Appen Media Group, the publisher of the Dunwoody Crier, filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday, Sept. 2, challenging Georgia's restrictions on what journalists can see and hear during executions.
The suit lands two weeks before the state's scheduled Sept. 16 lethal injection of Stacey Ian Humphreys, a former Dunwoody resident convicted in the 2003 killings of two women in Powder Springs. If carried out, it would be Georgia's first execution since March 2024.
Appen Media filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, according to the company's own reporting. The suit names three defendants in their official capacities: Georgia Department of Corrections Commissioner Tyrone Oliver, Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison Warden Jason Beasley and Attorney General Chris Carr.
No public statement from the Department of Corrections, Oliver, Beasley or Carr regarding the lawsuit appeared in public records as of Friday, Sept. 4.
The ACLU Foundation of Georgia and Atlanta attorney Gerald Weber represent the company.
"The public shouldn't have to take the government's word for what happens behind prison walls during an execution," Hans Appen, the company's publisher and CEO, said in a statement.
What the suit challenges
Georgia allows only five media representatives to observe any part of an execution: one from the Associated Press, two from the Georgia Association of Broadcasters and two from the Georgia Press Association. The complaint says those witnesses get no visual or auditory access to several steps in the two hours before an execution, including delivery of lethal injection drugs, equipment checks and syringe preparation.
A single "media monitor" watches the prisoner being strapped to a gurney and connected to an IV line, but without audio. The complaint calls the IV insertion "often the most fraught segment of an execution by lethal injection," citing botched IV insertions in Tennessee, Arizona, Idaho and Alabama.
The microphone in the execution chamber is turned on only for the prisoner's final statement and the official pronouncement of death.
Appen Media argues the Department of Corrections has "unbridled discretion" to decide who can watch and what they can see, with no statute or written standard governing those decisions. The suit asks the court to declare the current access rules unconstitutional and require officials to give all five media representatives full visual and auditory access, including by remote camera or microphone.
The Humphreys case
Humphreys, 53, was convicted of malice murder in 2007 for the Nov. 3, 2003, killings of Cyndi Williams, 33, and Lori Brown, 21, at a model home sales office in Powder Springs. A jury unanimously recommended the death penalty. Appen Media has covered the case since November 2003.
Police found Humphreys at his Dunwoody home days after the killings. He fled and was arrested in Wisconsin after a high-speed chase, ABC News reported.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Humphreys' final appeal in October 2025. A previous execution date in December 2025 was halted after his lawyers argued two members of the State Board of Pardons and Paroles had conflicts of interest. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled in March 2026 that one board member, Kimberly McCoy, must recuse herself.
Humphreys is now scheduled for lethal injection at 7 p.m. on Sept. 16 at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison near Jackson.
What's next
Appen Media filed a motion for a temporary restraining order alongside the complaint, asking the court to block the execution under current media rules unless officials expand access. A hearing date had not been set as of Thursday, Sept. 3.
Cory Isaacson, legal director of the ACLU Foundation of Georgia, said in a statement that the state holds "absolute power" to hide key parts of executions from the press and the public, and that the Constitution does not allow it.
