Saturday, July 5, 2008

Ga. high court refuses to compel Athens police to open files on unsolved 1992 murder


Atlanta, Ga. - The public cannot force police to release files in the unsolved 1992 rape and murder of University of Georgia student Jennifer Lynn Stone until someone is arrested and prosecuted for the crime, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled Monday.

In a 4-3 decision, the court ruled that though police haven't identified suspects or developed new information in the murder, even dormant cases are exempt from the state Open Records Act under a "pending investigation" provision. The decision overturned a state appellate court ruling.

"It is a hard fact of law enforcement, of which the General Assembly was undoubtedly aware, that crimes sometimes remain unsolved for years until a break in the case, whether from a formerly reluctant witness or some new connection of previously seized evidence to a particular suspect," Justice George Carley wrote in the majority decision.

Attorneys for the Athens Banner-Herald, which sued the Athens-Clarke County government for the Stone files in 2005, argued that authorities abuse the pending-investigation exemption to keep information from the public. County attorneys countered that forcing police to release documents in unsolved crimes could undermine investigations.

For an overview of the Jennifer Lynn Stone case, go to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Website

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