Indiana
Indiana Banned Press From Executions for “Dignity.” It Actually Serves Repression.
Jeremy Busby is a writer and activist incarcerated in Texas.
A few days before my best friend’s execution date in 2006, prison administrators granted me one last chance to see him in a legal visit. We discussed his concerns about the humaneness of the lethal injection that would kill him. I will never forget his terrified look.
The day of his execution, I paced my cell hoping for the best. Without access to a telephone, my only method to monitor if or how my friend had died was through radio reports from members of the media who were allowed to witness his final breath.
News reports have historically allowed us as a society to monitor our government when it exercises its greatest power: ending a person’s life. But the state of Indiana has decided to inhibit that public access by banning members of the media from attending executions — unless the condemned person chooses to give a reporter a spot that could instead have gone to their relatives or friends. An appellate court upheld the ban this week.
Prison officials in Indiana claim the media ban is mainly about respecting the dignity of the condemned person. But the idea that there could ever be dignity in state-sanctioned killing of a perfectly healthy human is ludicrous within itself. That would be the case even if executioners eschewed cruel and unusual methods. But they don’t, even when the media is watching.
Angel Nieves Diaz continued moving for half an hour after receiving an injection of a drug that was supposed to paralyze him during a Florida execution. It took Arizona officials two hours to kill Joseph R. Wood. He had to be injected with 14 doses beyond the dose that was supposed to cause his death.
It took officials two hours to kill Joseph R. Wood.
Byron Black yelled, “It’s hurting so bad,” five minutes into a botched execution in Tennessee. John Marion Grant began convulsing and vomiting during his execution in Oklahoma. Prison officials had to enter the death chamber multiple times to wipe away and remove the vomit. The entire time, Grant was still breathing. Just last month, Tony Carruthers lay on a Tennessee gurney for more than hour moaning and bleeding as executioners struggled to find a vein. The execution was eventually called off by government officials.
Byron Black yelled, “It’s hurting so bad.”
These are only a few of the botched executions that lack “dignity.” This week, a federal appellate court upheld a decision blocking Alabama from using nitrogen gas to kill Jeffery Lee. Suffocating and asphyxiating on one’s own vomit seemed like a bridge too far.
As a result of the barbarity of these events, it’s not far-fetched to wonder if Indiana officials have an ulterior motive. Perhaps the media ban has nothing to do with preserving the dignity of the condemned and is instead about obstructing government accountability and public oversight.
Executions in this country were once highly public affairs. Often held in town squares, any member of the public could attend. In the 1830s, government officials began to enact laws that made executions private events.
Tony Carruthers laid on a gurney moaning and bleeding as executioners struggled to find a vein.
This was not because 19th century executioners were moved to protect the dignity of the condemned (who were disproportionately Black). It was an effort to halt a growing capital punishment abolitionist movement. A significant number of Americans found the public spectacle disgusting.
The same is occurring today. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, support for capital punishment in America has decreased from 80 percent in 1994 to 52 percent in 2026. This division necessitates transparency — otherwise, the only nongovernment actors able to tell the public the truth are dead.
The “dignity” playbook is a well-worn one that I know well as an incarcerated journalist. As a result of restrictions placed on media access to prisons, prisons have become unjustifiably cruel, less humane and more difficult to monitor. Restricting press freedom erodes human rights and constitutional safeguards and blinds the public to the kinds of cruelty and abuse depicted in HBO’s Oscar-nominated documentary “The Alabama Solution.”
Perhaps the media ban has nothing to do with preserving the dignity of the condemned and is instead about obstructing government accountability and public oversight.
The film was made possible not because officials granted access to outside journalists, but because incarcerated people risked (and endured) severe punishment to document their reality with contraband phones.
It’s not the first time surreptitious reporting methods revealed the real motives behind media restrictions. In 1906, a reporter in Minnesota ignored a ban on media executions and sneaked in to watch a condemned man spend 14 minutes gasping for air before he strangled to death because the rope used to hang him was too long – he hit the floor when dropped and needed to be raised back up.
As appellate judge Candace Jackson-Akiwumi wrote in a dissenting opinion in the Indiana case, “A government exercises its greatest power when it ends a person’s life. As I see it, such severe and irreversible punishment on behalf of ‘the people’ must be observable to comply with the Constitution.”
Lifting the media ban is the only dignified thing Indiana can do, not only for the condemned but also for the people being asked to fund irreversible punishments.
