The Hawaii Supreme Court has ordered a state judge to hold a hearing on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s request to unseal closed court proceedings in federal agent Christopher Deedy’s murder trial.
But the order issued Thursday did not address the newspaper’s other request for a court order prohibiting Circuit Judge Karen Ahn from closing the courtroom in the future unless she gives the public and media a chance to object.
Deedy’s highly publicized trial ended in August when the jury reported it was unable to reach a verdict in the 2011 shooting of Kollin Elderts at a Waikiki McDonald’s restaurant.
Ahn declared a mistrial and scheduled jury selection for Deedy’s murder retrial in June.
The Star-Advertiser and Hawaii News Now filed the requests in September. City prosecutors and the judge opposed the requests, while Deedy supported them.
In its order, the high court temporarily sent the case back to Ahn to consider the request to unseal transcripts. It set out a timetable spanning weeks for legal briefs, a hearing and Ahn to issue a written ruling.
The high court directed that a record of those proceedings be made part of the pending case on the media’s requests.
Jeffrey Portnoy, lawyer for the newspaper and Hawaii News Now, said the high court essentially partly granted what they were seeking, which was for Ahn to hold a hearing before sealing the transcript.
But he said he was "disappointed" that the court did not set standards for trial judges outlining what steps they can take before closing public court hearings and sealing transcripts.
R. Brian Black, executive director of the Civil Beat Law Center for the Public Interest, filed a brief in behalf of a wide range of media organizations supporting the request by the newspaper and Hawaii News Now.
The organizations include the Civil Beat online news website, The Associated Press, other television stations, neighbor island newspapers and the Society of Professional Journalists.
Black said he hopes that once the high court gets the case back, it will address the procedural issues, such as whether judges must hold hearings before they close courtrooms.
