Prisons

The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections’ protocol for executions violates the First Amendment-based right of public access to judicial proceedings, two local newspapers argued in a lawsuit filed against the agency earlier this week.

The media will be able to view the full execution of an Idaho death row inmate scheduled to be put to death tomorrow after a federal appeals court granted the journalists' request late Friday.

The decision grants The Associated Press and 16 other media organizations’ request for complete access to the execution of convicted murderer Richard A. Leavitt, which is scheduled to take place Tuesday.

A federal appeals court heard oral arguments Thursday in The Associated Press and 16 other media organizations’ request for full viewing access to an Idaho execution.

AP Photo

The Idaho execution chamber

A Nashville, Tenn., woman can pursue her defamation lawsuit stemming from a prison reality show that featured footage unknowingly taken of the woman while she visited her husband in prison, a federal judge ruled last week.

A New York State Supreme Court justice awarded the New York Civil Liberties Union attorney’s fees last week after ruling that Erie County had violated the state’s Freedom of Information Law, according to court documents.

The county was ordered to pay $9,123.90 for litigation it made necessary when it refused to honor the union’s Oct. 2009 freedom of information requests.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said it would not hear the appeal of a death row inmate who argued that a federal policy banning in-person interviews violated his constitutional rights.

Proposed legislation that would apply existing public records laws to all prisons housing federal inmates was discussed during a congressional briefing on Monday.

The bill, H.R. 2450, was crafted to extend the Freedom of Information Act to private prisons that contract with government agencies. If the bill is passed, publicly financed private prisons, which house more than 100,000 federal inmates, would be subject to the same reporting standards as the Bureau of Prisons.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed two bills this week that were designed to bring greater transparency and accountability to California's public colleges. This is the latest in a string of actions Schwarzenegger has taken against increased transparency since assuming the governor's office in 2003.

Prison Legal News won a victory in its pursuit of public records from Corrections Corporations of America, a private company that runs prisons in Tennessee.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled that CCA was the functional equivalent of a state agency because it was performing a traditional state function in running a prison and thus it was subject to the state’s open records law.

A Tennessee judge ruled on Tuesday that a private prison company based there is subject to public records laws, according to The Associated Press.