Entries tagged with “Marion Bowman”
Conditions on Death Row
,Representation
,Dec 18, 2024
4th Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Legal Challenge to South Carolina’s Restriction on Media Access to Prisoners
On December 13, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the August, 2024 dismissal of a lawsuit that sought to challenge, on First Amendment grounds, a South Carolina Department of Corrections’ (SCDC) policy that prohibits the publication of interviews between prisoners and the media or members of the public. In its decision, the Fourth Circuit cited to Houchins v. KQED, a 1978 Supreme Court ruling which held that the U.S. Constitution does…
Secrecy
,Upcoming Executions
,Botched Executions
,Lethal Injection
,Nov 22, 2024
New Resource: In Era of Secrecy, States Increasingly Restrict Media Access to Executions
On December 18, Joseph Corcoran is scheduled to be the first person executed by Indiana officials in 15 years. For the first time, the state will use a single drug, pentobarbital, which comes from an unknown source and has been known to cause prisoners “excruciating” pain during executions. But no media witnesses will be present to relay what happens to the public. Indiana is an outlier in its policy decision to completely exclude the press from witnessing executions in the state. But a…