INDIANAPOLIS — People had to go miles away from Terre Haute Prison to protest during the July executions, now the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana is suing Indiana State Police because of it.
The lawsuit is on behalf of Death Penalty Action, Indiana Abolition Coalition, Providence of Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods Indiana, and protesters, who say ISP put up barricades and roadblocks during the executions and forced demonstrators to protest away from the prison.
The lawsuit says restrictions like these violated the protesters’ First Amendment rights, and the protesters wanted to hold vigils at the time of the executions outside the gates, but couldn’t.
“These restrictions obstruct one of the most fundamental rights protected by the Constitution, political speech. There is absolutely no justification for this overly broad ‘no-protest zone,’” said Ken Falk, legal director at the ACLU of Indiana. “The Indiana State Police are severely compromising protesters’ ability to express themselves and to express their opposition to the death penalty while in sight of the prison.”
The only other option protesters had was to be bussed into a fenced-in area on prison grounds, which they say was nowhere near the death chamber. If bussed in, the protesters didn’t know when they could leave, and the area had little shelter from the extreme heat.
The lawsuit asked the U.S. District Court of Southern Indiana to allow people to protest outside the main entrance of Terre Haute Prison.
There are executions scheduled for August and September they plan to protest.
