The case filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana argues the company’s constitutional right to place a webcam in the execution chamber at the time McVeigh is scheduled to be put to death in a federal penitentiary on 16th May. He was convicted of causing the deaths of 168 people in the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995.
Entertainment Network also operates VoyeurDorm.com which attracted media hype by monitoring by webcam the day-to-day activities in a house of seven male and female students.
The US Bureau of Prisons on March 26th rejected the company’s request to webcast the execution and the suit filed late Wednesday seeks a restraining order and injunction against the bureau from enforcing its decision.
The company argues that it has a right to webcast the McVeigh execution because “the people have a right to oversee the implementation of justice" against McVeigh and that the execution raises constitutional questions about cruel and unusual punishment and "public monitoring of the execution itself, and a transparent government process, is fundamental to debate and discourse relating to federal executions and the merits of such a significant event."
The company is also running an on-line vote as to whether the execution should be webcast. At the time of writing, 56% of respondents favour the webcast.