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Paducah Sun Seeks to Keep Hearings Open

The Paducah Sun reports it has filed a petition in Calloway Circuit Court to keep pre-trial hearings open in the arson/manslaughter case against Jerry Wayne Walker, Junior.  Commonwealth's Attorney Mark Blankenship wants to close the hearings to both the media and the public, citing "media attention" to the case as the reason.  Walker is set to appear in his second trial later this year over charges he set the 1998 Murray State dorm fire that killed Michael Minger and injured another student.  Walker's earlier trial in 2001 ended in a hung jury.  Circuit Judge Dennis Foust has not yet ruled on Blankenship's motions.  Attorneys for The Paducah Sun have asked Foust for a hearing on their petition April 23rd or soon afterward.

Todd Hatton hails from Paducah, Kentucky, where he got into radio under the auspices of the late, great John Stewart of WKYX while a student at Paducah Community College. He also worked at WKMS in the reel-to-reel tape days of the early 1990s before running off first to San Francisco, then Orlando in search of something to do when he grew up. He received his MFA in Creative Writing at Murray State University. He vigorously resists adulthood and watches his wife, Angela Hatton, save the world one plastic bottle at a time.
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