Several news organizations, including Tennessean publisher Gannett, have sued two state corrections officials for greater access to the execution process, much of which is hidden from public view.

The organizations say state law, the Tennessee Constitution and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution all permit the press the ability to view the entirety of executions, from the time condemned people enter the death chamber until they are pronounced dead.

The Tennessee Department of Correction's current protocols for carrying out death sentences by lethal injection and electrocution, the two methods of capital punishment used in Tennessee, limit media witnesses to viewing only a 10-15 minute period that the news organizations say "excludes critically important portions of the proceedin

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