Archives for November 2011

From the Associated Press

The Idaho Department of Correction says it will not allow media witnesses to view the entire execution of Paul Ezra Rhoades, and two separate groups are protesting the policy, the Associated Press reports. Rhoades is scheduled to die by lethal injection Friday, making him the first person to be executed under Idaho’s new lethal injection guidelines.

Prison officials say to maintain Rhoades’ dignity, they won’t allow witnesses to view him being restrained or having the IVs inserted. They also said changing the procedure now could be disruptive. But a group of Idaho news organizations say that policy conflicts with a 2002 federal court ruling that found the public, through the media, must be allowed to view executions in their entirety. The news organizations have asked the state to reconsider. Click below for a full report from AP reporter Rebecca Boone.

Idaho restricts witness access to execution

By REBECCA BOONE, Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho (AP) ? The Idaho Department of Correction says it will not allow media witnesses to view the entire execution of Paul Ezra Rhoades, and two separate groups are protesting the policy.
Rhoades is scheduled to die by lethal injection Friday, making him the first person to be executed under Idaho’s new lethal injection guidelines.

Prison officials say to maintain Rhoades’ dignity, they won’t allow witnesses to view him being restrained or having the IVs inserted. They also said changing the procedure now could be disruptive.
But a group of Idaho news organizations say that policy conflicts with a 2002 federal court ruling that found the public, through the media, must be allowed to view executions in their entirety. The news organizations have asked the state to reconsider.

In a separate effort, the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho is also protesting the restricted access. The ACLU contends that if the execution can’t be carried out in compliance with federal court rulings, it must be postponed.

Rhoades was sentenced to death for the 1987 kidnappings and murders of 34-year-old Idaho Falls teacher Susan Michelbacher and 21-year-old newlywed and Blackfoot convenience store clerk Stacy Dawn Baldwin. He was also sentenced to life in prison for the 1987 murder of 20-year-old Idaho Falls convenience store clerk Nolan Haddon.

The Associated Press first learned late last week that the Department of Correction intended to restrict witness viewing to after the IVs were inserted. The organization asked department director Brent Reinke to allow the media to view the entire execution process. On Tuesday, Correction Department spokesman Jeff Ray said the state had considered the request but decided against it.

“The procedures were developed so that we would preserve the dignity of the offender,” Ray said in an email to the AP. “After discussing the matter with Director Reinke and legal counsel we have chosen to follow the procedures as they are written.”

The AP then joined with the Idaho Press Club, the Newspaper Association of Idaho, the Idaho State Broadcasters Association, The Post Register, the Blackfoot Morning News, the Idaho State Journal, the Idaho Statesman, the Idaho Press-Tribune and the Lewiston Morning Tribune to formally urge the department to reconsider. In a letter to Reinke and state attorneys, the news organizations’ attorney, Charles Brown, pointed out that the public holds a First Amendment right to view all aspects of the execution.

Brown noted a 9th U.S. Circuit Court ruling arising out of a lawsuit between the First Amendment Coalition and Jeanne Woodford, the warden of San Quentin prison in California. The federal appeals court found that allowing the public to view executions, through the media, plays a significant role in the functioning of capital punishment.

“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,” the 9th Circuit wrote in that opinion.

Wednesday evening, Reinke sent a formal response, again declining to allow the media witnesses to view the full execution.

“The changes you requested at this late hour to IDOC’s execution procedures would have a potentially disruptive effect on the entire process. Among other things, it could compromise the anonymity of members of IDOC’s execution team,” Reinke wrote in the email.

The director said his department was aware of the 9th Circuit’s ruling but contended it was based on facts unique to California.

“In the months to come we shall review every aspect of Friday’s execution. As we do, we shall welcome your clients’ input on how we can improve this process,” Reinke wrote.

The 9th Circuit ruling addressed California prison officials’ concerns that allowing viewing of the entire execution in that state would allow reporters to figure out the identity of execution teams. In that case, the court found that surgical garb including facemasks could effectively conceal the identities of the team, and the judges noted that even if media witnesses were kept out of the room until the execution team left the area, a condemned inmate could easily reveal their identities by giving their names in his final statement.

In its separate effort, the ACLU of Idaho sent a letter to the Idaho Department of Correction on Tuesday citing the same 9th Circuit case. The letter said the “initial procedures,” such as bringing a condemned inmate into a death chamber, strapping him or her down and inserting IVs, are “inextricably intertwined with the process of putting the condemned inmate to death.”

In the letter, ACLU of Idaho staff attorney Lea Cooper called on the department to postpone all executions until they can “be brought in line with existing federal law.”

“The First Amendment rights of prisoners and of the public cannot be sacrificed at the whim of IDOC or any persons involved in administering executions,” the ACLU wrote.

It was unclear late Wednesday whether the ACLU or the news organizations planned to take further action, such as a filing a lawsuit, to challenge the Correction Department’s policy.

From the Associated Press

Op-ed from the Moscow-Pullman Daily News

When residents of U.S. Highway 12 started hearing rumors about giant megaloads rolling past their homes, they found out what was really going on by filing public records requests.

When a state senator wouldn’t talk about his DUI arrest after he was found in a stolen jacknifed SUV and trailer, the public records did the talking for him, and the whole story came out.

When new legislative district lines were drawn this year, public records requests yielded information that showed people what direct impact the new lines would have on their representation: Which incumbents landed in the same districts and would have to face off for a chance to remain in office.

And reporters around the state have been combing through thousands of public records about the former University of Idaho professor, Ernesto Bustamante, who shot a graduate student to death and then killed himself, trying to help people make sense of how it happened and how the university dealt with the events leading up to the tragedy.

All these things were possible because laws protect citizens’ rights to know what’s going on in the government they fund with their tax dollars and participate in with their votes. In Idaho, the Idaho Open Meeting Law and Idaho Public Records Law play key roles in ensuring that our government remains open to us. Best case: An open government, supervised by an informed and engaged citizenry. That’s how we get government of, by and for the people.

All are invited to a one-day symposium on Nov. 9 entitled “Open Access: Citizens, Media & Government,” sponsored by the University of Idaho School of Journalism and Mass Media, with support from the McClure Center for Public Policy Research and the Society of Professional Journalists.

A new documentary film by UI students Hans Guske and Ilya Pinchuck, “Fighting Goliath: Megaloads & the Power of Protest,” will debut at 3 p.m.; a panel including megaloads opponents Lin Laughy and Borg Hendrickson, Lewiston Tribune reporter William Spence and myself will discuss “In the Sunshine: Holding Government Accountable” from 4-5 p.m.; and I’ll give a lecture entitled “Open Government: Why it Matters” at 7 p.m. in Room 106 of the Iddings Agricultural Sciences Building on the corner of Rayburn and Sixth streets; a reception will follow.

There’s more: In December, Idahoans for Openness in Government, known as IDOG, will bring Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden to town for a seminar on exactly what is, and isn’t, covered by the open meeting and public records laws and how everyone can comply with them. That seminar, co-sponsored by this newspaper, will be Dec. 7 from 6-8:30 p.m. at Moscow City Hall in the city council chambers; like the UI’s symposium, it is free and open to the public. Local and state government officials and their staffers, reporters, and interested citizens all are invited.

Sure, as a reporter who covers state government, open government makes it easier – possible, really – for me to do my job. But it also does more than that: It enables all of us to be informed, effective participants in what happens in our public life – and that matters.

Betsy Z. Russell is a Boise-based reporter for The Spokesman-Review, and is president of the Idaho Press Club and president and a founding board member of IDOG.

Op-ed from the Moscow-Pullman Daily News