Prison officials are unconstitutionally limiting public access to executions in Virginia by blocking witnesses from seeing certain steps in the process, four news organizations allege in a federal lawsuit filed Monday. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Richmond allegesthe department is violating the First Amendment by using curtains to block witnesses from seeing "crucial steps" in carrying out a lethal injection or electrocution — the two execution methods allowed under state law. "These limits on witnesses's ability to view Virginia's executions severely curtail the public's ability to understand how those executions are administered, or to assess whether a particular execution violates either the Constitution or the state's prescribed execution procedures, or is otherwise botched," the news organizations state in the lawsuit.
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