News outlets seek to pause Indiana law barring journalists from witnessing executions

Yahoo

16-05-2025

Indiana is one of only two states with the death penalty that prohibits media witnesses. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)
A coalition of news organizations, including the Indiana Capital Chronicle, is asking a federal judge to block a state law barring press from witnessing state executions, arguing it violates the First Amendment.
The Indiana Attorney General's Office, in response to the preliminary injunction request, urged the court on Thursday to deny what state attorneys called a 'last-minute' and legally baseless request.
The dispute centers on an Indiana law that limits attendance at executions to: the warden, a warden's designated assistant, the prison physician, another physician, a spiritual advisor, a prison chaplain, five friends or relatives of the inmate and eight members of the victim's family.
A Department of Correction (DOC) policy also says press 'shall not be permitted to witness the execution.'
News reporters are granted access to a designated area outside of the Indiana State Prison but are not permitted to directly witness the state's actions — unless invited by the condemned to fill one of the five spots.
Five media outlets filed the underlying lawsuit last week. Attorneys with the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press are representing the news entities.
A lack of press access leaves the public with an incomplete understanding of the proceedings.
– complaint filed by five news entities, including the Indiana Capital Chronicle
A hearing before Judge Matthew Brookman is scheduled for Friday morning in Evansville, in Indiana's southern district. It's not clear if Brookman will make a decision at that hearing.
The state attempted to move the legal matter to the federal court in Indiana's northern district, but that request was denied by the judge.
Court proceedings come just days before the scheduled execution of death row inmate Benjamin Ritchie at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. The prison warden said in a declaration filed Thursday that Ritchie has not requested media be permitted as one of his five witnesses.
The execution is set to take place before sunrise on Tuesday, May 20, and will be the second death sentence carried out in Indiana since the state resumed capital punishment last year.
Before that, executions were on a hiatus for more than a decade.
Media organizations asked the federal court to intervene before Ritchie's execution. They're also seeking access to future executions until the broader legal challenge is resolved.
In a motion for a preliminary injunction filed Monday, the five media outlets — including the Capital Chronicle, The Associated Press, Gannett, Circle City Broadcasting and TEGNA — argued that Indiana Code and DOC policy violate their First Amendment rights by denying press access to executions.
The groups contends that journalists, as representatives of the public, are entitled to witness executions — a critical part of the criminal justice process.
Reporters from all five entities have covered portions of the case and The Associated Press regularly covers executions nationwide.
Indiana is one of 27 states with the death penalty, but one of only two states — along with Wyoming — that doesn't include media witnesses at executions.
Senior Reporter Casey Smith witnessed December's state execution of Joseph Corcoran — via the inmate's guest list.
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Plaintiffs argued that this restriction undermines a key purpose of the First Amendment: public accountability.
'Loss of First Amendment freedoms, for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury,' the plaintiffs said in the motion for preliminary injunction, quoting a 2012 opinion issued by a federal judge in Illinois in a separate media access case.
The news entities pointed out in their complaint that the federal government permits journalists to observe executions conducted at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute.
They also held that Indiana's law treats the press more harshly than other members of the public. While victims' families and a condemned person's friends or clergy may attend, the media is explicitly barred unless a journalist is handpicked by the inmate.
'The statute and policy single out the press for disfavorable treatment,' attorneys said in the complaint.
'A lack of press access leaves the public with an incomplete understanding of the proceedings,' they continued, citing examples from recent federal executions in which journalists documented botched attempts and unusual behavior by medical staff or inmates — observations that would not have been publicly known otherwise.
But in a 25-page filing submitted Thursday, the state pushed back, arguing that executions are not judicial proceedings covered by the First Amendment's right of public access.
The attorney general's office additionally emphasized that Indiana law permits inmates to designate up to five witnesses — potentially including reporters — meaning journalists are not categorically banned.
'This lawsuit seeks to establish privileged access for the press beyond what the law generally provides the public,' state attorneys wrote. 'The Constitution does not mandate privileging the press.'
Defendants also argued that executions are not part of the judicial or adjudicative process, and said in their response that a criminal prosecution comes to an end once a sentence is imposed.
'After that, the individual is committed to the executive for execution of the sentence,' the attorney general's office wrote.
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The office leaned on a 19th-century U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave states broad power to regulate executions — including who can witness them.
'These are regulations which the legislature, in its wisdom, and for the public good, could legally prescribe,' the state quoted from Holden v. Minnesota, decided in 1890. The attorney general's office emphasized that even banning press entirely from executions is constitutionally permissible.
The state also criticized the plaintiffs for waiting until days before the execution to file their motion, calling the timing 'inequitable' and a bid to delay a lawfully imposed sentence.
'They waited … until only seven days and three minutes before the scheduled initiation of the execution they now seek to enjoin,' the filing continued.
The state warned, too, that any sudden change in procedure, such as allowing unvetted media access, could complicate operations and compromise staff anonymity.
'Adding an unknown number of persons into the facility and into this process to witness a currently undefined portion of this procedure greatly complicates the strong interest the State has in performing a complex operation,' per the attorney general's office.
State officials have largely shielded details about how Indiana executions are carried out, but the state's motion — in addition to a declaration provided by Indiana State Prison Warden Ron Neal — sheds light on DOC's extensive planning and training.
According to the state, executions are performed by a specially-trained group that's divided into multiple sub-units ,including an injection team, IV team, extraction team, and a death watch unit.
Each member of the execution team must pass medical, psychological and background screenings. The teams regularly train every two to three months, but when a death warrant is scheduled, that schedule increases to biweekly.
New document shows Indiana paid $900,000 for execution drug, but other details still sparse
Since the Indiana Supreme Court issued the death warrant for Ritchie on April 15, the teams have been training weekly, Neal said.
Hands-on training involves simulations for IV insertion using EMS-provided equipment and infrared technology to locate veins.
Thirty days before an execution, officials begin preparations inside the facility, Neal noted in his declaration.
The condemned inmate undergoes a medical evaluation and weekly assessments of their veins for IV access. The execution chamber is cleaned and inspected weekly, then daily in the final five days before the scheduled execution date.
Equipment, supplies, and communication systems — linking the prison and the chamber to the governor's office, the Indiana Supreme Court and internal command centers — are tested, as well.
Prison officials meet with the inmate to discuss the lethal injection process, witness lists and options for final statements and spiritual advisement.
The DOC protocol also includes test runs to ensure the victim's family is kept separate from the condemned's witnesses. Two-way radios on separate frequencies from normal prison traffic ensure real-time coordination throughout the process.
Gov. Mike Braun rejected a clemency plea from Ritchie on Wednesday, one day after the Indiana Parole Board recommended that the death row inmate's upcoming execution proceed as scheduled.
Ritchie, who fatally shot Beech Grove law enforcement officer William Toney during a police pursuit on Sept. 29, 2000, had petitioned the board to commute his death sentence to life without parole.
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