Indiana
Indiana gov to Porter County: If you want to miss out on fun of giving $250m in tax money to Bears, your loss
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun says he isn’t sweating Porter County leaders’ opposition to raising food and beverage taxes for a new Chicago Bears stadium the next county over, because really it’s Porter County that would be missing out on all the fun of taking part in shoveling money at the Bears owners:
Under the law, Porter County would have to approve a one-percent food and beverage tax to have representation on the stadium authority. The governor said if it doesn’t get approved, the biggest impact would be on Porter County itself.
“If they choose not to put any skin in the game, they’re not going to have any say-so for what happens from all the economic benefits we’re going to get from it,” Braun said.
Maybe you’re the one up a stump, Porter County! Does a county get a chance to fund a stadium deal every day?
The whole Porter County kerfuffle points up one of the weirder things about the Indiana Bears stadium deal: Though it was passed by the legislature back in February, it didn’t precisely spell out who would be spending what on a stadium, or even where exactly it would be. A newly created sports authority will be able to offer the Bears owners money from a whole bunch of taxes, only some of which actually exist yet:
- All new property tax, income tax, and sales tax for the next 35 years from an omni-TIF district encompassing the stadium and an undetermined number of square miles around it. This could certainly amount to billions of dollars, much of it potentially cannibalized from spending that has nothing to do with the Bears, but just as we saw in Kansas, it’s impossible to say exactly how much without knowing the size of the district.
- A doubling of the Lake County hotel tax from 5% to 10%, which would provide at least $90 million.
- Those 1% food and beverage tax surcharges in Lake and Porter counties, which would be worth about $250 million each, if approved.
- A 12% ticket tax, which would be worth about another $200 million, though as established ticket taxes are unlike other taxes in that they tend to come out of team owners’ revenues.
The best guess at the total public cost is “easily past $4 billion,” but that could go up or down depending on what gets approved in terms of that tax diversion district plus the new taxes. And a quarter-billion dollars from Porter County seems like a significant amount of money, though I suppose Braun is right in that if county leaders balk at that, the state could always compensate by running the omni-TIF district all the way to the Ohio border.
All this makes Indiana’s bid for the Bears a bit of a moving target in the state’s bidding war with Illinois, which is no doubt very much to Bears owner George McCaskey’s liking. (“You’re willing to give us $1.5 billion in property tax breaks and infrastructure money, you say? Well, what if I told you Indiana was offering a TIF district the size of the entire Local Group?”) Right now you have a three-way — or more, given the various Illinois factions — game of chicken going on, and nobody’s showing each other their cards, and … okay, maybe it’s too early in the day for me to be writing extended metaphors. If anyone says they know how much money Bears execs could get out of either Indiana or Illinois, they’re lying, that’s the upshot here.
(WISH) — Coming off a week’s rest, the Indiana Fever traveled to Las Vegas and beat the defending champion Aces, 84-68. The Aces’ 68 points scored marked the fewest points Indiana has allowed in a game this season.
On Sunday, the Fever were without Caitlin Clark for the second straight game. In her absence, center Aliyah Boston and point guard Kelsey Mitchell powered the offense to secure Indiana’s second straight win.
Boston recorded her sixth double-double of the season, finishing with 18 points and 10 rebounds. She also knocked down three triples, matching a season high last set on June 4 against the Atlanta Dream.
Although Mitchell shot 39 percent from the field, the ninth-year Fever guard posted a game-high 27 points and hit three triples.
As a team, Indiana shot 43 percent from the floor and 39 percent from three. The Fever also handed out 18 assists, compared to the Aces’ 14.
Indiana controlled the glass as well, outrebounding the Aces 39-30, and forced 13 Las Vegas turnovers compared to the Fever’s 7. Sunday’s win also marked the Fever’s first-ever win in Las Vegas after 11 previous losses.
With the win, Indiana improves to 12-8. Sunday’s matchup was the first of four straight road games before the Fever return to Gainbridge Fieldhouse to face the Golden State Valkyries on July 15.
Indiana is back on the road Wednesday, July 8, against the Los Angeles Sparks at 10 p.m. ET.
Two WNBA Finals contenders are set to square off on Sunday night in Las Vegas, but both teams are down their best player.
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (back) and Las Vegas Aces forward A’ja Wilson (right leg) have been ruled out for this game, taking some of the shine away from this matchup.
Still, there are a ton of great players to watch – including guard Kelsey Mitchell and Jackie Young – and oddsmakers are expecting a close game, as the Aces are favored by just 3.5 points at home.
Las Vegas is coming off an overtime win against the Chicago Sky, but it’s just 1-1 since Wilson went down with this leg injury. Meanwhile, the Fever are 2-0 without Clark this season, beating the Los Angeles Sparks by 27 points without her on June 27.
