Opinion ID: 778694
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The functional importance of public access to executions

Text: 21 Independent public scrutiny — made possible by the public and media witnesses to an execution — plays a significant role in the proper functioning of capital punishment. An informed public debate is critical in determining whether execution by lethal injection comports with the evolving standards of decency which mark the progress of a maturing society. Trop v. Dulles, 356 U.S. 86, 101, 78 S.Ct. 590, 2 L.Ed.2d 630 (1958). To determine whether lethal injection executions are fairly and humanely administered, or whether they ever can be, citizens must have reliable information about the initial procedures, which are invasive, possibly painful and may give rise to serious complications. Cf. Globe Newspaper, 457 U.S. at 606, 102 S.Ct. 2613 (Public scrutiny of a criminal trial enhances the quality and safeguards the integrity of the factfinding process, with benefits to both the defendant and to society as a whole.). This information is best gathered first-hand or from the media, which serves as the public's surrogate. See Richmond Newspapers, 448 U.S. at 572, 100 S.Ct. 2814 (People in an open society do not demand infallibility from their institutions, but it is difficult for them to accept what they are prohibited from observing.). Further, public access ... fosters an appearance of fairness, thereby heightening public respect for the judicial process. Globe Newspaper, 457 U.S. at 606, 102 S.Ct. 2613; accord Richmond Newspapers, 448 U.S. at 572, 100 S.Ct. 2814. Finally, public observation of executions fosters the same sense of catharsis that public observation of criminal trials fosters. Although this may reflect the dark side of human nature, the Supreme Court has recognized that the public must be permitted to see justice done, lest it vent its frustration in extralegal ways. See Richmond Newspapers, 448 U.S. at 571, 100 S.Ct. 2814 (The crucial prophylactic aspects of the administration of justice cannot function in the dark; no community catharsis can occur if justice is done in a corner or in any covert manner. (internal quotation marks and brackets omitted)). Accordingly, the same functional concerns that drove the Court to recognize the public's right of access to criminal trial proceedings compel us to hold that the public has a First Amendment right to view the condemned as he enters the execution chamber, is forcibly restrained and fitted with the apparatus of death. 22 Because there is both an historical tradition — beginning with entirely public executions and continuing with the practice of inviting official witnesses — and a functional importance of public access to executions, both prongs of the test articulated in the Richmond Newspapers line of cases have been satisfied. We therefore hold that the public enjoys a First Amendment right to view executions from the moment the condemned is escorted into the execution chamber, including those initial procedures that are inextricably intertwined with the process of putting the condemned inmate to death.