News Groups File SJC Amicus Brief to Unseal Inquest Documents in Amy Bishop Case

A coalition of New England media and advocacy organizations, spearheaded by Harvard Law School's Cyberlaw Clinic and the Citizen Media Law Project, has filed an amicus curiae brief to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court seeking to unseal inquest documents in the Amy Bishop case.

After Bishop allegedly shot and killed three of her faculty colleagues at the University of Alabama in 2010, Massachusetts officials opened an inquest into the fatal shooting of her brother in 1986. After the inquest resulted in the indictment of Bishop for first-degree murder, the Boston Globe sought release of the inquest transcript and report. A Superior Court judge refused to unseal the documents. The case is now pending before the SJC.

I am a signatory to the brief on behalf of the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association. A more detailed description of the case and the legal issues it involves is available from the Citizen Media Law Project. A PDF copy of the brief is available for download.