Joseph Corcoran's execution in Indiana is scheduled to take place without independent media witnesses, marking a departure from historical practice and raising concerns about government secrecy.
A sign is posted outside of Indiana State Prison where, barring last-minute court action or intervention by Gov. Eric Holcomb, Joseph Corcoran, 49, convicted in the 1997 killings of his brother and three other people, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection before sunrise Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, in Michigan City, Ind.
(AP Photo/Erin Hooley)From public hangings in the town square to lethal injections witnessed by journalists, executions historically have mostly been carried out with at least some public scrutiny. That will not be the case in Indiana early Wednesday, when Joseph Corcoran is set to be put to death by lethal injection without any independent witnesses present. The unusual secrecy is the result of state laws shielding information about the death penalty, and some First Amendment advocates and death penalty experts say the lack of transparency during the gravest of government punishments is alarming. Media witnesses play a crucial role in executions by providing the public with independent, firsthand and factual accounts of an execution, said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). “Media ensures government accountability and transparency in an otherwise closed and secretive process,” Maher said. “The decision to exclude media witnesses raises troubling questions about whether state officials lack the confidence or the ability to conduct the execution without botching it.” The Associated Press aims to cover every U.S. execution because the public has a right to know about all stages of the criminal justice process — including when things do not go according to the government’s plans. 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. Formal descriptions of lethal injections by prison officials are sometimes sanitized compared with the detailed accounts offered by journalist
EXECUTIONS INDIANA FIRST AMENDMENT TRANSPARENCY DEATH PENALTY
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