Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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Two news organizations, including one from Oklahoma, and a freelance journalist are suing the state Corrections Department, alleging the decision to close the blinds on a botched April execution violated the First Amendment rights of both the public and media witnesses.
The federal civil lawsuit was filed Monday morning in Oklahoma City federal court. In the lawsuit, the national office and the Oklahoma chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Guardian US, The Oklahoma Observer, and freelance journalist Katie Fretland contend that closing the blinds midway through the execution of Clayton D. Lockett kept the media, and by extension the public, from witnessing what they say is the most powerful governmental procedure: the taking of a life.
The journalists involved in the lawsuit are seeking an injunction, asking that lethal injection be a more transparent procedure. They are attempting to put in place a restriction on closing the blinds during an execution and to require corrections departments to allow the press to witness the placement of the inmate’s IV.
Journalists ACLU file federal lawsuit over botched Oklahoma execution News OK
That's going to be interesting.
The federal civil lawsuit was filed Monday morning in Oklahoma City federal court. In the lawsuit, the national office and the Oklahoma chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Guardian US, The Oklahoma Observer, and freelance journalist Katie Fretland contend that closing the blinds midway through the execution of Clayton D. Lockett kept the media, and by extension the public, from witnessing what they say is the most powerful governmental procedure: the taking of a life.
The journalists involved in the lawsuit are seeking an injunction, asking that lethal injection be a more transparent procedure. They are attempting to put in place a restriction on closing the blinds during an execution and to require corrections departments to allow the press to witness the placement of the inmate’s IV.
Journalists ACLU file federal lawsuit over botched Oklahoma execution News OK
That's going to be interesting.
