CHICAGO Indiana State Police agreed Friday to stop blocking roads to a prison where federal executions resumed last month and are set to continue, backing down after anti-death penalty activists said in a lawsuit the roadblocks impeded their free speech rights.
During the first three federal executions in July following a 17-year hiatus, troopers shut main roads to the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, where all federal executions are carried out by lethal injection.
Plaintiff Abraham Bonowitz, director of Death Penalty Action, welcomed the change in procedures by the Indiana State Police.
The Indiana State Police will continue to provide a safe environment for people who are expressing their views on the First Amendment, ISP spokesman Sgt.
The only Native American on federal death row, Lezmond Mitchell, is scheduled to be put to death on Aug. 26.