These are the No. 1 (Las Vegas) and No. 2 (Indiana) offenses in the league, so we should still see some fireworks on that end of the floor.
After a long layoff, the Fever are looking to remain hot as they set their sights on the top spot in the Eastern Conference.
Let’s check out the odds, a player prop to bet and my prediction for Fever vs. Aces in a standalone game on Sunday night.
Fever vs. Aces Odds, Spread and Total
Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook
Spread
- Fever +3.5 (-112)
- Aces -3.5 (-108)
Moneyline
Total
- 181.5 (Over -115/Under -105)
Fever vs. Aces How to Watch
- Date: Sunday, July 5
- Time: 7:00 p.m. EST
- Venue: T-Mobile Arena
- How to Watch (TV): ESPN, Disney+
- Fever record: 11-8
- Aces record: 15-5
Fever vs. Aces Injury Reports
Fever Injury Report
Aces Injury Report
- Janiah Barker – out
- Dana Evans – out
- A’ja Wilson – out
Fever vs. Aces Best WNBA Prop Bets
Fever Best WNBA Prop Bet
- Kelsey Mitchell OVER 23.5 Points (-116)
Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell is one of the best scorers in the WNBA, and she had a massive 2025 season with Clark (groin) missing most of the campaign.
Now, she’ll handle the No. 1 duties on Sunday against an Aces team that is just eighth in the league in defensive rating and ninth in opponent points per game.
Mitchell has 22 or more points in five of her last six games, including a 26-point showing on June 27 with Clark out of the lineup. She had 21 points in the only other game Clark has missed in 2026, and Mitchell is averaging 21.6 points per game overall.
She should handle a few more touches on Sunday, and the star guard has been ultra-efficient this season, knocking down 49.5 percent of her shots from the floor and 40.2 percent of her 3-pointers.
I’m buying her in this matchup, especially since the Aces won’t have Wilson protecting the rim.
Fever vs. Aces Prediction and Pick
Earlier today, I shared in my WNBA Best Bets column – Peter’s Points – why I think the Fever can cover on the road, even with Clark sidelined:
The Aces are 1-1 since Wilson went down, losing in the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup Championship Game to the New York Liberty before beating the Chicago Sky in overtime on Friday.
The fact that the Aces needed overtime to beat the Sky is a little concerning since Chicago ranks 10th in the league in net rating, 11th in offensive rating and 12th in defensive rating so far this season. The Las Vegas defense (eighth in defensive rating) is clearly worse without Wilson on the floor, which is a concern against a high-octane Fever attack.
Indiana is 2-0 this season with Clark out of the lineup, and star guard Kelsey Mitchell is more than capable of carrying this team to a win on Sunday night. While I’m not going to bet on an upset, I do think there is value in taking the Fever to cover as road underdogs.
Las Vegas is just 4-5 against the spread at home in the 2026 season, and while these are the two-best offenses in the league, losing Wilson is a huge downgrade for the Aces, as she’s averaging over 25 points per game.
I wouldn’t be shocked if the Fever are able to hang around in this game, especially since they’ve fared pretty well without Clark over the last two seasons. After all, Indy made the WNBA semifinals in the 2025 season with the star guard playing just 13 games.
Pick: Fever +3.5 (-112 at DraftKings)
Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.
Find Peter Dewey’s WNBA betting record here (futures included). You can also follow my daily plays on BetStamp here.
Claim the latest DraftKings promo code offer today. Sign up and get $200 in bonus bets instantly when you make your first $5 bet.
Follow
-
New York1 hour agoHow a Museum Security Guard and Artist Lives on $51,000 in Parkchester
-
Los Angeles, Ca2 hours agoHeat advisory issued as Southern California temps near triple digits this week
-
Detroit, MI2 hours agoDetroit Battery Safety Provider Reaches to the Skies with Med Hawk
-
San Francisco, CA2 hours agoA Locals-Approved Modern Guide to Fisherman’s Wharf: Seafood, Beer Gardens + Iconic Bay Views
-
Dallas, TX2 hours agoNew glitzy Houston steakhouse Juliet opens next to Delilah this summer
-
Miami, FL2 hours agoAllapattah man faces charges over armed robbery after crash in Miami’s Liberty City
-
Boston, MA2 hours agoSomehow, This is a Fitting, Confusing End to Jaylen Brown’s Boston Celtics Career
-
Denver, CO2 hours agoDenver Broncos 2026 schedule
