Judge Opens Up Media Access for Tennessee Executions

A judge ruled on Friday that Tennessee prison officials must grant expanded access to media members to view state-run executions, after a coalition of news groups, including the AP, sued over claims that state execution protocols unconstitutionally limit thorough and accurate reporting. Before Chancellor I'Ashea L. Myles' order, reporters witnessing lethal injections were limited to a short time period during which they could view the execution process. The coalition's complaint argues the protocols violate the public and press' constitutional rights to witness the entirety of executions conducted by the Tennessee Department of Correction, "from the time the condemned enters the execution chamber until after the condemned is declared dead."

The lawsuit sought a judgment that the protocols are unconstitutional and an injunction to allow the press to see the full execution process. Myles' order granted a temporary injunction allowing media members and other witnesses to see most of the execution process, with security procedures in place for those carrying out the procedures. The suit, filed in Davidson County Chancery Court in Nashville, names as defendants Kenneth Nelsen, warden of the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville that houses Tennessee's execution chamber, and Frank Strada, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Correction. The agency didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

During previous executions, media members began seeing what happens once the condemned person is already strapped to a gurney and hooked up to IV lines. They don't know at which precise moment the injections begin, and those administering the injections are in a separate room. The process essentially granted witnesses a 10- to 15-minute window to observe the process. Prison officials argue that the First Amendment doesn't grant the press a right of special access to information not regularly available to the public. They claim the restrictions are necessary because allowing the press to see the full execution would endanger prison security and people involved in the process.

Now during executions involving lethal injection, curtains to the official witness room shall be opened to the execution chamber at 10am, which, according to protocols, is when the inmate is secured with restraints on a gurney and the IV insertion process begins. The curtains must remain open until the pronouncement of death, the judge ruled. In addition to the AP, the media coalition includes Gannett, Nashville Public Media, Nashville Public Radio, Scripps Media, Six Rivers Media, and TEGNA.