• Publication: Columbus Ledger-Enquirer (Columbus, Georgia)
• Author: Associated Press
• Original Publication Date: Friday, November 30, 2007

ATLANTA — The Georgia Supreme Court will hear arguments Monday in a newspaper’s claim that police violated the state’s open records laws by refusing to release documents related to the unsolved rape and murder of a University of Georgia student.

In a 2005 lawsuit, The Athens Banner-Herald claimed the Athens-Clarke County Police Department thwarted reporters’ access to public documents by classifying the 1992 rape and murder of Jennifer Lynn Stone and the 2001 murder of Tara Louise Baker as “pending investigations.”

Stone, a 22-year-old advertising student from Roswell, Ga., was found raped and strangled in her downtown Athens apartment in April 1992. Baker, a 23-year-old law student, was found dead in her burning house in January 2001. Neither case has been solved.

The newspaper filed an open records request for documents and materials related to the two murders in August 2005, the complaint says. Nine days later, the department refused to provide any records on the murders, aside from incident reports that had already been released publicly.

The case to be argued Monday concerns the 1992 killing.

The newspaper contends that the records of a 15-year-old “dormant” criminal investigation should be open.

The department asserts that its investigation into Stone’s murder has remained active and the details should remain closed.

A lower court ordered the public release of the files, but the Georgia Court of Appeals later reversed that ruling.