By AP/KWMU
St. Louis – A federal appeals court has upheld the state's right to ban videotaping inside Missouri's execution chamber.
The ruling ends the Reverend Larry Rice's effort to televise executions.
Rice is an advocate for the poor and an outspoken critic of the death penalty.
He operates T-V stations in Jefferson City and St. Louis, along with seven other low-power stations in Missouri and Arkansas.
He believes that televising executions would convince people that the death penalty is wrong.
Rice says the Missouri Department of Corrections' ban on cameras in the execution chamber violates the Constitution.
But a three-judge panel of the Eighth District U-S Circuit Court of Appeals sided with an earlier district court decision.
Rice says the ruling is disappointing, but will not appeal.