Sec. 54-100a. Committee on news media access to executions. Selection of news media witnesses.
Sec. 54-100a. Committee on news media access to executions. Selection of news
media witnesses. There shall be a committee on news media access to executions composed of news media representatives appointed by the Associated Press Managing Editors Association of Connecticut and the Connecticut Associated Press Broadcasters
Association. The Commissioner of Correction or his designee shall be an ex-officio
member of the committee. The committee shall receive applications from news media
seeking to witness and report executions and select news media witnesses from such
applicants. The committee shall consider applications from three categories of news
media: (1) Newspapers, broadcasters and news services regularly reporting general news
of the state; (2) newspapers and broadcasters nearest the locality where the crime was
committed; and (3) newspapers and broadcasters that regularly cover the correctional
institutions deemed appropriate by the commissioner as a location for the infliction of
the death penalty. The committee shall select applicants from each category unless a
category lacks a qualified applicant. The committee shall promptly inform the commissioner of its recommendations and inform the news media recommended to be witnesses.
For any execution, the commissioner shall specify the number of news media witnesses
that space and security requirements permit. The commissioner shall promptly inform
the committee if any applicant it has recommended to be a witness is to be excluded for
specified reasons of security.
(P.A. 97-184, S. 2.)