Indiana State Officials Sued For Blocking Media Access To Executions

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The state of Indiana has a law that blocks journalists from observing executions at the Indiana State Prison. But on May 5, a coalition of media organizations filed a federal lawsuit that seeks to overturn the law as unconstitutional. 

In the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) sued Indiana state prison officials on behalf of the Associated Press, Gannett, the Indiana Capital Chronicle, TEGNA, and WISH-TV. 

“Indiana’s total prohibition on access for the press to attend and witness executions is an outlier among death penalty states and the federal government and severely limits the ability of reporters and news organizations, including Plaintiffs, to exercise their First Amendment rights,” the lawsuit declares [PDF]. 

The news media organizations asked the court to declare that the Indiana state law violates the U.S. Constitution and injunction restraining state officials from enforcing this part of the code. They also urge the court to require that state officials grant the press access to the execution of Benjamin Ritchie and all future executions. 

Ritchie, who was 20 years old when he killed a police officer while trying to steal a van, is scheduled for execution on May 20. According to an op-ed in the Indianapolis Star, “Growing up, Ritchie suffered extensive brain damage due to partial fetal alcohol syndrome and childhood exposure to neurotoxins. His functional age at the time of his crime was closer to that of a teenager.”

In other words, science suggests that Ritchie probably should not be executed for this crime. But Indiana still plans to send him to the execution chamber and reporters from each of the outlets pursuing this lawsuit would like to observe the execution as well as future executions.

The ban against media access to executions prohibits “independent public scrutiny,” the lawsuit argues, which is necessary for informed public debate about capital punishment—particularly lethal injections and whether they comport with “evolving standards of decency.”

Indiana Capital Chronicle is a nonprofit news organization that has one editor and three full-time reporters. Particularly, Casey Smith has covered executions for the Capital Chronicle and recently wrote an article on the planned execution of Ritchie.

Smith previously attempted to cover the execution of Joseph Corcoran, who on December 18, 2024, became the first person to be put to death in Indiana in 15 years. But even though Corcoran added Smith to his list of friends or family, prison officials started the execution before witnesses were allowed into the execution room. 

Similarly, WISH-TV, a local news network in Indianapolis, attempted to interview Corcoran prior to his execution. Tim Spears, a journalist with the network, was denied access to Corcoran, and ultimately, WISH-TV was forced to join other outlets and cover the execution from the Indiana State Prison parking lot. 

Hours after Indiana killed Corcoran, the Associated Press outlined the extreme secrecy that surrounds the state's executions.

“Witnesses from the AP and other news organizations have been able to tell the public when executions went awry, including in Idaho, Alabama, Arizona, Oklahoma and Ohio," Associated Press correspondent Rebecca Boone noted. 

Boone continued, “Formal descriptions of lethal injections by prison officials are sometimes sanitized compared with the detailed accounts offered by journalists. Federal executioners who put 13 inmates to death by lethal injection during the last months of the Trump administration likened the process to falling asleep, while reports by the AP and other outlets described how the condemned persons’ stomachs shuddered as the pentobarbital took effect.”

Beyond prohibiting media witnesses, the Indiana Department of Corrections has joined several other states in thwarting access to information related to lethal injection drugs.

RCFP represented the Capital Chronicle in a lawsuit that forced the state of Indiana to “reveal that it paid $900,000" for pentobarbital. The organization is "still negotiating for access to more information about the acquisition of the drug, including how much of it was purchased.”

“Revealing the amount paid for pentobarbital is only the first step toward transparency in this case,” declared Kris Cundiff, RCFP’s Indiana Local Legal Initiative attorney. “‘Cost’ necessarily includes more than a dollar amount, and our clients will continue to fight for the information that puts this number in context.” 

“The press and the public have a right to know more detailed information when the state chooses to put an offender to death.”