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2009-11-20

2009-11-18

2009-11-05

Agriculture

Lifestyles

Saturday, October 24, 2009 12:01 PM

Kansas has it backward when it comes to some files

Public record

By The Kansas City Star

Three men are accused of murder and other charges in the death of Overland Park teenager Keighley Ann Alyea. This much the public knows.

But what evidence led prosecutors to file those charges? What do police believe happened on Sept. 30, the night that Alyea died?

In any state other than Kansas, that information would be a matter of public record. As it should be. Family members of victims and defendants, and many other people, deserve to know early on why someone has been charged with a crime.

But Kansas refuses to make that information public. Prosecutors can operate in secrecy, sometimes for weeks, before they are required to make their evidence public at a hearing.

The ridiculous prohibition creates an information vacuum, which is sometimes filled by rumors and hearsay.

It’s true, as some defense lawyers contend, that the information police and prosecutors use to obtain arrest and search warrants is sometimes found to be unreliable. But information that is considered too dubious to be released to the public seems a flimsy pretense with which to secure an arrest.

Affidavits listing ‘‘probable cause’’ of a crime also may contain sensitive information about investigations. But other states allow prosecutors to block out that kind of information. If necessary, prosecutors can request that a judge seal the documents.

Kansas has it backward. It forces citizens to go to court to obtain information that should be public record. ...

Justice shouldn’t take place in a vacuum. The Kansas Legislature must make probable-cause affidavits a public record.

— The Kansas City Star