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Thursday, March 29
Earnhardt bill passed unanimously
Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Standing by the widow of racing legend
Dale Earnhardt, Gov. Jeb Bush signed a bill Thursday that closes
autopsy photos from public record.
The new law, certain to be tested in the courts, would bar
public access to all autopsy photos unless a judge approves the
release. Such photos had been open records as part of Florida's
Sunshine Law, the most liberal public-records rule in the country.
|  | | Florida Gov. Jeb Bush presents Teresa Earnhardt the pen he used to sign the Dale Earnhardt Legislation on Thursday. |
"Our family has suffered unimaginably since Feb. 18th, and even
more so, as a result of this violation of our right to privacy,"
Teresa Earnhardt said with a steady voice but downcast eyes. "But
today ... something positive has emerged from this incredible
ordeal. Today, all Floridians are winners."
The measure (HB 1083) was passed unanimously in the Senate
earlier Thursday. It would be a third-degree felony to improperly
release the records with a maximum sentence of five years in jail
and a $5,000 fine.
"This bill accomplishes the delicate balance between the
public's right to know and a family's right to privacy," Bush
said.
Bush thanked the Legislature for handling the bill in what he
called record speed. "A tribute to the speed of Dale Earnhardt,"
he said, smiling at Mrs. Earnhardt.
Mrs. Earnhardt led the public drive for the bill after her
husband, a seven-time Winston Cup champion, died in a last-lap
crash in the Daytona 500 last month.
She won a court order to keep the autopsy photos private, but a
day later, attorneys for the Orlando Sentinel went to court and,
citing the state's open-records law, asked that the newspaper's
medical expert be allowed to look at the photos.
During the ensuing legal battle, racing fans bombarded the
offices of Bush, legislative leaders and the Sentinel with
thousands of e-mails, letters and telephone calls, protesting
efforts to see the photos.
"I never knew Dale Earnhardt, but through this bill, I've
gotten to know his family and his wife," said the measure's
sponsor, Sen. Jim King.
But King, R-Jacksonville, said he was more moved by the letters
and calls from family members of ordinary people who didn't know
that autopsy photos could be made public.
King, whose district includes Daytona International Speedway,
noted that the new law will most likely be taken to court
immediately by those who feel it goes too far in limiting access to
public records.
"I know it's going to be difficult, but let me tell you, we
couldn't draft anything that wouldn't be challenged in this very
difficult area," said Sen. Rod Smith, D-Gainesville.
The Sentinel and other news media plan to file a lawsuit
challenging the law as unconstitutional, saying it goes too far by
forcing anyone to get a judge's permission before autopsy
photographs could be viewed.
They also say the bill cannot be applied to cases where requests
have already been filed for autopsy photographs.
David Bralow, the Sentinel's attorney, said lawmakers should
have taken more time to deal with the bill's constitutional
problems.
"I'm just so disappointed that lawmakers would give this kind
of bill special treatment when bills for education and social
issues don't seem to get it," Bralow said in a story posted on the
Orlando Sentinel's Web site.
"This is a sad day for Florida residents," said Ray Marcano,
president of the Society of Professional Journalists and assistant
managing editor for production at the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News.
"Lawmakers have told their citizens that when they demand public
information, the Legislature will take steps to keep it secret.
"Florida has taken a giant leap backward by weakening what had
been the nation's best open records law," Marcano said. "And
citizens now live in a state where they have the right not to
know."
Marcano's group along with the American Society of Newspaper
Editors supported the push to keep the public records law from
being changed.
But Thom Rumberger, attorney for the Earnhardt family, said the
media's fear is misguided.
"A reading of this bill clearly, clearly specifies that anybody
who has a just cause and needs to see those records can get them,"
Rumberger said. "But now, you can't just walk in there (the
medical examiner's office) and say, 'I want the records."'
Similar legislation is awaiting the governor's signature in
Georgia, is under consideration in South Carolina and was
introduced earlier this week in Louisiana.
|  | | Senate Majority Leader Sen. Jim King sponsored the measure that was passed unanimously Thursday. |
King said the measure lets families see the photos, and
establishes a hierarchy within a family to determine who has the
final say over them.
The law is retroactive, although the Sentinel's effort to view
Earnhardt's autopsy photos was already handled in mediation. A
court-appointed expert has reviewed them and will issue a report
that will go to the widow and the newspaper.
The newspaper has said it doesn't want to publish the photos,
but wanted an expert to look at them as it reports on safety in
NASCAR.
At the bill signing, Mrs. Earnhardt said "We have said from the
beginning that if one news organization is granted access to these
private and painful images of my husband, others will request
access, and sooner or later they would be published on the Internet
and elsewhere."
The president of a Web site and a student newspaper at the
University of Florida are pursuing their own court cases for access
to the autopsy photos. A hearing for the Independent Florida
Alligator and Websitecity.com is set for April 5.
Websitecity.com is posting graphic autopsy photos of NASCAR
drivers Rodney Orr and Neil Bonnett, who died at Daytona within
three days of each other in 1994. The president of the Web site,
Michael Uribe, asked the Volusia County Medical Examiner's Office
for the autopsy photos Wednesday.
"We hope this new law will stop these organizations, and
others, from further exploiting such tragic events," Mrs.
Earnhardt said. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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