Transparency News, 3/7/2023
Tuesday
March 7, 2023
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state & local news stories
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On a 1989 audio recording crackling with static, an inmate is barely audible as he offers his last words before he is executed in Virginia’s electric chair. “I would like to express that what is about to take place ... is a murder,” Alton Waye — who was convicted of raping and murdering a 61-year-old woman — can be heard saying, before a prison employee clumsily tries to repeat what Waye said into a tape recorder. The recording of Waye’s execution, which was recently published by NPR, is one of at least 35 audio tapes in the possession of the Virginia Department of Correctionsdocumenting executions between 1987 and 2017, the department recently confirmed. But the department has no plans to allow more recordings to be released to the public. The Associated Press sought the Virginia audio tapes under the state’s open records law after NPR recently reported on the existence of four execution recordings, including the Waye tape, that had long been in the possession of the Library of Virginia. But shortly after NPR aired its story, the Department of Corrections asked for the tapes back and the library complied. The department then rejected the AP’s request for copies of all of the execution recordings in its possession, citing exemptions to records law covering security concerns, private health records and personnel information. The tapes obtained in NPR’s investigation were donated to the library in 2006 by a now-deceased former Department of Corrections employee named R. M. Oliver, the library said in a statement to AP.
Associated Press
A judge tossed out a lawsuit against a member of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors on Friday morning. County resident Jim Scearce filed the lawsuit last month in Pittsylvania County Circuit Court accusing Tunstall District Supervisor Vic Ingram of violating open meeting laws. The board of supervisors was also a defendant in the lawsuit. According to Scearce’s lawsuit, Ingram failed to give the required three-day public notice of a meeting of the board’s naming committee that dealt with the naming of a future jail that has not yet been built. Ingram had proposed naming the jail after the late former Pittsylvania County Sheriff Taylor McGregor. Circuit Court Judge Stacey W. Moreau ruled in favor of Ingram and the board, saying he misspoke during the Dec. 20 meeting regarding a committee meeting and that subsequent statements by others at the meeting back up Ingram’s argument that there was no evidence of a committee meeting.
Danville Register & Bee
Portsmouth residents who prefer to tune into City Council meetings via Facebook have fewer viewing options. The City Council voted 4-3 last week to prohibit video recording from behind the dais — a move Councilman De’Andre Barnes said targeted him directly because he regularly uses his cellphone to stream meetings from his seat on Facebook Live. Those who supported it, such as Vice Mayor Lisa Lucas-Burke, said it’s a matter of decorum in a professional setting. The vote came as the city pivoted from using Facebook Live to broadcast council meetings to instead streaming the last two meetings on the city’s website in an effort to drive more traffic there. The city received negative feedback about the switch, and city spokesperson Peter Glagola told residents in a forum last week that City Council meetings would resume on Facebook again, though it is unclear when that will happen.
The Virginian-Pilot
The Spotsylvania School Board on Monday afternoon canceled its regular monthly meeting scheduled for Monday evening. According to the School Board's deputy clerk, Patty Boller, Chair Lisa Phelps cancelled the meeting because, "The chair and vice chair have advised that a quorum is not anticipated due to member illness, a family situation, and other unexpected circumstances." This is at least the third time in the past year that the School Board has cancelled a regularly scheduled meeting.
The Free Lance-Star
The record of King William County’s Board of Supervisors and administration came under sustained criticism from a group of citizens during an acrimonious meeting last week. Not all of the supervisors took the criticism lying down. One supervisor, Travis Moskalski, described the comments as a “disgusting display” and accused the speakers of peddling misinformation. County resident Mike Wade, assisted by Terri Milroy, told the supervisors he has filed requests for records under the Freedom of Information Act. Ten other residents also stood up to speak. “Time and time again, taxpayers have come to find the current King William Board of Supervisors unresponsive to their needs,” Milroy said.
Tidewater Review
Melissa Williams has been working to trace her genealogy for nearly a decade. Williams, a recent Norfolk State University graduate, is now part of a project that seeks to help other Black Virginians learn more about their family history. It’s called Sold Down River, and is a partnership between dozens of local historians and students. They’re working to document as many enslaved people as possible who were shipped from Norfolk to New Orleans through Hampton Roads’ long-overlooked role in the domestic slave trade. Those people’s stories will then go into a database allowing descendants to obtain previously inaccessible information about where they came from.
WHRO
