State Supreme Court issues stay on gag order in fatal SAU shooting case

The Donald W. Reynolds Campus and Community Center, seen here on Tuesday, Aug. 11, is across the street from a parking lot on the campus of Southern Arkansas University where a student was killed and another wounded in a shooting on the morning of Aug. 11.
The Donald W. Reynolds Campus and Community Center, seen here on Tuesday, Aug. 11, is across the street from a parking lot on the campus of Southern Arkansas University where a student was killed and another wounded in a shooting on the morning of Aug. 11.

The Arkansas Supreme Court has issued a stay on a lower court’s gag order that blocked the release of details on an Aug. 11 fatal shooting on the campus of Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia.

The stay from the Supreme Court was issued Thursday pending further review by the high court, according to the order.

During the shooting, which took place hours before the start of the first day of fall courses, 21-year-old senior Joshua Keshun Smith was killed and another student was hospitalized.

Attorneys for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the Arkansas Press Association on Aug. 28 petitioned the Arkansas Supreme Court to temporarily block or overturn the series of four identical orders regarding publicity pertaining to the four defendants in the case.

In their petition, attorneys for the press described the orders on publicity as vague, overly broad and an unconstitutional restraint on the media.

In Thursday’s order, the Supreme Court directed the judge in the case, David Talley Jr. of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, to file copies of the gag orders with the Columbia County Circuit Clerk within three days and the clerk to supplement the Supreme Court’s record of the case within five days of the filing.

Jeff Rogers, the prosecuting attorney for the 13th Judicial District, which includes Columbia County, did not immediately respond to an email Thursday evening with regard to whether authorities in Columbia County will release the previously requested information on the shooting.

In an interview Friday morning, John Tull, an attorney who represents the Arkansas Press Association, said that while he can’t predict what further orders will come from the Supreme Court, for now, based on his reading, the order removes any impediment to the release of the documents.

The four defendants, three of them SAU students, face charges of capital murder and aggravated robbery. They have been held without bail in the Columbia County jail since last month.

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