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Por la prensa asociada
Activistas contra la pena de muerte pidieron un fallo el martes en un juicio para ordenar a la policía del estado de Indiana que evite el bloqueo de carreteras que conducen a un criminal donde las ejecuciones federales se reanudaron después de una pausa de 17 años, argumentando que los bloqueos de caminos son zonas de protesta inconstitucionales y obstruyen a los manifestantes. libertad de expresión.
Hours before three July executions, troopers cut off public roads to the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, where all federal executions are carried out by lethal injection. Four more executions are planned for this month and September as part of the Trump administration’s resumption of federal executions.
La demanda federal presentada en Indianápolis a través de la ACLU de los abogados de Indiana en nombre de activistas dice que las carreteras bloqueadas obligaron a los manifestantes a reunirse a unos 3,22 kilómetros del criminal a través de un concesionario de automóviles junto a una carretera, lo que les impidió organizar protestas creíbles. Está buscando una orden judicial que permita a los manifestantes reunir las puertas delictivas fuera de las puertas.
«El símbolo de otras personas que protestan y observan a lo largo de un concesionario de automóviles en una carretera nacional apenas se compara con el símbolo de otras personas que hacen exactamente lo mismo frente a una prisión federal», según los argumentos escritos presentados en la demanda.
Indiana State Police is the sole defendant named in the suit. Sgt. Matt Ames, an ISP spokesman, said the state agency doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons did set aside a fenced-in area within the sprawling prison grounds for demonstrators. But the lawsuit says it is too restrictive and too isolated, making it impossible for protesters to be seen by and interact with members of the public and media.
Bureau of Prisons rules approve only a short list of items protesters can bring into the designated protest site. It includes Bibles, rosaries and candles. It specifically bans cellphones and recording devices, as well as signs made of wood or metal.
Abraham Bonowitz, director of Death Penalty Action, one of the plaintiffs, said he has protested executions in a dozen states and has never seen such restrictions. He speculated that there may be discomfort about what he said was President Donald Trump’s push to restore executions to burnish a reputation as a law-and-order president.
“Executions used to be in public because there was a belief that if people could see it, it would scare them into behaving,” he said. “I think what is happening here is the people who are scared now are the ones carrying out the executions. Perhaps they don’t want to be seen as tools of the Trump campaign.”
Those suing also include the Indiana Abolition Coalition and the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods.
Security was tight during the first federal executions in nearly 20 years in mid-July. The first execution on July 14 was of former white supremacist Daniel Lewis Lee. Two others, Wesley Purkey and Dustin Honken, were executed later the same week.
Guardias fuertemente armados rodearon la pequeña construcción de ejecución interna de la prisión. Una cortina negra también cubría la construcción, bloqueando absolutamente la vista del espacio de la muerte.
Las regulaciones para los sabuesos que asisten a la ejecución estipulan que dejan sus bolígrafos y cuadernos en un centro de prensa antes de ir a la cámara de la muerte. Los funcionarios de la prisión escribieron bolígrafos y papel minutos antes de que comenzaran las ejecuciones.
The executions of Christopher Andre Vialva and William Emmett LeCroy are scheduled for in late September.
Vialva was convicted in the 1999 kidnapping and killing of an Iowa couple in Texas. LeCroy was convicted of raping and killing a 30-year-old nurse in 2001.
The only Native American on federal death row, Lezmond Mitchell, is scheduled to be put to death on Aug. 26. Keith Dwayne Nelson’s execution is set for the same week.
Mitchell was convicted of killing of a woman and her 9-year-old granddaughter. Nelson was convicted of kidnapping a 10-year-old girl in Kansas, raping and then strangling her.
Lee, Purkey and Honken’s victims also included children.
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AP writer Rick Callahan in Indianapolis also contributed to this report.
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