The Hawaii Supreme Court overwhelmingly ruled Wednesday that a circuit judge improperly denied the public and the media access to the first Christopher Deedy murder trial, in a decision that the plaintiffs’ attorney says has wide repercussions for criminal proceedings statewide.

The ruling in the case filed by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and Hawaii News Now also is a rebuke of Circuit Judge Karen Ahn, who conducted five separate closed proceedings on Aug. 26, 2013, at the conclusion of Deedy’s trial, which ended in a deadlocked jury. The state Supreme Court said Ahn both improperly closed her court and sealed transcripts of the courtroom discussions on the sixth and final day of jury deliberations.

Deedy, a special agent with the U.S. State Department, is now standing trial a second time in Ahn’s court for the Nov. 5, 2011, shooting death of 23-year-old Kollin Elderts in a Waikiki McDonald’s restaurant. He is charged with second-degree murder.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court went back to the days of Hawaiian royalty and recited a long list of court cases that captivated the attention of the public in the islands, including Queen Liliuokalani’s February 1895 military tribunal, which was "crowded with curious spectators."

"In keeping with our firmly embedded policy of open trials," the Supreme Court ruled, "the Circuit Court, and all Hawaii courts conducting criminal proceedings involving adult defendants, are directed to refrain from closing trial proceedings that are presumptively open to the public. The presumption of openness may be overcome only by an overriding interest. The court must set forth specific findings demonstrating the closure is essential to preserve the overriding interest, and the closure is narrowly tailored to serve that interest."

"This case is about as much of a ringing endorsement of the right of the media and the public to attend criminal trials as any case that I’ve seen in the country," said Honolulu media attorney Jeffrey Portnoy, who represented the Star-Advertiser and Hawaii News Now. "It even says Hawaii’s right is greater than the U.S. constitutional right. It’s pretty amazing. It’s the most significant free press case to come out of the Hawaii Supreme Court in many a decade."

Retired Star-Advertiser reporter Ken Kobayashi covered Deedy’s first trial and said the Supreme Court opinion written by Justice Richard Pollack and signed by the four other justices is "a huge victory for the public’s right to access court proceedings."

"The high court reasoning should also deter judges from holding private bench conferences on the official record when jurors are not in the courtroom," Koba­yashi said.

"Despite concerns raised by the media, Judge Ahn held those conferences repeatedly during the trial, including the last day when she also closed the courtroom. Judges now ought to think twice before permitting those private conferences when the jury isn’t in court. … As the high court said in disagreeing with Judge Ahn’s rationale for her actions, ‘public access always has a positive role in the functioning of the courtroom process.’"

Ahn did not respond to a request for comment.

On Aug. 26, 2013, Ahn cleared her court after a report from the foreman that a juror had been seen shaking hands with someone who might have been connected to one of the families in the case. Ahn then improperly sealed transcripts of the proceedings, the state Supreme Court ruled.

The ruling not only has implications for the current Deedy trial, but also for all criminal trials "underway today, tomorrow and next month," Portnoy said.

He called the ruling a "primer for all trial judges as to how important it is that trials remain open."

"There’s a tension between the First and Sixth Amendments (the right to a fair trial)," Portnoy said. But Wednesday’s ruling, he said, "just reinforces the presumption that all trials are public, including the questioning of jurors."

After the Star-Advertiser and Hawaii News Now objected to Ahn’s clearing of her courtroom and sealing of the transcripts of the proceedings, the Supreme Court noted that the news organizations were joined by Civil Beat, KHON, Hearst Television, Hawaii Public Radio, West Hawaii Today, Maui Time Weekly, Hawaii Reporter, the Hawaii chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, Media Council Hawaii and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.