COURT OF APPEALS Professor files suit to get records

The information is public record according to constitutions, the lawsuit said.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- A Kent State University professor has sued the top trial judge in Cleveland and the clerk of courts to force release of information on jurors who served in death-penalty cases.
Thomas Brewer, a justice studies professor, filed the lawsuit Thursday with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio.
He asked the 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals in Cleveland to order Presiding Cuyahoga Common Pleas Judge Richard McMonagle and Clerk of Courts Gerald Fuerst to release juror names and other information about them for a research project.
State and U.S. constitutions clearly establish that the information is public record, Brewer's suit said.
Research
Brewer and a team of graduate students plan to ask scores of Ohio jurors who served on cases involving the death penalty to take part in three-hour interviews about their experience. Researchers have pledged to keep participating jurors anonymous.
Among other things, the researchers will look for differences in the way white and nonwhite jurors view the process and reach verdicts.
The Ohio Commission on Racial Fairness is among the study sponsors. Chief Justice Thomas Moyer of the Ohio Supreme Court sent letters to judges asking them to cooperate.
Every court Brewer contacted has cooperated except Cuyahoga, he said.
McMonagle said he hadn't seen the lawsuit and would leave it up to the prosecutor's office, which serves as the local court system's attorney, to file a response.