Alabama only state to limit media to 1 witness at execution

By KIM CHANDLER
Associated Press

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama will be the third state to carry out a death sentence during the COVID-19 pandemic and is the only one to limit the number of witnesses to a single reporter. The Alabama Department of Corrections says that because of COVID-19 precautions only one reporter will be allowed to witness Thursday’s lethal injection of Willie B. Smith. According to a database maintained by the Death Penalty Information Center, there were 19 executions carried out since April of 2020. All of them were attended by multiple reporters with the exception of one. The Texas prison system neglected to notify reporters to witness the execution of Quinton Jones.