A bill before a Connecticut legislative committee would bar the public release of seized property in cases that don’t lead to arrests. Critics say the bill would have blocked a major release of documents related to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
The Hartford Courant won a nearly 6-year-long legal battle to get access to thousands of pages of private documents seized by the Connecticut State Police. The documents belonged to the man responsible for the shooting that killed 20 children and six educators.
“Certainly the Adam Lanza case was a good example of why maybe not all, but certainly some records, which might be seized in a law enforcement action, maybe the public does have a right to see,” said Mary Schwind with the state Freedom of Information Commission, who sided with the Courant on the case.
The Sandy Hook documents, some of which were disturbing, included a short screenplay dealing with pedophilia, a violent picture book and a spreadsheet detailing hundreds of mass murders.
