‘Dignity’ is a poor excuse for blocking press access to state executions

Indiana law says that the press has no right to be present when the state carries out executions. It limits those who can attend to the warden of the prison where the execution is carried out, immediate family members of the crime victim, no more than five friends or relatives of the convicted person, the prison physician, and the prison chaplain.  

Only if an inmate selects a member of the press as one of the five friends may they attend.  

Last year, a coalition of news organizations sued in federal court, alleging that the state’s ban on press access violates the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press. On June 5, in a split decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled against them.

The opinion misreads the history of American executions and relevant Supreme Court precedents. Adding insult to injury, it claims that keeping the press from witnessing executions protects the “dignity” of the person being put to death. And its decision tees up a case for the Supreme Court to say once and for all that the First Amendment guarantees press access to executions.

Whereas other states limit the number of reporters who may witness an execution, as well as what parts of an execution they are allowed to see, Wyoming (which hasn’t executed anyone since 1992) is the only other state that does not allow press access to executions.  

The news organizations that brought the suit in Indiana argued that executions have “been historically open to the public or its surrogates in the press, and [that] trustworthy first-hand accounts are of immense........

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