Houston v. Rutledge

Gunter, Justice.

The appellants are representatives of two Columbus, Georgia newspapers. They filed their complaint against the sheriff in the trial court. It contended that the sheriff had refused to let them inspect files maintained by him in his office relating to the deaths of inmates in the jail under his supervision during a period of several years; and it sought a judgment of the court requiring the sheriff to make these files available to them for inspection.

The sheriff filed responsive pleadings in which he admitted the existence and his possession of the files; he admitted that he…