Criminal trials

The judge in the shooting-spree case against James Holmes heard arguments Thursday on why court documents should be publicly available, but did not rule on the motion.

More than 20 news organizations are asking Chief District Judge William Sylvester to reconsider his decision to seal court documents in the case against Holmes, accused of killing 12 and wounding 58 people at an Aurora movie theater last month.

A Colorado judge denied the media's request to film and photograph Monday's hearing of the man accused of killing 12 and wounding 58 people at an Aurora movie theater last week.

Arapahoe County District Court Judge William Sylvester has ordered that no cameras or audio recording be allowed at James Holmes' July 30 hearing where charges are expected to be filed against him. The order is part of a broader trend of restrictions issued by Sylvester limiting press coverage in the Colorado shooting.

A New York criminal court ruled that prosecutors seeking information about a defendant’s Internet activity can subpoena third-party online service provider Twitter. The request is not a government intrusion under the Fourth Amendment, he held, but a federal law requires a search warrant for some recent information.

A Florida judge unsealed court records relating to the case of George Zimmerman - who is charged with the second-degree murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin - following legal requests by several news organizations.

A federal judge in Ohio has granted several news media organizations’ request to unseal hundreds of trial exhibits in the racketeering case of an ex-government official.

But U.S. District Judge Sara Lioi declined to immediately release several other exhibits, including recordings of wiretapped conversations, claiming that doing so could affect the appeal and fair-trial rights of James C. Dimora, who is also a defendant in another criminal case alleging substantially similar conduct.

A judge erred when he excluded a criminal defendant’s family from jury selection, Texas’ highest court for criminal cases recently ruled.

The state Court of Criminal Appeals remanded the child sexual assault case to the lower court for a new trial, finding that the error violated defendant Jeffrey Steadman’s constitutional right to a public trial. A jury convicted Steadman of aggravated sexual assault of a child younger than 14 and indecency with a child.

An investigative report about alleged prosecutorial misconduct in the corruption case against the late U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens will be released after a Washington, D.C., federal judge yesterday found that the public's right of access overcame several of the lawyers’ claims that disclosure of the document would damage their reputations.

The Knoxville News Sentinel has filed a motion to intervene in a high-profile case where the court has sealed documents involving a disbarred former judge, arguing that there is no valid legal basis for keeping the records from public view.

A state judge in Texas earlier this week quashed a subpoena ordering a journalist to testify in a murder trial, in a rare test of the reporter's privilege in criminal courts since Texas enacted its Free Flow of Information Act in 2009.

Defense attorneys argued that, as shown by her articles, Donna Fielder, a staff writer for the Denton Record-Chronicle, was privy to essential information that would refute investigators’ testimonies concerning the defendant.

An Illinois man who has spent more than 30 years in prison on a murder charge will receive a new trial — but his attorneys won't use some of the strongest evidence that supports his innocence because of a controversy that pitted prosecutors against the student journalists who uncovered it.

Northwestern students working with the Medill Innocence Project cast doubt on the conviction of Anthony McKinney, who was convicted of killing a security guard, by obtaining evidence that included statements from two witnesses who suggested others were responsible for the crime.