A law­suit filed in fed­er­al court in Oklahoma on August 25 by var­i­ous news orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the Oklahoma Observer and the Guardian US, seeks to give media wit­ness­es a more com­plete view of exe­cu­tions than is cur­rent­ly allowed. The peti­tion alleges that the right to wit­ness the entire exe­cu­tion is pro­tect­ed by the First Amendment, stat­ing, ​“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.” Current prac­tice in Oklahoma only per­mits wit­ness­es to begin watch­ing once offi­cials start admin­is­ter­ing the lethal injec­tion drugs. The view of wit­ness­es is blocked while the inmate is strapped to the gur­ney and intra­venous lines are insert­ed. During Clayton Lockett’s botched exe­cu­tion in April, the blinds were closed again when Lockett began to writhe and groan after the drugs should have tak­en effect. Katie Fretland, a reporter who attend­ed Lockett’s exe­cu­tion and is a plain­tiff in the law­suit, said, ​“At an exe­cu­tion, the press serves as the public’s eyes and ears. The gov­ern­ment shouldn’t be allowed to effec­tive­ly blind­fold us when things go wrong. The pub­lic has a right to the whole sto­ry, not a ver­sion edit­ed by government officials.”

The suit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the news organizations.

(Press Release, ​“ACLU and News Organizations Sue Over Closed Blinds During Botched Lockett Execution,” American Civil Liberties Union, August 25, 2014). See Lethal Injection. Listen to DPIC’s lat­est pod­cast on Lethal Injections.

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