As Idaho’s news media spar with the state in federal court over limits on access to executions, the case has turned a spotlight onto Idaho’s long and consistent history of media witnesses attending its state executions to serve as the eyes and ears of the public. In fact, media witnesses have been present for all but one Idaho execution since 1901, and published detailed accounts of them. “The body swung not to the right and left, the rope made not a single twist, but facing the sun in the eastern sky, like one standing erect, all that was mortal of Ed Rice was there before his fellows, while the tide of life fast ebbed away,” the Idaho Daily Statesman reported in 1901, recounting the first state execution held at Idaho’s state prison. Prior to 1901, executions were conducted at the county level in Idaho, and most were public, with hundreds attending/Betsy Russell, Eye On Boise. More here. (AP photo: The Idaho Daily Statesman on May 7, 1909, published this picture of a formal invitation the newspaper had received from the state prison warden, for its reporter to cover the execution of Fred Seward)

Question: Would you want to witness an execution if you could?