The American Bar Association’s House of Delegates will vote Aug. 13 or 14 on whether to recommend that federal, state and local governments immediately limit access to records of closed criminal cases in which there has been no conviction. "The policy change would likely carry great weight with all levels of the court system and restrict access to valuable records that newspapers review every day at courthouses across the country," says the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
"The goal of these changes is to allow those who have gone through the criminal justice system without a conviction to be free of their past charges, especially when seeking future employment," ASNE reports. "It also suggests denying access to criminal records where a conviction has occurred, but the defendant has engaged in a 'specified period of law-abiding conduct.' One important result, however, is that critical information about the judicial system would be cut off from scrutiny by the public and the press. Information gleaned from cases resulting in acquittal is not only used to review possible misconduct within the court system, but also is aggregated to review trends in criminal justice over longer periods of time. The proposed recommendations, in fact, would not only apply to court records but also police records and records now accessible under FOIA and many similar state laws. This is despite considerable court precedent stating that access to all types of criminal records should be maintained to the greatest extent possible."
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press published an in-depth article in the Summer edition of its quarterly magazine The News Media and the Law. Other resources available from the committee include a press release urging defeat of the proposal and an earlier letter to the ABA protesting it. ASNE Legal Counsel Kevin M. Goldberg is available at 703-812-0462 to answer questions.
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