Georgia Lethal Injection: In 1987, John Washington Hightower snorted cocaine and drank the day he shot and killed his wife Dorothy Hightower and his two-stepdaughters, Evelyn and Sandra Reaves over marital problems he and his wife were having. 3-year-old Kisha Reaves was found unharmed in their Georgia family home. Hightower will be the first Georgia inmate executed by lethal injection on June 26, after a nearly two year drought. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution story reports that the Georgia Department of Corrections has recently updated their “execution protocols,” but did not change the chemicals used in their three-drug cocktail.

Federal Gun Control Law: A voice vote by the House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a gun control bill in response to the Virginia Tech shootings. The bill would be the first significant gun control law in over 10 years, since the 1994 banning of some assault weapons by Congress. States would be required to share and report information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System database, putting a stop to gun purchases to criminals, mentally ill persons, or persons not authorized to own firearms. The bill is sponsored by gun control advocate Rep. Carolyn McCarthy but also endorsed by the NRA. The bill now proceeds to the Senate, reports Jim Abrams with the Associated Press. Crime and Consequences first reported on this story in April.

Crack Case: David Savage has this article in the LA Times on Kimbrough v. United States, No. 06-6330, the crack cocaine sentencing case accepted by the Supreme Court on Monday. The Fourth Circuit opinion is here.

Heard this before?: "As she awaited sentencing Tuesday for assaulting a Rochester woman, self-proclaimed anti-violence activist Joy Powell blamed everyone but herself. She said the victim lied, the police were out to get her, the judge hated her, her lawyer failed her and a jury that didn't reflect her race wrongly convicted her of first-degree burglary and second-degree assault." She got 16 years. Michael Ziegler reports for the Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle. Hat tip: James Taranto, Best of the Web at OpinionJournal.com.

Jailhouse Grub: Stacy Finz reports for the SF Chron, it's actually better than most people think.