State Ex Rel. West Virginia State Police v. Taylor

STARCHER, Justice:

In this case, a plaintiff in a civil lawsuit issued a subpoena to the West Virginia State Police for the criminal record of the man who killed her husband. The killer, who is in prison for the crime, had refused to authorize the release of his criminal record. The Circuit Court of Mineral County required that the records be made available for the civil litigation.

We conclude that such a subpoena may be enforced only if there are exceptional circumstances. Because the record is not clear as to whether such circumstances exist in this ease, we require the circuit court not to…