Federal judge denies Webcast of McVeigh execution

By The Associated Press

04.19.01

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INDIANAPOLIS — A federal judge has denied an Internet company's request to Webcast the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

U.S. District Judge John Tinder ruled yesterday that the First Amendment did not entitle Entertainment Network Inc. to broadcast the execution on the Internet. Federal law allows the media to be present at an execution, but does not allow any sound- or video-recording devices.

ENI, an Internet development and hosting company that operates a popular Web site called VoyeurDorm.com, sued the government this month claiming Bureau of Prisons policies governing execution coverage were unconstitutional.

"There aren't any overriding government issues that would justify the prohibition of audio/visual images of the execution," said ENI attorney Derek Newman.

But Tinder disagreed.

BOP regulations provide for media access, he ruled, and the restrictions surrounding executions are best decided by prison officials who are responsible for security.

"Whatever First Amendment protection exists for viewing executions, it is not violated by BOP's explicit regulation against recording or broadcasting them to the public," Tinder wrote in his 31-page ruling.

David Marshlack, chief executive of ENI, said in a printed statement that the company plans to file a notice of appeal tomorrow, either in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago or directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"The law is on our side and applying constitutional precedent to this case, we should have won," Newman said.

McVeigh, convicted of bombing the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in 1995, is scheduled to die by lethal injection May 16 at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute.

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