Willie James Pye was put to death by lethal injection in the state’s first execution in over four years last week. Pye was pronounced dead at 11:03 p.m. March 20 at the state prison in Jackson after being convicted for a 1993 kidnapping, rape and murder of his former girlfriend.
But despite the case’s significance and national attention over Pye, the public’s view of the execution itself was restricted under state protocol blocking media witnesses for state executions from critical parts of the process.
Two days before Pye’s execution, the American Civil Liberties Union filed an emergency appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court challenging media witness restrictions ahead of Pye’s March 20 execution. Restrictions include no media witnesses for the preliminary steps in state executions including preparation of lethal drugs and checking equipment. While the condemned is restrained and strapped to the gurney, only one media witness is allowed. There are also no media witnesses for drug administration itself, which is done through IV tubing behind a wall while the condemned sits in view of the media. In addition, the state arbitrarily cuts off audio access from inside the execution chamber.
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