The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled items belonging to the gunman in the Sandy Hook school shooting must be made public.
The 20-year-old gunman killed his mom before opening fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012. Twenty students and six faculty members died in the shooting. The gunman then killed himself.
The ruling is a big win for the Hartford Courant. The outlet requested to view evidence seized from the gunman's house, including multiple journals and a spreadsheet ranking other mass shootings. But state police denied access to 35 of the items, citing privacy rights under Connecticut's search and seizure law.
The Courant says it filed a complaint with the Freedom of Information Commission, which ordered police to release the information, but that decision was overruled by the Superior Court.
On Tuesday, the state's Supreme Court overturned that ruling in a unanimous decision.
The Courant's publisher and editor-in-chief Andrew Julien says the ruling will allow journalists to tell the complete story. Julien added it will help "identify and understand red flags that could be part of a prevention formula for future mass shootings."
