Concerns Raised After Texas Carries Out Execution Without Media Witnesses

CBS Dallas/Fort Worth

May 21, 2021

For the first time in state history an execution was held in Texas without journalists as witnesses. Officials with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice are blaming miscommunication for preventing reporters from witnessing the state-sanctioned death of Quintin Jones.

Legal and death penalty experts worry it’s another example of what they see as a lack of transparency and competency in how the death penalty is carried out in the U.S.

Two reporters had been set to witness Wednesday’s execution of Jones — the state’s first execution in nearly a year — at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. But they were not escorted into a viewing room adjacent to the death chamber because a call was never made to summon them.

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