R. W. Page Corp. v. Lumpkin

Jordan, Chief Justice.

The single issue presented is whether and, if so, when and how, trial and pretrial hearings in criminal cases may be closed to the public and to representatives of the news media.

Quite predictably, this issue arises out of a melodrama containing all of the elements that news reporters and their editors know from experience will excite the interest of substantial numbers of their readers, viewers and listeners. Twenty-one-year-old Rebecca Heath was found shot to death beside a road near Columbus, Georgia. She was nine months pregnant at the time of her death. Her husband…