AGN Media Editorial Board
The recent report that Texas had no media witnesses to an execution in mid-May was characterized as “inexcusable” by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the agency that oversees the state’s prison system.
It was indeed a troubling oversight that leaves us wondering how it could have happened in the first place. The May 19 execution of Quentin Jones in Huntsville marked the first one in almost a year, according to an Associated Press story, and it seems the state would have focused on ensuring every step would be handled competently and professionally.
Regardless of how one feels about capital punishment, it is part of the criminal justice process and the ways and means in which it is carried out must be subject to media scrutiny representing the interest of the public. According to The AP, two reporters were scheduled to witness the execution, but they did not because of what the TDCJ termed a communication error complicated by other factors.
Nonprofit Director Talks Open Records and Government Transparency
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Texas executions must not exclude witnesses, scrutiny of media
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Protecting the Right to Publish
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