Murphy, the two-term Democratic governor. “We need someone who’s honest with a real plan, someone who gets it,” Ciattarelli says in the ad. “As governor, I’ll fight every day for people who work hard and play by the rules because that’s what you deserve. Together, I know we can fix New Jersey. It’s time.”In Virginia, Earle-Sears’ closing ads have largely focused on attacking Spanberger, highlighting Jones’ texts and her positions on the rights of transgender people, as well as tying her to national Democrats like Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi.“She’s weak, she’s wrong, we can’t trust her,” the ad’s narrator says.Spanberger, for her part, has used her closing ad to revisit her personal story, talking about her record of public service, including as a CIA officer.Bridget BowmanBridget Bowman is a national political reporter for NBC News.Adam EdelmanAdam Edelman is a politics reporter for NBC News. Julie Tsirkin, Kyle Stewart, Gabriel Vasconcellos and Katherine Koretski contributed.
October 15, 2025
Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleOct. 15, 2025, 2:11 PM EDTBy Scott Wong, Gabrielle Khoriaty and Kyle StewartWASHINGTON — Democrats are ramping up pressure on House Speaker Mike Johnson to seat Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, staging a protest at his office, holding news conferences and threatening a lawsuit to try to get him to swear in the newest Democratic member of Congress.Grijalva won the Arizona House seat of her father, the late progressive leader Rep. Raul Grijalva, in a Sept. 23 special election. But the House has not been in session since her election as part of the stalemate over the government shutdown.While Grijalva has been in and around the Capitol complex waiting to take the oath, Johnson, R-La., has said for the past two weeks he won’t swear her in until the government reopens.House Dems march to demand Johnson swear in Grijalva00:56Once she is seated, Grijalva would bring the House to 219 Republicans and 214 Democrats. She is also expected to be the final signature needed to force a House vote to release the Justice Department’s Jeffrey Epstein files.Now, Democrats are trying new, more aggressive tactics to force Johnson to reverse course.On Tuesday night, Grijalva and members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus marched to Johnson’s office, chanting “Swear her in!” A U.S. Capitol Police officer briefly tried to stop lawmakers and could be seen on video getting into a short verbal altercation with Rep. Nanette Barragán, D-Calif. She claimed that the officer grabbed her, but a video only shows her pushing past an officer into the speaker’s foyer. Capitol Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.In remarks outside Johnson’s office, Grijalva said she has heard “not one word” from the speaker.“I am a woman of color from Arizona, and 700,000 people deserve to have their voice heard, …” Grijlava said. “Let’s just be really clear, if I were a Republican, I would have already been sworn, and that is not acceptable. They’re afraid of me signing and being the 218th signer to the Epstein petition.”Johnson was not in the Capitol during the protest. But Arizona’s two Democratic senators — Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly — verbally sparred with Johnson in the same spot just last week over his refusal to immediately seat Grijalva.Tuesday night’s protest came on the same day that top Arizona state officials certified the results of Grijalva’s election victory. And on Tuesday, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, sent a letter to Johnson threatening to sue if he did not seat Grijalva or set a date to do so.“Failing to seat Ms. Grijalva immediately or to otherwise provide a reasonable explanation as to when she will be seated will prompt legal action,” Mayes wrote.She added: “You and your staff have provided ever-shifting, unsatisfactory, and sometimes absurd stories as to why Ms. Grijalva has not been sworn in. In a particularly worrisome comment, an aide connected the swearing-in and admission to the ongoing budget fight, suggesting that the House is trying to use Arizona’s constitutional right to representation in the House as a bargaining chip.”When asked about Mayes’ letter, Johnson said in a short statement, “The House will follow customary practice by swearing in Rep-elect Grijalva when the House is in legislative session.”Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Johnson accused Democrats of “playing political games” and disrespecting police by protesting at his office. “They stormed my office. Maybe you saw some of the video online that they themselves shared. … They berated a Capitol Police officer, screamed at him. He was just merely standing his post. It shows, again, their disdain for law enforcement, as we see all around the country … and it shows their desperation.”House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Grijalva and other Democrats have pointed out that Johnson, in April, swore in two Florida Republicans — Rep. Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine — shortly after their special elections, while the House was out of town.Johnson has argued it was because the pair of Floridians had family in Washington at the time, so he did it as a courtesy to accommodate visiting family members. He also told reporters Tuesday he wants to ensure Grijalva has “all the pomp and circumstance” of having a full chamber in session to witness her being sworn in.And the speaker has repeatedly said the delay has nothing to do with the effort to force a vote on the Epstein files.Following the Tuesday protest, Democrats in both the Arizona delegation and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus on Wednesday stood in front of the Capitol and again demanded he administer the oath of office.“I don’t need bells and whistles,” Grijalva said, rejecting the speaker’s explanation. “I don’t need pomp and circumstance. I just need to get to work for southern Arizona.”Kelly, the Arizona senator, noted he and his family live in Grijalva’s district, which extends along the southern border from Yuma to Tucson.“We currently do not have representation in the U.S. House of Representatives,” Kelly said, “and that is wrong.”Scott WongScott Wong is a senior congressional reporter for NBC News. Gabrielle KhoriatyGabrielle Khoriaty is a desk assistant in the NBC News Washington bureau.Kyle StewartKyle Stewart is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the House.Frank Thorp V contributed.
