Mississippi Today asked a judge Monday to unseal court records in a case in which more than 100 pieces of DNA evidence have disappeared, attorney Andrew Coffman of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press said in a motion to Washington County Circuit Judge Richard A. Smith.
The missing evidence is tied to the appeal of King Young Brown Jr., who was convicted in 2005 of the rape and manslaughter of 6-year-old Robernisha Webster, Mississippi Today reported. Brown is serving consecutive sentences of 30 years for rape and 20 years for manslaughter at the Marshall County Correctional Facility, and his attorneys have argued that new testing could affect his convictions, the report said.
Mississippi Today said Smith ordered last year that biological evidence, including a sexual assault kit, fingernail scrapings and strips of masking tape, be sent to a Virginia laboratory for testing. Court filings and public docket entries have been sealed since Smith canceled an April 9 hearing in part to spare witnesses “undue embarrassment,” the judge wrote, and Deputy Circuit Clerk Cynthia Lakes told Mississippi Today she was instructed to remove filings under the judge’s order.
Court filings reported by Mississippi Today show conflicting accounts about what happened to the materials. Deputies in the circuit clerk’s office suggested in affidavits that prosecutor Austin Frye and District Attorney Dewayne Richardson had visited the evidence room before the items disappeared, the filings said; the district attorney’s office disputed that account. Frye told the court, in a filing that has since been sealed, that some testimony amounted to “hearsay” and “speculation,” Mississippi Today reported.
In his motion, Coffman said sealing the record prevents the public and news organizations from understanding how courts exercise their power and from assessing whether public officials bore responsibility for the missing evidence. “Judicial transparency is essential to promoting trust and confidence in the justice system,” Coffman wrote, according to the motion filed on behalf of Mississippi Today. Editor-in-Chief Emily Wagster Pettus told Mississippi Today the outlet is seeking to intervene so the public can know how courts are operating, and Robernisha Webster’s aunt, Addie Cannon, said the family remains “so upset” and wants to know what is happening in the case.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
