Federal prison bans in-person interviews with death-row inmates

By The Associated Press

04.26.01

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TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — The federal prison here has banned face-to-face interviews with death-row convicts and is severely restricting telephone interviews with them, an action that has drawn objections from the news media and a lawsuit from one inmate.

The new policy comes only weeks before the scheduled May 16 execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, whose interview with "60 Minutes" last year brought pressure on the federal Bureau of Prisons to clamp down on interviews.

Jim Cross, executive assistant to Warden Harley Lappin, said the prison no longer will grant in-person interviews and that new restrictions ban the use of tape recorders in telephone interviews. The policy also bars publishing comments one inmate might make about another. The inmates still have access to journalists through telephone and correspondence interviews.

But news media outlets that refuse to agree to the policy will not be granted interviews.

Bureau spokesman Dan Dunne said Lappin created the new rules.

"The changes are based primarily on prison security needs," he said. "We do feel the procedures strike an appropriate balance between the public's interest in the execution . .. and the government's interest in the execution in not sensationalizing the event."

In-person interviews were previously considered on a case-by-case basis and recordings were allowed, though they could not be broadcast.

One death-row inmate, convicted murderer David Paul Hammer, filed a lawsuit April 24, charging the new policy violated his First Amendment rights.

Journalists also disagreed with the new rules.

"We believe prisoners don't lose all of their rights just because they are in prison. The public has the right to know what is going on with them," said Fred Brown, ethics committee co-chairman for the Society of Professional Journalists.

Steve Key, legal counsel with the Hoosier State Press Association, said he believed the changes were an attempt to muzzle death-row inmates because some people don't want to hear what they have to say or don't want what they say broadcast nationally.

In the past, prison officials have cited security concerns at the prison as the main reason for limiting media access.

But the Bureau also has been under pressure from members of Congress to deny the media access to inmates. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., wrote to Bureau officials in March 2000, saying that if the prison did not stop interviews with inmates like McVeigh, he would introduce legislation to stop it.

Hammer's lawsuit says he has agreed to several media interviews over the past six months, but none of those interviews has taken place. He said he was told he was denied face-to-face interviews because of security concerns.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Indianapolis, names as defendants U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft; Kathleen Hawk-Sawyer, director of the Bureau of Prisons; and Lappin.

In a letter to the Tribune-Star, Hammer said he was suing the officials for depriving him of his right to free speech and access to the news media. Hammer is acting as his own attorney in the suit, said Ron Travis, Hammer's attorney in his criminal case.

Update

FOI, victims' advocates debate prison interview ban
Death-row inmate's lawsuit has divided those who say prisoners are using reporters for their own ends — and those who say wardens are doing the same.  09.30.02

Related

Federal judge denies Webcast of McVeigh execution
Court says rules against recording or publicly broadcasting executions don’t violate First Amendment.  04.19.01