Next week, the Virginia Court of Appeals will consider whether to lift the veil of secrecy over execution tapes that give the public a rare glimpse into how the state administered capital punishment before abolishing the practice in 2021.
The tapes, recorded in the execution chamber by prison employees, were hidden for years before NPR journalist Chiara Eisner unearthed four recordings that a former prison employee donated to the Library of Virginia archives. That audio, which NPR published in 2023, revealed new details about oversight by prison employees moments before carrying out the state’s ultimate punishment.
The Virginia Department of Corrections has disclosed that it recorded 32 additional tapes concerning 27 executions over three decades, but it refused to turn them over when NPR and Ian Kalish, a clinical supervising attorney at the Reporters Committee, requested the audio under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act. Last year, NPR sued for the tapes’ release with free legal support from the First Amendment Clinic at the University of Virginia School of Law, which is administered by attorneys from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
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