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Panel to ask 'Journal' for notes
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Published: May 12, 2009
The City Council's Public Safety Committee voted last night to send a letter to the Winston-Salem Journal asking the paper to turn over a reporter's notes from an interview about the Silk Plant Forest case.
The committee's vote was 3-1, with Council Member Wanda Merschel voting no. The idea of a letter came up during discussion of a request from a citizens committee reviewing the case for a subpoena of the Journal and former reporter Phoebe Zerwick.
The public-safety committee made no decision about a subpoena.
The review committee has twice asked the Journal to agree to let Zerwick testify and the paper has said no twice. Zerwick has said she would defer to the Journal's wishes about her testifying.
The citizens committee is reviewing the 1995 attack on Jill Marker inside the Silk Plant Forest, a store off Silas Creek Parkway. Kalvin Smith, the man convicted in the case, is serving 23 to 29 years in prison and in January lost his bid for a new trial.
A series of stories Zerwick wrote in 2004 quoted Williams saying he withheld some information from his reports to avoid it being shared with Smith's attorneys. The stories gave examples of work Williams did that he didn't document. He later denied those quotes in a television interview.
Members of the review committee said that the notebook would help them better assess the credibility of the Journal's stories and Williams' denial.
In yesterday's discussion, city officials talked about the possibility of not asking for testimony from Zerwick, but instead asking for an affidavit from her about the accuracy of the notes, along with the notebook.
"It's a very narrow request and for the life of me I don't understand why the Journal would not comply with that request," said Council Member Nelson Malloy. "It's almost like it's a dereliction of their duty as journalists."
Carl Crothers, the Journal's executive editor, said that Malloy's comment "illustrates a misunderstanding of the role of the press."
A newspaper's ability to report depends on sources confiding in the paper, and the trust between a paper and its sources depends on independence from government, he said.
"We'll consider whatever request they make, but we don't intend to cooperate as an agent for the council or the review committee voluntarily," he said. "We just can't take that step."
■ Dan Galindo can be reached at 727-7377 or dgalindo@wsjournal.com.
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