Indiana law says that the press has no right to be present when the state carries out executions. It limits those who can attend to the warden of the prison where the execution is carried out, immediate family members of the crime victim, no more than five friends or relatives of the convicted person, the prison physician, and the prison chaplain.
Only if an inmate selects a member of the press as one of the five friends may they attend.
Last year, a coalition of news organizations sued in federal court, alleging that the state’s ban on press access violates the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press. On June 5, in a split decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled against them…