The Kentucky Open Government Coalition has opted not to comment on recent news concerning disclosure of grand jury records in the Breonna Taylor case. This is not because we are disinterested or because we do not endorse disclosure.
Clearly, we support the efforts of the anonymous grand juror to secure the public's right to know "the full story and absolute truth of how this matter was handled from beginning to end."
Our decision is based on the reality that grand jury records are court records, and court records are not governed by the open records law (notwithstanding the fact that the term "public agency" is defined in the open records law to include the courts and judicial agencies). The Kentucky Supreme Court rejected legislative efforts to regulate access to court records shortly after the open records law was enacted.
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=45231
https://law.justia.com/cases/kentucky/supreme-court/1978/570-s-w-2d-617…
Within hours of Daniel Cameron's press conference last week, a newspaper editor contacted us to ask whether Cameron's refusal to release grand jury records was grounded in law or tradition.
The law, we responded, RCr 5.24.
https://casetext.com/rule/kentucky-court-rules/kentucky-rules-of-crimin…
We advised that the attorney general's office regularly reviews appeals involving the courts' refusal to honor requests for grand jury records. But because the records are deemed records of the court, and therefore not subject to Kentucky's open records law, the attorney general is foreclosed from deciding whether the courts' refusal constitutes a violation of the law.
https://casetext.com/rule/kentucky-court-rules/kentucky-rules-of-crimin…
An appeal of the denial of a request for grand jury records in the custody of a Commonwealth's Attorney *is* reviewable by the attorney general — since the Commonwealth's Attorney is clearly subject to the open records law — but the law gives her or him a permanent exception from disclosure for "records or information compiled and maintained by county attorneys or Commonwealth's attorneys pertaining to criminal investigations or criminal litigation." With the exception of the person indicted, s/he may properly deny the public access to grand jury records.
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=48230
And so we have more vigorously advocated for disclosure of investigative files — both the Louisville Metro Police Department's Public Investigation Unit file and the file generated by Daniel Cameron in the course of his independent investigation — which can and should be released (in the absence of a justification for continuing nondisclosure that satisfies the legal standard established by the Kentucky Supreme Court in 2013).
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ky-supreme-court/1643297.html
https://www.facebook.com/419650175248377/posts/772443409969050/?extid=P…
We remain convinced that an analysis of both the investigative files and the grand jury records — coupled with the narratives of grand jurors if they are permitted to break their silence — will provide the clearest and most complete picture of the night of March 13 and the events that followed.
Only then — and perhaps not even then — will we arrive at the truth.
