For the first time in the modern death penalty era, Texas did not let the media witness an execution.
Reporters have always been present at executions to observe the state as it wields its greatest power over life. Media reports often provide detail excluded from state records 鈥� like prisoners after lethal drugs are injected in their veins. Reporters across the country have served as watchdogs for botched executions.
On Wednesday, , 41, for the Tarrant County murder of his great-aunt in 1999. It was the state鈥檚 first execution in 10 months, the longest lull in the country鈥檚 busiest death chamber since 1984.
Since 1982, when Texas capital punishment resumed after the death penalty was reinstated nationwide, all 570 state executions have had at least one media witness present, according to .
Until Wednesday.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson Jeremy Desel said Wednesday night that the media鈥檚 nonadmittance was an error and resulted from a miscommunication between prison officials. Typically, when an execution is set to proceed, prison officials call the press office across the street, and the spokesperson walks the reporters over. He said that call never came.
鈥淲e apologize for this critical error,鈥� Desel said. 鈥淭he agency is investigating to determine exactly what occurred to ensure it does not happen again.鈥�
On Thursday morning, Desel said the investigation was underway, but he could not yet provide more details on what it entailed.
Texas executions take place in the state鈥檚 oldest prison in Huntsville. Reporters for the Associated Press and the Huntsville Item attend each execution, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice allows a small number of other Texas reporters to witness if they request to attend. Reporters stand in two small viewing rooms separated from the death chamber by a glass pane. The same rooms hold friends and family of the prisoner and murder victim.
The media can then report on final statements from the prisoner, which prison officials also release, but they also can detail how the lethal drugs affect the prisoner and statements the prisoner makes after the drugs begin to flow, which the prison doesn鈥檛 report.
In recent years, several Texas inmates after their final statement is concluded or jerked their bodies, according to media reports. The reports in part against what death penalty defense attorneys called 鈥渢ortuous鈥� executions using old lethal injection drugs. Texas has of its execution drugs after retesting their potency.
In other states, an a prisoner gasped in the hours it took for him to die. after a prisoner鈥檚 vein blew when injected with a controversial lethal drug cocktail. He later died of a heart attack.
This article originally appeared in at .