Penn. Journos Gain More Access to Inmate Executions

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Attorneys for the Pennsylvania Dept. of Corrections and The Philadelphia Inquirer and The [Mechanicsburg]Patriot News have settled a First Amendment dispute that expands what reporters may observe during the execution of prisoners, The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Web site reports (www.rcfp.org).

Under the agreement, reporters may witness capital punishment being carried out from the moment an inmate enters the execution chamber until he or she is declared dead. Authorities retain the right to cut the audio portion if the prisoner verbally threatens the witnesses to the execution.

Attorneys for the media outlets argued on First Amendment grounds for changes to the Commonwealth's Capital Case Procedure Manual, including opening the curtain so that the inmate may be seen being brought into the execution chamber and having catheters inserted into his or her arms.

The rcfp noted that 191 inmates are currently on Death Row in Pennsylvania, which has executed three prisoners since 1995.

Philadelphia Freedom: Dailies Seek Independent Paywalled Websites

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The Web site www.philly.com, which for years boasted the online shared presence of The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Philadelphia Daily News, will remain live, even as the two papers plan in 2013 to launch separate paywalled Websites, according to a post by www.Netnewscheck.com.

Interstate General Media this year assumed ownership of the two financially troubled dailies, which have had a common owner for more than half a century. Details about the forthcoming News and Inquirer paywalls and subscription rates have yet to be released.

Federal Judge in Pa. Pulls Back Curtain: Press Can View Executions

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United States District Judge for the Middle District of Pennsylvania Judge Yvette Kane ruled last week in Philadelphia Inquirer et al. v. Wetzel (Case No. 1:2012-cv-01917) that the press is entitled to full access to the entire execution process of death by lethal injection of inmates.

As reported by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Web site (www.rcfp.org), the (Harrisburg, Pa.) Patriot-News and the Philadelphia Inquirer sued on First Amendment grounds for access to the entire public execution proceedings. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Corrections previously would draw a curtain shielding the witness observation room from the injection chamber during various stages of the proceedings, including when the condemned enters the injection room and is prepared for the fatal injection, as well as the coroner's post-injection examination of the inmate.

Judge Kane rejected the state's argument that allowing uninterrupted viewing of the entire procedure jeopardizes the safety of those who administer the injections were their identities to become known. She held that dating back to the days when the state carried out capital punishment by public hangings, all phases of the execution process were open for viewing by the public and the press.

Applying the "history & logic" test previously articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court regarding whether access to executions should be presumed, Judge Kane concluded that unencumbered viewing of the entire execution advances the proper functioning of the execution process.

No Brotherly Love for Philly Journos as Layoffs Loom

Image via WikipediaThe Philadelphia Media Network ("PMN"), owner of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News and philly.com will resort to layoffs if a voluntary buyout program available to employees through the end of the month doesn't yield three dozen fewer workers, Poynter.org reports.

Newspaper Guild leaders received the grim news yesterday that PMN needs to slash its workforce by 37 positions that may come from across-the-board and include reporters, cartoonists, photographers, editorial writers and copy editors, among other classifications. The number of staffers who opt for the buyout will dictate how many layoffs occur, according to Poynter.org.

The respective newsrooms of the Inquirer, Daily News and philly.com will merge when they relocate, which is scheduled for June. PMN is looking to unload the media properties via auction (see "TUOL" post 1/31/12).

Whither Philly Dailies?

Image via WikipediaHow solid or shaky the ground on which Philadelphia Media Network ("PMN")-owned dailies, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, stand is open to debate on news that one of PMN's key stakeholders is sitting on his hands as the papers are put on the auction block.

The New York Post yesterday reported that Alden Global Capital principal Randall Smith, owner of roughly 30 percent of the Inquirer & News properties, has remained quiet amid PMN's auction that is expected to reap about $100 million. PMN acquired the dailies out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from Philadelphia Media Holdings (see "TUOL" post 7/11/11).

Romanesko's media blog reported that PMN CEO Greg Osberg discounted the Post story, assuring PMN employees in a memo that shareholders routinely boost or reduce their ownership levels in properties and that a minority owner may only sell his percentage of ownership in the dailies, not the dailies themselves.

Alden Capital and other hedge funds doled out $139 million for their Philly stake (sorry), the Post reported, but it seems that Smith, a major shareholder in a variety of media entities, including Gannett, Freedom Communications and Journal Register Co., may be losing his taste for media empire building.

Philly Papers to Hawk Digital Version/Android Combo

Image by Getty Images via @daylifePhiladelphia Media Network ("PMN"), owner of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, plans to sell discounted Android tablets on which digital versions of the dailies already will be built in, according to an article in AdWeek.

Beginning in late August, 2,000 tablets will be pedaled that boast icons of digital replicas of the dailies and separate applications for the papers' online versions. No price has been set, the AdWeek article noted, but the tablets housing the newspapers' content is expected to be offered for half-off their combined retail price. The dailies would receive all the revenues and data that will reflect consumer use of digital newspaper content.

PMN purchased the dailies from Philadelphia Media Holdings out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

UPDATE: Libeled Law Profs. See West Damages Go South

Image via WikipediaU.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judge John P. Fullam has slashed the $2.5 million punitive damages awarded both to Leonard Sosnov and David Rudovsky to $110,000 apiece from their libel suit against West Publishing Corp., according to a story in today's Philadelphia Inquirer.

Last January, in Rudovsky & Sosnov v. West Pub. Corp. et al (Case No. 09-cv-00727-JF), Rudovsky, a civil rights lawyer and Senior Fellow at U. Penn law school, and Sosnov, who teaches at Widener law school, were each awarded $90,000 compensatory damages and $2.5 million punitive damages by a jury who found that West defamed the two men, who originally authored the legal publisher's Pennsylvania Criminal Procedure: Law, Commentary, and Forms (1991). [See "TUOL" post 1/20/11.]

Judge Fullam concluded the jury's punitive damages awarded far exceeded any damage to the plaintiffs' reputations and opined that the jury may have been overly influenced by the net worth of West, a legal publishing industry giant that produces law books, software, and legal forms books.