Shrinking newsroom budgets have led to less investigative journalism on death penalty cases and fewer available reporters to cover the final moments of the condemned. One of those remaining journalists is Houston, Texas-based Associated Press reporter Michael Graczyk, who covers capital punishment in the state that uses the death penalty more than any other, The New York Times recently reported.
Newspapers used to see covering death sentences as part of their duty. But smaller staffs and budgets combined with an increase in executions—334 in Texas since 1997—have made the events so commonplace that they are covered only locally, if at all, the Times says. As part of AP policy of attending every execution, Graczyk has been present at almost every one in Texas since 1982, often writing the only published account.
"I would hate for the state of Texas to take someone's life and no one be there," Graczyk told CNN in July.
Post new comment