By Ken Dixon
HARTFORD – In a dramatic conclusion to days of negotiations and controversy over access to public records in the aftermath of the Newtown school massacre, lawmakers early this morning approved legislation to make all murder-scene video and photos private and to embargo the December 14 radio recordings of police describing the dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
As families of the Newtown victims looked on in the hushed Senate chamber, Senate President Pro Tempore Donald E. Williams Jr. and Senate Minority Leader John McKinney said the bill, brokered among lawmakers and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s staff, is their best effort to balance the public’s right to know with the desire to protect the families from the release of graphic depictions of the 20 dead children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The recording embargo does not include the 9-1-1 recordings of the December 14 murders, nor does it allow the Newtown town clerk to withhold death certificates as she has since the slaughter and which would have been allowed in an early draft of the bill.
The identities of minor child witnesses will be redacted from the final report of the crime, as well. The embargo on the police recordings will end on May 7 of next year.
The bill started in the Senate at 1:17 a.m. and was approved 33-2 17 minutes later. The House immediately took up the bill. Three House members who represent Newtown, Rep. DebraLee Hovey, Rep. Dan Carter and Rep. Mitch Bolinsky, spoke briefly and by 2 a.m., the legislation was approved, heading to the governor’s desk for his signature. The legislative session ends at midnight Wednesday.
“We have tried our best as Democrats and Republicans to work together to protect the interest of these families, these relatives sitting behind me, while honoring our tradition of being as free and open democracy,” said Williams, D-Brooklyn.
“The intent of what we’re doing here is very clear: that the public disclosure of an image of a brutally murdered child or spouse or sibling would cause emotional harm and violate the personal privacy of the parents and other surviving family members,” McKinney said.
“One does not need to see the photos to understand the unwarranted pain and anguish it would cause a parent or other family member to see such photos published and appear on the Internet every time someone searches ‘Sandy Hook’ or ‘school shooting,’ particularly in this case when we know who the perpetrator was and that he is deceased and where there is no legitimate claim of official misconduct there can be no public interest that would require the disclosure of such intensely painful pictures,” McKinney. “In this case it is our clear intent that the privacy interests of the victims and their families out weighs any public interest in the disclosure of the photos of the Sandy Hook victims. This is a narrow protection offered in this bill and it is not unusual or novel.”
The bill uses federal guidelines as the template for the suppression of the photographic evidence of the carnage.
The crux of the bill was one paragraph, sealing all murder photos: “Any record created by a law enforcement agency or other federal, state, or municipal governmental agency consisting of a photograph, film, video or digital or other visual image depicting the victim of a homicide, to the extent that such record could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of the personal privacy of the victim or the victim’s surviving family members.”
In the House, Rep. Stephen Dargan, D-West Haven and Rep. Peter Tercyak, D-New Britain voted against the bill, which had 110 co-sponsors and was immediately transmitted to the governor for his signature.
In the Senate, opponents to the legislation included Sen. Anthony Musto, D-Trumbull and Sen. Ed Meyer, D-Guilford.
Musto, co-chairman of the Government Administration & Elections Committee, said that while he feels sorry for the families’ horrific losses, he opposes keeping information private.
“I voted no because I think the presumption should be in favor of the government telling the people what’s going on, no matter how horrific the results,” Musto said. “I feel like a government shouldn’t be keeping evidence of a crime secret and the presumption should always be in favor of disclosure unless the government can provide a compelling reason for keeping information confidential. The families in Newtown have all of our sympathies and support, but we can’t keep these things secret. What we should be doing is punishing the people who misuse it, who harass the families or use the images for malicious reasons. To block public access to information is I think contrary to the way government should act toward citizens.”
Malloy, in a statement issued at 2:30 a.m., Wednesday, said he commended the lawmakers for coming to a compromise that respects the grieving families.
“My goal with this legislation was to provide some measure of protection for the families affected by the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School,” Malloy said. “But the fact is, all families have a right to grieve in private. Those who lose loved ones to violence have a right to protect themselves against further anguish. This is a difficult issue, requiring all of us to balance deeply held beliefs and important public policy values.”
The bill includes a task force to study and make recommendations by next January 1 on victim’s privacy. The panel will include the legislative leaders, the executive director of the state Freedom of Information Commission, an appointee from the Connecticut Council of Freedom of Information, the chief state’s attorney, the chief public defender, the victim advocate, the commissioner of emergency services and public protect protection, two appointees of the governor, a professor of constitutional law and four members appointed by the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists.
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