by: Amy Worden | Inquirer Harrisburg Bureau

HARRISBURG - Attorneys representing the state and two newspapers argued in federal court over whether the constitutional rights of witnesses to an execution are violated if they are unable to view the entire process.

The Inquirer and the Harrisburg Patriot-News filed suit against the commonwealth last month in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in an effort to allow witnesses to see the lethal injection process from the moment the condemned enters the chamber to the moment he or she is pronounced dead.