September 25, 2025
Sept. 25, 2025, 5:00 AM EDTBy Abigail Brooks and Erik OrtizDerrick Dearman appeared to be high on drugs in his Alabama prison in the days leading up to his execution.The convicted killer raged in phone calls and emails, anguishing over how his willingness to die for his crimes wouldn’t change the perception of him as an irredeemable monster.And by the time he took his final breath, his longtime addiction to methamphetamine — the drug he blamed for fueling the murders of five people, including a pregnant woman, in 2016 — had consumed him to the end.Dearman, 36, had meth in his body when Alabama put him to death by lethal injection in October 2024, according to a toxicology report confirming what eyewitnesses believed at the time.He isn’t the only prisoner to be executed with narcotics in their system in Alabama recently.Since Alabama resumed executions in 2023, following a pause on capital punishment amid a series of failed lethal injection attempts, the state has executed 11 people, including Dearman. An NBC News review of available autopsies shows that at least three others had taken illegal drugs prior to their executions: Jamie Ray Mills, 50, was executed last year with meth in his body, while Carey Dale Grayson, 50, and Kenneth Smith, 58, died last year with a form of a synthetic cannabinoid in their system, according to their toxicology reports. Synthetic cannabinoids imitate the effects of substances like marijuana.Carey Dale Grayson; Kenneth Smith; Jamie Ray Mills.Alabama Department of CorrectionsAlabama has its fourth execution of the year scheduled for Thursday.Jon Ozmint, a former prosecutor who was the director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections from 2003 to 2011, said that the discovery during autopsy of drugs unrelated to an execution and not prescribed to an inmate would have been “a red flag for us.”“We definitely would have launched an after-action review, and then, if there was any indication of you know, staff wrongdoing, we would have launched the appropriate level of investigation,” Ozmint said.Mills was executed by lethal injection, and Grayson and Smith died by an execution method using nitrogen gas. (Smith was the first inmate in the nation to die in that manner.)The amount of the drugs found in Dearman, Mills, Grayson and Smith was relatively small, independent medical experts who reviewed the inmates’ records told NBC News, but their detection still indicates the drugs had been recently absorbed.D’Michelle DuPre, a forensic consultant in South Carolina and a former medical examiner, has analyzed about 125 death row inmates’ toxicology reports throughout her career, she said.“I have rarely seen an opioid in the inmates’ tox screen. I don’t recall seeing a narcotic,” DuPre noted.Alabama executes convicted murderer with new nitrogen method02:05Charlotte Morrison, a senior attorney with the Equal Justice Initiative, which represented Mills in his death row case, said drugs are generally less of a problem in Alabama’s William C. Holman Correctional Facility because of heightened security and inmates’ isolation.However, she said, she’s not surprised to learn that even death row inmates can score drugs, indicating the depths of the problem.“The entire system is poorly managed,” Morrison said. Drugs “are a pervasive crisis.”The Alabama Department of Corrections and the state attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to inquiries about the inmates’ toxicology results.According to the state’s execution protocol, on the afternoon of an execution, “a medical examination of the condemned inmate will be completed, with the results recorded on a Medical Treatment Record or Body Chart.” The Department of Corrections also did not immediately respond when asked if workers are checking for drug use in that final examination and what happens if it is detected.In a deposition last October involving Grayson’s case, Corrections Commissioner John Hamm acknowledged drugs are circulating in Alabama’s prisons. He agreed that, in some instances, corrections employees may be smuggling the contraband into the prisons and selling them to prisoners.In recent months, the Department of Corrections said a corrections officer was accused of the large-scale trafficking of narcotics, including meth and marijuana, at the state prison in St. Clair County. Additionally, visitors have attempted to bring drugs into facilities, including at Holman, or used drones to drop backpacks containing drugs onto prison grounds.The William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala., where death row inmates are executed.Sharon Steinmann / APThe drug trade has had lethal consequences, as well. Of the 277 deaths last year of inmates in state Department of Corrections custody, 46 were classified as “accidental/overdose,” according to an ACLU of Alabama report.In 2020, the Justice Department sued Alabama for alleged constitutional violations within its prison system, citing instances of excessive force, sexual abuse and poor sanitary conditions. The suit also mentioned the system’s “failure to prevent the introduction of illegal contraband leads to prisoner-on-prisoner violence.”“The use of illicit substances, including methamphetamines or fentanyl or synthetic cannabinoids, is prevalent in Alabama’s prison for men,” the complaint alleges. “Prisoners using illicit substances often harm others or become indebted to other prisoners.”The federal government’s lawsuit against Alabama remains ongoing, and the state has largely denied the allegations in court filings.Carla Crowder, the executive director of Alabama Appleseed, a nonprofit criminal justice reform organization that provides legal and re-entry services, said prison officials have the ability to root out drugs in prisons “from a public corruption perspective.”