You can view the Oklahoma Observer v. Patton lawsuit and an ACLU news release at the link.
The Guardian posts, "ACLU challenges Oklahoma over first amendment violation in execution," by Ed Pilkington.
The secrecy imposed by the state of Oklahoma over the botched execution of Clayton Lockett is being challenged in a federal court as a violation of first amendment press freedoms.
In a lawsuit lodged with the US district court for the western district of Oklahoma on Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argues the state acted unconstitutionally by drawing a screen between the death chamber and the observation room before he was declared dead.
The ACLU is joined as plaintiffs in the lawsuit by the Guardian, the Oklahoma Observer and journalist Katie Fretland, who was one of the reporters in the observation room for the Lockett execution and filed for both outlets. The lawsuit calls on the court to ban Oklahoma from denying reporters “meaningful, uninterrupted and unedited access to the entire execution procedure”.
“The state of Oklahoma violated the first amendment, which guarantees the right of the press to witness executions so the public can be informed about the government’s actions and hold it accountable. The death penalty represents the most powerful exercise of government authority – the need for public oversight is as critical at the execution stage as it is during trial,” said the ACLU’s staff attorney Lee Rowland.
"The Guardian, ACLU sue for greater media access to executions," is by Mark Berman for the Washington Post.
Two news organizations filed a lawsuit Monday asking for greater media access to executions in Oklahoma following a highly publicized botched execution that was largely hidden from the view of the reporters selected to bear witness.
Journalists are often among the only people who witness executions, which are carried out far from the public eye. Relatives of victims, attorneys, state officials and other people who volunteer may attend executions, but media witnesses are the ones who watch so they can relate to the world how the state has executed one of its citizens.
And:
“At an execution, the press serves as the public’s eyes and ears,” Katie Fretland, who reported on the execution for the Guardian and is listed as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said in a statement. “The government shouldn’t be allowed to effectively blindfold us when things go wrong.”
Fretland was one of the dozen reporters who attended Lockett’s execution, selected through a lottery system because more than 12 journalists wanted to witness it. Like the other people who filed into that small room on the grounds of the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, she arrived expecting to watch and document the end of Lockett’s life. Instead, she reported on the botch and on Lockett’s death, which occurred away from the gathered witnesses.
“The public has a right to the whole story, not a version edited by government officials,” she said.
"ACLU Sues Over Closed Blinds in Botched Clayton Lockett Execution," by Tracy Connor at NBC News.
The ACLU and two news organizations filed a federal lawsuit Monday to force Oklahoma prison officials to let witnesses watch executions from beginning to end. The litigation is a response to the botched April 29 lethal injection of Clayton Lockett, in which the execution team closed the blinds when the inmate began appeared to regain consciousness and struggle 20 minutes after the drugs were administered. The suit asks the court to order that all witnesses, including the media, be able to view the proceedings from the moment the prisoner enters the execution chamber until he or she is taken out.
At the ACLU Blog of Rights, Lee Rowland posts, "An Execution, Censored." Rowland is a staff attorney with the ACLU Speech, Privacy & Technology Project.
Both death penalty supporters and opponents should be able to agree that the most extreme use of state power should absolutely not occur in the shadows. As the Supreme Court has said, "The protection given speech and press was fashioned to assure unfettered interchange of ideas for the bringing about of political and social changes desired by the people."
As citizens, we can't complete that duty if the government only offers us selective information, editing out all the ugly parts. That why we brought a lawsuit today asking the court to stop the state of Oklahoma from using the execution shade like a Photoshop tool.
It isn't transparency when the government shines a light only on the things it wants us to see.
Tony Mauro writes, "Press Seeks Greater Access to Oklahoma Executions," for the National Law Journal.
News organizations on Monday sued the state of Oklahoma for greater access to executions following the botched lethal injection of Clayton Lockett in April.
In a complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Observer, the Guardian and a freelance reporter invoked a First Amendment "affirmative right of access" to execution procedures.
"The ability of the press to witness the particular facts and circumstances of each execution, and to report on the same, promotes the proper functioning of the State’s death penalty system and increases public confidence in the integrity of the justice system," according to the complaint, which also seeks an injunction guaranteeing "meaningful, uninterrupted and unedited access to the entire execution procedure " for the news media.
"Oklahoma Illegally Drew Blinds During Execution, New Lawsuit Says," is by Ashby Jones for the Wall Street Journal Law blog.
The lawsuit comes in the midst of a particularly controversial time for the death penalty in the U.S., especially in light of a string of problematic lethal injections.
The plaintiffs also allege that state officials, by obscuring reporters’ views, violated Oklahoma law itself, and the state’s own procedures.
The plaintiffs ask for, among other things, the court to ban the state from “curtailing, censoring, limiting, or hindering the ability of lawful witnesses and media representatives to witness the entire execution process . . . . ”
The Atlantic posts, "Who Watches America's Executions?" It's by Matt Ford.
After Joseph Wood's botched execution in July, journalists and other observers gave us grisly details about the convicted murderer's final moments. One of the reporters even counted the number of Wood's gasps—around 660 in total—as he lay on the gurney before finally dying after nearly two hours. The New York Times printed the number on its front page the next morning. During its next opportunity to rule on a lethal-injection-drug case earlier this month, all four of the Supreme Court's liberal justicesvoted to hear it—just one vote short of success. Now only the whims of Justice Anthony Kennedy, who has written both to save and to constrain the death penalty during his tenure, stand between the states and a review of the country's universally preferred, and increasingly troubled, execution method.
But in the botched lethal injection of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma earlier in April, valuable observations like those in Arizona weren't independently available because of state interference. The ACLU filed a lawsuit Monday morning on behalf of the Oklahoma Observer, its editor and co-owner Arnold Hamilton, The Guardian, and freelance reporter Katie Fretland, who covered the April execution for them. When Lockett began showing clear signs of discomfort midway through the procedure, Oklahoma officials closed the blinds to the chamber and left witnesses unable to see his final moments.
Earlier coverage of Oklahoma's botched execution begins at the link. Related posts are in the botch and journalism category indexes.
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