Experts raise concerns after Texas execution without media
Source: Associated Press
JUAN A. LOZANO,
Associated Press
May 20, 2021
Updated: May 20, 2021 10:49 p.m.
HOUSTON (AP) — While officials with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice are blaming miscommunication for preventing reporters from witnessing the state’s first execution in nearly a year, legal and death penalty experts worry it's another example of what they see as a lack of transparency and competency in how the death penalty is carried out in the U.S.
Two reporters, including one with The Associated Press, had been set to witness Wednesday’s execution of Quintin Jones at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. But they were not escorted into a viewing room adjacent to the death chamber because a call was never made to summon them.
Jones, condemned for the September 1999 killing of his great-aunt, Berthena Bryant, was executed with no media present. The previous 570 executions carried out since Texas resumed capital punishment in 1982 all had at least one media witness — and it was often an AP journalist.
The AP aims to cover every U.S. execution, one of the gravest procedures carried out by governments, and has for decades because the public has the right to know about all stages of the criminal justice process. The AP often is the sole media presence at U.S. executions, and explains the American death penalty process to the world.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/article/Experts-raise-concerns-after-Texas-execution-16192390.php
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The state should not have the power of execution in any circumstance. 
