Opinion ID: 778694
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The historical tradition of public access to executions

Text: 16 Historically, executions were open to all comers. In England, from 1196 to 1783, the city of Tyburn hosted up to 50,000 public executions. See John Laurence, A History of Capital Punishment 177-178, 179 (1960). The Old Bailey, opposite Newgate, was the site of public executions from 1783 to 1868. See id. at 179-180. Tyburn and Newgate both drew large and disorderly crowds; in 1807 a crowd as large as 40,000 congregated at Newgate. See id. at 180; see also David D. Cooper, The Lesson of the Scaffold 1-26 (1974). 17 Executions were fully open events in the United States as well. See John D. Bessler, Televised Executions and the Constitution: Recognizing a First Amendment Right of Access to State Executions, 45 Fed. Comm. L.J. 355, 359-64 (1993); Neil E. Nussbaum, Film at Eleven ... — Does the Press Have a Right to Attend and Videotape Executions?, 20 N.C. Cent. L.J. 121, 122-23 (1992); Roderick C. Patrick, Hiding Death, 18 New Eng. J. on Crim. & Civ. Confinement 117, 118 (1992). California abolished public executions in 1858, moving them within prison walls, and the last town square execution in the United States took place in 1937. See Bessler, 45 Fed. Comm. L.J. at 365; Nussbaum, 20 N.C. Cent. L.J. at 124. Approximately 500 people watched a hanging in Galena, Missouri. Nussbaum, 20 N.C. Cent. L.J. at 124. The year before, thousands observed a public hanging in Owensboro, Kentucky. Id. 18 When executions were moved out of public fora and into prisons, the states implemented procedures that ensured executions would remain open to some public scrutiny. In abolishing public executions in 1858, for example, California provided that a minimum of twelve respectable citizens should be present at the private execution. Cal. First Amend. III, 150 F.3d at 978 (noting also that the current version of the statute, Cal.Penal Code § 3605, is virtually identical to the 1858 statute). Every state authorizing the death penalty currently requires that official witnesses be present at each execution. See Bessler, 45 Comm. L.J. at 368-72. Further, when public executions were first abolished in America, the press was still allowed to attend. See Louis P. Massur, Rites of Execution 114-16 (Oxford University Press 1989). But see Bessler, 45 Fed. Comm. L.J. at 364 (noting that Minnesota did not permit press access to executions); Holden, 137 U.S. at 486, 11 S.Ct. 143. In California, the press has been a constant presence since executions were moved into prisons. Cal. First Amend. III, 150 F.3d at 978. Currently, in addition to the 12 official witnesses who attend California executions, 17 news media witnesses are also invited. Thus, there is a tradition of at least limited public access to executions. That only select members of the public attend does not erode the public nature of executions — these official witnesses act as representatives for the public at large. Cf. Richmond Newspapers, 448 U.S. at 573, 100 S.Ct. 2814 (noting that people now acquire information about trials chiefly through the media rather than first hand, and validating the media's claim that it functions as a surrogate[] for the public). 19 Defendants argue that the public does not have a right to view the initial execution procedures, but rather only the execution itself, which defendants define as beginning when the lethal chemicals start to flow. This definition, however, is simply of defendants' own making. The public and press historically have been allowed to watch the condemned inmate enter the execution place, be attached to the execution device and then die. As we noted in California First Amendment III, before California adopted the lethal gas method of execution, witnesses were permitted to view hangings in their entirety, from the condemned's ascent up the gallows to the fall of the trap door. 150 F.3d at 978. Thereafter, witnesses were also permitted to observe lethal gas executions from the time the condemned was escorted into the gas chamber until pronouncement of death. Id. Accordingly, historical tradition strongly supports the public's First Amendment right to view the condemned as the guards escort him into the chamber, strap him to the gurney and insert the intravenous lines. 20