CENTENNIAL | District Judge Carlos Samour Jr. will wait until August to make a decision about whether he’ll ask Fox news reporter Jana Winter to divulge her sources in the James Holmes case.
At a hearing April 10, Holmes’ defense said his right to a fair trial would be jeopardized if a law enforcement source violated a court-ordered gag order and told Winter that a notebook Holmes sent to the Anschutz Medical Campus ahead of the July 20 theater shooting contained drawings of killings.
Defense lawyers also said if the judge doesn’t enforce the gag order, it would give the impression that it’s acceptable for anyone to release confidential information about a death penalty case to the media as long as the reporter promises not to use their name. In that case, the gag order would be meaningless, said Holmes’ defense attorney Rebekka Higgs.
“The whole purpose (of the gag order) is to protect everybody’s right to a fair trial,” she said.
Lawyers for Winter said she is protected under the First Amendment, and reporter’s statutory privileges to protect confidential sources, also referred to as the “Shield Law.”
Samour said it’s difficult to make a decision because he doesn’t know what’s in the notebook, or whether the notebook will be a crucial part of evidence in Holmes’ trial, set for next year.
“I need to have more information about the notebook,” Samour said.
At the hearing April 10, Aurora Police Det. Alton Reed testified that he “thumbed through the pages” of the notebook, saw unknown writings, but did not tell anyone what was in the notebook.
Winter will return to court on Aug. 19, where her lawyers will ask journalism professor Mark Feldstein to testify in support of Winter.
“If you required reporters to disclose their sources every time there was a minor leak in a high profile criminal case, the jails would be filled in America with journalists,” Feldstein told the New York Times on April 9.