Subpoenas

The documentary filmmaker subpoenaed by Chevron in the oil company's dispute over whether it polluted the Amazon rain forest appeared in a Manhattan federal court on Friday to explain why unused footage from "Crude: The Real Price of Oil" should be protected by the state's reporters privilege.

“For him to be turned into an arm of private litigation would undo his ability to do this kind of movie,” said attorney Maura Wogan of Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, who argued against the subpoena.

The Obama Justice Department has decided to continue the Bush administration's quest to compel a New York Times reporter to testify about confidential sources in a book he published about the CIA, The New York Times reported.

The Kansas Legislature passed a state shield law for reporters on Tuesday night that will now go to Gov. Mark Parkinson for his signature.

Both chambers of the Legislature approved the measure to provide Kansas reporters with a qualified reporter's privilege by an overwhelming margin -- the Senate voted 39-1 and the House 116-3.

A Utah newspaper is fighting the subpoena of a reporter who wrote about a sealed search warrant in a murder investigation before it was sealed, The Deseret News reported.

A federal judge in North Carolina said that the state's media outlets will not have to turn over more than two years' worth of stories and reader comments about a murder in response to a subpoena from the accused killer, The Newsroom Law Blog reported.

A Michigan prosecutor working on the retrial of a murder defendant filed a witness list earlier this month that included a reporter for The Orange County Register and seven law students, the Detroit Metro Times reported.

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.

Dodge City Daily Globe reporter Claire O’Brien, who was previously fined for missing a court appearance, privately testified in Kansas court regarding a jailhouse interview with homicide suspect Samuel Bonilla.

The confidential source – who in fact never told O’Brien his real name – revealed his identity to prosecutors and police the day after O’Brien did not show up for court on Wednesday, the Daily Globe reported.

In an effort to persuade prosecutors to withdraw a subpoena for Innocence Project students’ notes, grades, and other information, a lawyer for the criminal defendant whose conviction is being questioned withdrew yesterday some of the exculpatory evidence journalism students had previously uncovered, the Daily Northwestern reported.

The Kansas Supreme Court yesterday ruled that prosecutors may force Dodge City Globe reporter Claire O’Brien to testify about her news gathering activities and materials in a murder trial. 

Without ordering a hearing in the matter, the court in a two-sentence order denied the paper’s request for relief and rejected all potential friend-of-the-court briefs in the case as “moot.”