In response to a lawsuit filed by a newspaper, the Nevada Department of Corrections has agreed to change its procedure for Wednesday night's scheduled execution of Daryl Mack. The department decided to allow authorized witnesses, including the news media, to view the entire process.

The change was announced Friday, two days after the Reno Gazette-Journal filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Reno challenging the limited viewing allowed by the department. In the past, prison officials would allow witnesses to watch the inmate be led into the execution chamber, but officers would close chamber curtains as intravenous lines were inserted into the inmate's arm.

Then, officers would exit the chamber and the blinds would be reopened. In its lawsuit, the Gazette-Journal cited a 2002 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that found the public has a First Amendment right to view the entire execution process.

The newspaper sought a temporary restraining order asking the Department of Corrections to open the Mack execution. It also sought a permanent injunction requiring the open process to be a permanent part of the department's execution protocol. The paper wants executions open to public scrutiny from the time inmates are escorted into the execution chamber until the time they are declared dead.

In the California case, officials had objected to full viewing in order to protect the safety of the execution team. They were concerned that officers would be retaliated against if they were identified. But the appeals court called those concerns "an overreaction," and ruled public access was important to the process.

Unless he files an available appeal, Mack will be executed Wednesday at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City for a murder he claims he didn't commit. The execution would be the first of a black convict in Nevada since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty 30 years ago. Mack, 47, was sentenced to death for the 1988 sexual assault and strangling of Betty Jane May, 55, in a southwest Reno boarding house.