“Start tracking down the source — who’s in charge, who’s calling the shots,” Crowder said. “We are advocating for the state to begin to take this seriously.”During Commissioner Hamm’s deposition, one of Grayson’s lawyers pointed out the ability for some death row inmates to acquire drugs, including his own client — and questioned whether that affected Grayson’s ability to meaningfully participate in his own defense.“Mr. Grayson admitted that he was on drugs at the time of his deposition or had taken them in the immediate — in the preceding 12 hours,” lawyer Spencer Hahn told U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr.“I don’t understand how a person who is being held on single block at the most secure prison in the state of Alabama is allowed to alter his consciousness using drugs before a deposition that is central to his case,” Hahn said. “So a lot of what Mr. Grayson said and may not have said, he was not in his right mind in a lot of ways.”Hahn added that Grayson had been under the influence of flakka, a synthetic stimulant similar to the more commonly known bath salts.He said Grayson’s drug use was also consistent with a synthetic cannabinoid found in Smith’s autopsy. An attorney for the state responded that the synthetic cannabinoid Smith consumed was “smoked.”Certainly taking drugs is illegal, but so is providing drugs to a prisoner. ”Said Spencer hahn, a lawyer for a Death row inmate“Having access to these mind-altering substances can absolutely impact your conscious state and your decision-making,” said David Dadiomov, an assistant professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of Southern California.Dadiomov also said the way these drugs are used among people who are incarcerated is different because of the setting. “Things are misused simply based on access,” he said. “At extremely high doses, because these substances are usually very potent, they also cause psychotic-like effects, or effects that are quite different from what people classically view as intoxication from marijuana.”During Hamm’s deposition, Hahn questioned how Smith could have drugs in his system when he “had been watched for four days straight before an execution.”“Somehow he was able to, from an isolation cell, obtain flakka or whatever that synthetic cannabinoid source was,” Hahn said of Smith.“Certainly taking drugs is illegal,” Hahn added, “but so is providing drugs to a prisoner. And somebody got those drugs into that prison.”During the deposition, the judge suggested drugs could be getting into Alabama prisons another way.“There has been an issue in the state prison system of lawyers bringing in papers that have been soaked in drugs and then giving them to their clients and DOC, you know, or whatever the facility maybe can’t stop that from happening because it’s legal papers,” Judge Huffaker said. “And then the particular inmate smokes or ingests it or does whatever with it.”Hahn denied his law office had ever done so.He declined to comment about Grayson’s case when reached by NBC News this week.A lawyer for Smith also couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.Read more death row coverageAn Idaho warden acquired hard-to-get lethal injection drugs from an undisclosed supplier on a rural roadAfter Biden commuted federal death row sentences, DAs are weighing state chargesSouth Carolina prepares for first firing squad execution, ushering in return of rare methodIndiana carries out first execution in 15 years in process scrutinized for its secrecyDearman, who initially pleaded not guilty to the crimes, later fired his two court-appointed attorneys and changed his plea to guilty.In a phone interview with NBC News in April 2024, Dearman said he had dropped the appeals in his case and was ready for the state to execute him on capital murder and kidnapping charges.Dearman said he was high on meth in 2016 when he burst into a bungalow armed with an ax and firearms in a rural area near Mobile. His estranged ex-girlfriend, Laneta Lester, was staying at the home, which belonged to her brother.Dearman was convicted of killing five people while they slept: Lester’s brother, Joseph Adam Turner, 26, and his wife, Shannon Melissa Randall, 35; Randall’s brother, Robert Lee Brown, 26; and two others who lived at the home, Justin Kaleb Reed, 23, and his wife, Chelsea Marie Reed, 22, who was five months pregnant. Dearman was also convicted in the death of the Reed’s unborn child.He told NBC News last year that he was addicted to drugs since he was a teenager and that his dependency on them ignited the rampage.“Drugs turned me into a very unpredictable, unstable and violent person,” he said. “That’s not who I am. The person that committed these crimes and the person who I truly am is two different people.”Dadiomov said there is a strong correlation between long-term meth use and severe mental illness, likening meth-induced psychosis to schizophrenia.“They present similarly,” he said. “They can have the similar features of hallucinations, so seeing things that aren’t there or hearing things that aren’t there.”Morrison, who represented Mills on Alabama’s death row, said the need for inmates to turn to drugs in prison, and then potentially gain access to narcotics from corrections officers and other employees, only shows the absence of rehabilitation and programming to help prisoners — even those relegated to death row.“It impacts any sense of hope,” Morrison said. “It’s a system that reflects to an entire group of people that they do not have worth.”Abigail BrooksAbigail Brooks is a producer for NBC News.Erik OrtizErik Ortiz is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital focusing on racial injustice and social inequality.
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