Federal magistrate weighs arguments in Idaho news groups’ execution access lawsuit

By REBECCA BOONE
Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A federal magistrate judge is expected to hear arguments Tuesday morning in a lawsuit brought by three news organizations that say Idaho prison officials are unconstitutionally hiding parts of lethal injection executions from public view.

The Associated Press, East Idaho News and The Idaho Statesman filed the lawsuit against the director of the Idaho Department of Correction in December. They are asking U.S. Magistrate Judge Debora K. Grasham to temporarily stop the state from restricting media witnesses from viewing the actual injection of lethal chemicals in any executions that may occur before the lawsuit is resolved.

Prison officials say there are important safety and security reasons for keeping some details secret, like the source and type of lethal injection drugs and the identities of execution team members.

Former Idaho Department of Correction Director Josh Tewalt and other prison officials have told lawmakers in the past that anything threatening the confidentiality of execution team members or the source of the state’s execution drugs could put Idaho’s ability to carry out capital punishment at risk, in part because it would be difficult to find qualified volunteers willing to put someone to death.

But the news organizations contend the public has a First Amendment right to witness the entire execution process, including when execution team members push the lethal injection medications into the IV lines connected to a condemned person. Idaho’s prison officials have kept that part of the execution concealed behind screens or walls in each of the three executions completed in the last 50 years.

Media witnesses can already see other execution team members, though their identities are concealed by medical masks and head coverings.

Idaho has attempted four lethal injection executions since the 1970s. Three of them were completed, but the most recent attempt, involving Thomas Eugene Creech, was aborted last year after execution team members were unable to successfully establish an IV line after eight attempts in Creech’s arms and legs.

Lawmakers passed a new law this year that will make firing squads the state’s primary method of execution, starting next year.