The Associated Press v. Nelsen
Case Number: 25-1513-III
Court: The Chancery Court of Davidson County, Tennessee, for the Twentieth Judicial District at Nashville
Clients: The Associated Press, Gannett, Nashville Public Media, Nashville Public Radio, Scripps Media, Six Rivers Media, and TEGNA
Background: Since 1994, Tennessee law has permitted seven members of the news media to witness executions. Tennessee Department of Correction protocols, however, significantly restrict what those media witnesses are able to observe before, during, and after executions by lethal injection or electrocution.
Under lethal injection protocols adopted in January 2025, journalists are unable to witness several critical steps of the execution proceedings, including the preparation of the syringes and of the condemned, the state’s administration of lethal injection drugs, and the physician examination and pronouncement of death. The TDOC adopted similarly restrictive press access protocols for deaths by electrocution in 2017.
The protocols have severely impacted the news media’s ability to provide the public with accurate information about how the state carries out capital punishment. During two separate execution proceedings, media witnesses were allowed to access just 10 and 12 minutes of the proceedings, respectively.
On behalf of a coalition of news organizations — The Associated Press, Gannett, Nashville Public Media, Nashville Public Radio, Scripps Media, Six Rivers Media, and TEGNA — attorneys from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed this lawsuit against the TDOC commissioner and the warden of the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution, alleging that the state’s electrocution and lethal injection protocols violate the news media’s constitutional and statutory rights of access to witness execution proceedings.
The lawsuit asks the Davidson County Chancery Court to order the state to permit journalists to observe the entirety of future execution proceedings, including the execution of Harold Wayne Nichols, which is scheduled for Dec. 11, 2025.
Quote: “For decades, Tennessee law has expressly allowed for media witnesses at executions to help ensure that the state is appropriately carrying out capital punishment,” said Paul McAdoo, the Reporters Committee’s Local Legal Initiative attorney for Tennessee, who is representing the news outlets alongside RCFP Senior Staff Attorney Beth Soja and Media Litigation Fellow Allyson Veile. “The recent protocols put in place by the Tennessee Department of Correction unconstitutionally prohibit observation of critical portions of execution proceedings, making it virtually impossible for journalists to provide the public with a complete and independent account of what takes place when the government exercises this ultimate power.”
Related: In May, for example, Reporters Committee Indiana Attorney Kris Cundiff filed a lawsuit on behalf of a media coalition in Indiana challenging the state’s ban on media witnesses at executions. Cundiff also represents the Indiana Capital Chronicle in a lawsuit that prompted the state of Indiana to release the amount it paid to acquire a new lethal injection drug. And in September, a media coalition led by the Reporters Committee filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the Georgia Court of Appeals to rule that the press has a constitutional right to access state execution proceedings.
Filings:
2025-10-28: Complaint
2025-10-28: Exhibits 1-10
2025-10-28: Exhibits 11-25
2025-10-28: Exhibits 26-40
2025-10-29: Motion for temporary injunction
2025-10-29: Memorandum of law in support of media coalition’s motion for temporary injunction
2025-10-29: Motion exhibits A-K
2025-10-29: Memo exhibits 42-45