Joey Estrella murder gory gory video, disembowelment should not be released, court rules

Gruesome video footage taken in a Colorado federal penitentiary of two inmates mocking guards and mutilating their cellmate’s corpse will not be released to the media anytime soon – even though the videos were shown in open court to two juries in a failed effort to obtain the death penalty against the killers.

Tuesday’s Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling is another setback in the battle by the fiery Legal news from the prison to get the full video. The document sought to provide on its website a first-hand look at what correctional officers found in 1999 when they discovered cousins ​​William and Rudy Sablan exulting in the murder and disemboweling of Joey Estrella. . The murder took place in USP Florence’s special accommodation unit, the scene of further inmate killings and staff misconduct leading to Estrella’s murder.

Westword, Sixty minutes, The Associated Press and other organizations joined as “friends of the court” to file a supporting brief PLNthe request, which pitted the right of access to public archives against the “privacy interests” of the Estrella family.

The Sablans were sentenced to life for the murder. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, which was eager to display images of them mutilating Estrella’s body to horrified juries, objected to the disclosure of the documents to PLN after the end of the trials. Eventually, the government released a portion of the video that does not show Estrella’s body and an audio track of the censored portion, minus some comments from the Sablans.

PLN lawyers argued, among other things, that a government video released in open court becomes part of the court record and that Estrella, a federal prisoner, had less of an “interest in privacy” than an ordinary citizen . But the appeals court ruled that Estrella’s survivors have an “independent” interest in not seeing the documents made public – an interest that trumps any freedom of information right.

Whether the point in dispute is sufficiently contestable to result in a new appeal is not clear. But fundamental questions remain about Estrella’s murder ten years ago – questions that are unlikely to be answered anytime soon. For example: What were three prisoners doing in a cell designed for one? Where did the Sablans get the alcohol and the razor they used in their drunk surgery? Where were the guards as Estrella cried out for help?

Sometimes privacy protects more than just the sensitivity of the bereaved.

More information in our news archive: “Prison advice on snitching, shanks and claiming the man in makeup is a woman.”