Wire
Indiana alone denies public, press access to executions
A Seventh Circuit dissent says every active death-penalty state except Indiana and Wyoming allows some public or press access. Wyoming has no prisoners on death row, leaving Indiana as the lone active-death-row state with no guaranteed access.
In the Seventh Circuit, a dissent put Indiana in an uncomfortable place: alone, the judge said, among active-death-row states that do not guarantee public and press access to executions. The appeal came in a case brought by the Associated Press and other plaintiffs over who gets to witness the state carrying out a death sentence.
That matters because an execution is the final act of the criminal justice system. The dispute is not just about who gets a seat in the room, but whether the public can see the state use its most irreversible punishment through reporters or other outside witnesses.
A state out of step
The comparison in the dissent was blunt. Twenty-seven states and the federal government permit capital punishment. Of the remaining 23 states, only Indiana and Wyoming do not guarantee press access to executions.
Indiana, in that telling, is the outlier that keeps the room closed when most death-penalty states leave at least some path for outside reporting.
Why the dissent matters
The dissent treated that gap as more than symbolism. It said the absence of guaranteed public and press access leaves Indiana’s executions unusually shielded from outside scrutiny.
For readers, the practical question is simple: if the state is going to carry out a death sentence, how much of that act should the public be allowed to witness? The dissent’s answer was that Indiana gives up less visibility than almost anywhere else.