BH Media Group d/b/a/ Richmond Times-Dispatch, et al v. Harold W. Clarke (Lethal Injection - Virginia)
About the Case
The Clinic represents four media organizations—the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Guardian, the Associated Press, and Gannett—in a constitutional challenge to the secrecy of aspects of executions carried out by the Commonwealth of Virginia. The First Amendment guarantees the public’s right to witness the entirety of executions. But Virginia’s current execution protocol bars witnesses from observing key parts of the process, including the insertion of intravenous lines and the administration of drugs in lethal injection executions. The Clinic has filed a complaint in federal court asking the judge to order Virginia to allow the public to witness the entirety of its administration of the death penalty.
