The Associated Press learned of the existence of the tapes through public records requests. The videotapes have never been made public. The AP uncovered references to the videos in a notation in a personnel file of a former prison employee and when the Department of Corrections rejected a records request from the AP for the videos.
The reason for the videos made before an electrocution in 1997 and a lethal injection in 1999 are unclear. They apparently do not show the execution, but include procedures with the inmates in preparation. The AP has not been granted permission to view the tapes. Experts who track capital punishment procedures believe such video recordings to be highly unusual.
The Kentucky Attorney General's Office and the Department of Corrections are locked in a dispute with public defenders over access to the execution chamber as part of ongoing litigation over how the state carries out lethal injections. The records show that a video exists of Harold McQueen's final seconds and preparation for execution at the Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville on July 1, 1997, but not his actual death. A letter rejecting a public records request for that tape and similar videos of the lead up to the executions of Eddie Lee Harper in 1999 and Marco Allen Chapman in 2008 acknowledges their existence.
