JonBenet: Media in legal frenzy over suspect's files

A group of US media organisations have asked a Colorado judge to make public the arrest warrant and other documents involving JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect John Karr.

Karr, 41, claims he was with the six-year-old when she was killed 10 years ago.

Lawyers for the media noted that a federal judge who presided over a civil case stemming from the unsolved murder said mistakes were made in the investigation.

“There is great public interest to learn whether the arrest of John Mark Karr solved the case after a decade or is yet another 'mistake',” the filing said.

“Only with disclosure can the public evaluate the competency of the investigation that led to the issuance of the warrant.”

In an August 15 order, Boulder County District Judge Roxanne Bailin ordered case documents sealed, saying disclosure could jeopardise the investigation.

The media lawyers asked the judge to hold a hearing on their request, saying District Attorney Mary Lacy would have to prove that the case would be hurt by disclosure of the documents.

“It is difficult, if not impossible, to conceive how public disclosure of the facts that support probable cause for (Karr’s) arrest would compromise further investigation into John Mark Karr’s involvement in the crime or the involvement of any other person in the crime,” the filing said.

“Any investigation that may be continuing does not, and legally cannot, affect the assertions of probable cause that formed the basis of the arrest warrant.”

The brief was filed on behalf of The Associated Press, The Denver Post, The (Boulder) Daily Camera, the Rocky Mountain News and two Denver stations, KCNC-TV and KDVR-TV.

The media lawyers said releasing the warrant and any supporting affidavits would not hamper the investigation into a killing whose sordid details have already been subjected to intense public scrutiny.

Huge volumes of information about the killing, ranging from autopsy photos and a coroner’s report to transcripts of testimony from related civil cases, have been released by the courts or leaked to the media since JonBenet’s father, John Ramsey, found her body in the family’s basement on St Stephen's Day 1996.

Karr arrived in Los Angeles early yesterday, following his arrest in Bangkok, Thailand, last week. He faces charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault in connection with the killing of the child beauty queen.

He has told authorities he was with JonBenet when she died and that her death was an accident.