The Idaho Supreme Court has rejected a request by 30 news organizations to lift a gag order in the highly-publicized case of a graduate student accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students that gained national attention.
In Monday’s ruling, the justices opted not to weigh in on whether the gag order that prohibits attorneys, prosecutors, law enforcement agencies, and others involved in the case from talking to the news media, violates the First Amendment rights of a free press.
“In other words, they argue that the amended nondissemination order ‘restricts [their] rights to receive speech,’ which they wish to publish,” the court said. “We agree that the injury claimed here is one that is recognized under the First Amendment.”
But the Idaho Supreme Court unanimously said the news organizations should have taken their request directly to Latah County District Court Judge Megan Marshall, the magistrate judge who initially issued the gag order.
“This Court has long respected the media’s role in our constitutional republic, and honored the promises in both the Idaho Constitution and First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” Idaho Supreme Court Justice Gregory Moeller wrote in the decision.
“If the media is still aggrieved after seeking clarification or an amendment to the existing order, then they have the avenue of appeal.”
The judge further quoted a ruling from a federal case that said responsible press coverage, “guards against the miscarriage of justice” by subjecting the court system and those a part of it to such public scrutiny.
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Decision made months before suspect’s court appearance
The decision comes nearly two months before suspect murder suspect Bryan Kohberger appears in court on June 26. Kohberger, 28, faces four first-degree murder charges in the deaths of Ethan Chapin, 20, Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, and Xana Kernodle, 20. The students were found stabbed to death in an off-campus home where most of them lived in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13.
Authorities charged Kohberger, a former doctoral student in the criminal justice and criminology department at Washington State University in Pullman, about 10 miles away, through a combination of DNA evidence on a large knife sheath found at the scene, trash collected from his parents’ Pennsylvania home, surveillance video, cellphone records and license-plate readers that tracked his car on a cross-country drive.
The killings created weeks of panic, confusion, and frustration in the small college town as well as attracted a large contingency of national and international media fascinated by the case.
Kohberger has yet to enter a plea. He could face the death penalty if convicted.
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Keeping a ‘balancing act’ between the First and Sixth Amendments
In the Idaho high court’s decision to keep the gag order intact, Justice Moeller wrote that the balancing act between the First Amendment protections afforded to the press and the Sixth Amendment fair trial rights promised to defendants has become more difficult due to “the advent of the internet and social media.”
“This balancing act has become even more challenging today than it was in the 1960s and 1970s,” the justices wrote.
The court also gives “caution” that its decision in the case “should not be read to support a widespread right of the press—or anyone else—to routinely intervene in Idaho’s criminal proceedings.”
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The Idaho Supreme Court justices said while they are” mindful” of the circumstances, lifting the gag order would set a bad precedent for a ruling already made by another judge overseeing the case.
“It would essentially invite the media and others to bring a direct challenge to this Court any time a trial judge issues a nondissemination order or admonishes the attorneys not to discuss the case with the media—without first attempting to resolve the issue before the court issuing the order,” the high court said.
The state supreme court said while it recognizes “the high public interest” in the case and the media’s role in providing public information, “we cannot routinely entertain requests to grant an extraordinary writ where a plain, speedy, and adequate remedy is still available.”
It is not known what the news coalition will do next, the Associated Press reported.
“While we are disappointed that the Court denied the petition, the media coalition now has a clear path under Idaho law to challenge the gag order and vindicate these important First Amendment rights,” said Wendy Olson, the attorney representing the news coalition.
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Surviving roommate asks judge not to attend Bryan Kohberger’s June hearing
Meanwhile, one of two surviving roommates who lived in the off-campus house where the four Idaho students were slain is asking Judge Marshall not to attend Kohberger’s hearing in June.
Attorneys for Kohberger’s have filed a subpoena requesting Bethany Funke to travel to Idaho and testify as a witness for the alleged suspect at his hearing in June. “Ms. Funke’s information is unique to her experiences and cannot be provided by another witness,” the filing said.
But Funke’s attorney, Kelli Anne Viloria, has filed a motion opposing the subpoena at a district court in Washoe County, Nevada, where Funke is from, , NBC News and CNN reported, citing court documents and public records.
Viloria argued there has been no hearing prior to the subpoena being issued, as required by Nevada law, and insisted that one take place before Funke can be compelled to testify in a trial, or even at a preliminary hearing.