The Complaint for Declaratory Judgment and Injunctive Relief is available in Adobe .pdf format.
"AP, news groups sue Idaho over execution access," is the AP report, via the Idaho Press-Tribune.
The Idaho Press-Tribune, along with the Associated Press and 16 other organizations, sued the state of Idaho Tuesday to force officials to let witnesses watch executions from start to finish, arguing that the media has a First Amendment right to view all steps of a lethal injection execution.
The group asked a U.S. District Court judge to require the state to increase witness access to its executions, starting with the upcoming execution of Richard A. Leavitt, a convicted killer scheduled to be put to death on June 12.
The AP was joined in the lawsuit by the Idaho Press Club, Idahoans for Openness in Government, the Idaho Statesman, The Times-News, Lewiston Tribune, Moscow-Pullman Daily News and The Spokesman-Review.
Also joining was Pioneer Newspapers, which owns the Idaho Press-Tribune, the Idaho State Journal, the Rexburg Standard Journal and others.
Idaho, like most states with lethal injection, bars witnesses from watching as a condemned inmate is brought into the execution chamber, strapped to the table and has IVs inserted into his or her arms. The news organizations say reporters must be able to view executions from start to finish so they can accurately report the events — and any complications that may emerge — to the public.
Some death row inmates have challenged the constitutionality of lethal injection executions in court, contending that the insertion of the IVs can be easily botched, causing severe pain for the condemned.
And:
The lawsuit relies heavily on a 2002 San Francisco-based federal appeals court ruling that found that witnesses should be allowed to view executions from the moment the condemned enters the death chamber until their final heartbeat.
Since the ruling, only one state under the court’s nine-state jurisdiction is following it: California, where the case arose. Idaho, Arizona, Washington, Montana and Nevada have all barred witnesses from the first half of lethal injection executions.
Most states nationwide do the same. Of the 27 states that have lethal injection outside of the circuit’s jurisdiction, only Ohio and Georgia allow witnesses to see the entire process.
The Spokane Spokesman-Review posts, "Press sues state over restricted media witness access to portions of executions."
The press had been in discussion with the state Department of Correction about the process since before its earlier execution of Paul Ezra Rhoades in November, and the department promised to review its procedures after that execution to address the concerns. However, it decided to make no changes, prompting the lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed today in U.S. District Court; in addition to the AP, plaintiffs include the Idaho Press Club, Idahoans for Openness in Government, the Idaho Statesman, The Spokesman-Review, and other news organizations from across the state.
And:
The 2002 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals case was brought by the California First Amendment Coalition against California Department of Correction officials. The court found that preventing reporters — and through them, the public — from viewing all aspects of executions is an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment.
The news media must be allowed to witness executions in their entirety so that the public can have an informed debate about whether execution by lethal injection meets the evolving standards of decency present in a maturing society, the court found.
“To determine whether lethal injection executions are fairly and humanely administered, or whether they ever can be, citizens must have reliable information about the 'initial procedures' which are invasive, possibly painful and may give rise to serious complications,” Judge Raymond Fisher wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel that heard the case.
The 2002 ruling by the 9th Circuit came in the case, California First Amendment Coalition v. Woodford, 299 F.3d 868,
Earlier coverage of the Idaho lawsuit begins in the preceding post.
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