The West Virginia Broadcasters' Association has asked the state Supreme Court to make public a video taken inside Western Regional Jail, which depicts a correctional officer throwing flash-bang grenades inside an inmate's cell.
State jail officials appealed Kanawha County Circuit Judge Joanna Tabit's ruling last December making the video public. Lawyers for the state Regional Jail Authority argue that if the video is released, it could be used by an inmate to escape from a facility or injure another inmate or staff member.
In an amicus brief filed in the Supreme Court clerk's office, the broadcasters' association says that the public's right to know outweighs the state's arguments.
"To remain informed and as a check in the democratic system, the public has an overriding interest in disclosure of basic facts surrounding government actions, even when the conduct occurs behind prison walls," the brief filed by the broadcasters' association states.
Attorneys David Allen Barnette and Vivian H. Basdeckis, with Jackson Kelly in Charleston, who represent the broadcasters' association, wrote in the brief that they are "concerned that [the jail authority's] efforts in this appeal to withhold the requested video or others like it - and to conceal the information such records reveal - behind a veil of secrecy will thwart government accountability and public debate by preventing the type of information that most needs to be aired from ever becoming public."
The state's argument would, in effect, the brief states, seal all video footage taken from within correctional facilities in West Virginia.
"The risk that such a ruling could extend even further to encompass records created by police dash-cameras or body-worn cameras, which are becoming more prevalent in West Virginia, would have dramatic consequences for all citizens in this State."
The case involves a lawsuit filed by inmate Shane R. Marcum against the Regional Jail Authority and its former Special Response Team. Marcum received severe burns earlier this year while incarcerated at Western Regional Jail in Barboursville.
Stroebel had asked Tabit to require the jail authority to respond to his FOIA request and turn over photos and videos taken from the alleged incident in which Marcum was injured.
Tabit ordered attorneys representing the jails to turn over everything but the video that showed Marcum being extracted from his cell. The judge said she wanted to review it first to decide whether it should be made public.
Tabit wrote in December that "nothing on the videotape would put any inmate, resident or facility personnel at peril nor could the same be used by any inmate to facilitate any type of an escape from the facility."
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.