sds71
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Circuit Judge Bentley Price asked SLED and the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office to justify the extensive redactions they applied to their public reports on the killings, which were only released after The Post and Courier filed a lawsuit. At a July 14 hearing on the blacked-out information, Edward Fenno, an attorney for the newspaper, argued that the agencies had been “unlawfully heavy-handed” in their approach...
In a brief to the court, Fenno countered that the law doesn’t let police withhold information based on hypothetical concerns. Police have to prove that disclosing information “ ‘would’ interfere” with their work or “ ‘would’ cause similar problems,” he wrote.
“The FOIA statute does not say ‘might’; it says ‘would,’ ” Fenno wrote.
At the July 14 hearing, Price said he would review the redactions and order the agencies to release more information if he concluded they had overstepped.
The agencies had previously resisted releasing even the heavily redacted version of their reports. SLED made them public only days after The Post and Courier sued the agencies for allegedly violating the state’s Freedom of Information Act.
SLED says it's still too early to release details on Murdaugh case, weeks after killings
In a brief to the court, Fenno countered that the law doesn’t let police withhold information based on hypothetical concerns. Police have to prove that disclosing information “ ‘would’ interfere” with their work or “ ‘would’ cause similar problems,” he wrote.
“The FOIA statute does not say ‘might’; it says ‘would,’ ” Fenno wrote.
At the July 14 hearing, Price said he would review the redactions and order the agencies to release more information if he concluded they had overstepped.
The agencies had previously resisted releasing even the heavily redacted version of their reports. SLED made them public only days after The Post and Courier sued the agencies for allegedly violating the state’s Freedom of Information Act.
SLED says it's still too early to release details on Murdaugh case, weeks after killings
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