UM WHAT?!

Alabama Officials Tell Reporter Her Skirt Is Too Short to View Inmate’s Execution

Authorities in Alabama thought a journalist’s clothing was the most objectionable aspect of the state-sponsored killing of Joe Nathan James Jr. on Thursday night.

While reporting on the execution of death row inmate Joe Nathan James Jr. on Thursday night, an Alabama journalist was told she could not view the state-sponsored killing... because her skirt was too short. After another reporter wrote about the encounter, AL.com’s Ivana Hrynkiw came forward to say she was the reporter involved. “I have worn this skirt to prior executions without incident, to work, to professional events and more,” she tweeted. She said a photographer from another news outlet offered her his rain gear, which consisted of fishing waders she had to strap under her shirt using suspenders. Then, she said an official objected to her open-toe heels, so she grabbed some tennis shoes from her car. “I sat down, tried to stop blushing, and did my work. As women often have to do,” she wrote. Officials did not find the state-sponsored killing of James as objectionable as Hrynkiw’s clothing; he was given a lethal injection despite pleas from his victim’s children to spare him.