ATLANTA—On March 8, 2024, the ACLU of Georgia and the Law Offices of Gerry Weber filed a lawsuit on behalf of the non-profit news organization The Appeal, Inc., challenging the arbitrary restrictions that the State of Georgia places on media witnesses during executions. The lawsuit names the Georgia Department of Corrections Commissioner Tyrone Oliver, Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison Warden Shawn Emmons, and Georgia Attorney General Christopher M. Carr as violating the Georgia Constitution and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by denying The Appeal and the general public information that they need to be accurately informed about executions carried out by the State.
"The State of Georgia's media access restrictions obstruct The Appeal's ability to fulfill its mission of informing the public about the criminal legal system and how it works," said Molly Greene, strategy and legal director, The Appeal. "The public has a right to know how the State is carrying out this grave and tremendous exercise of governmental power, and The Appeal is fighting to protect that right."
“If the State of Georgia is going to carry out executions of its own citizens–perhaps the most powerful exercise of governmental power there is–then it needs to do so in the eye of the public,” said Cory Isaacson, legal director, ACLU of Georgia. “Before the State attempts to carry out its first execution in more than four years, it must comply with the Georgia and federal Constitutions, which prohibit hiding the execution process from the public and the media.”
“Having members of the press during the entire execution process is the only way brutal problems are revealed. Secreting the execution process hides its reality,” said Gerry Weber, attorney, Law Offices of Gerry Weber.
The State has scheduled the execution of Willie James Pye for March 20, 2024, but currently prohibits media witnesses from accessing key parts of the execution process. The State allows only limited auditory access to the execution process, and restricts visual access at various points during the process. Media witnesses, for example, have no visual or auditory access to the room in which the lethal injection drugs are administered, so they are unable to observe the drugs or quantity being used in the injections, or any concerns or complications that arise during the injection process. The State also prohibits witnesses from hearing most of what is said or what sounds are being made during the execution process, and also prohibits all but one witness from seeing the stage of the execution–attempting to establish intravenous access on the condemned prisoner–that is the most fraught, and has been the source of multiple botched executions.
The Appeal and the general public are dependent on the designated media witnesses to receive accurate information on how the State carries out one of its gravest responsibilities. The State’s arbitrary and unnecessary restrictions block this crucial accounting. Instead, the State obscures key aspects of the execution process, including incidents where complications and/or missteps might arise.
The lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order and interlocutory injunction preventing the State from carrying out executions until it has removed the unconstitutional limits placed on media witnesses’ visual and auditory access to the entire process.
The emergency motion can be found here.
The complaint can be found here.