#WaPost wins, as a D.C. #appeals #court has ordered release of juror questionnaires in the high-profile, now-concluded trial of Chandra Levy's killer.

In a 20-page decision issued this week, elavorated upon in this fresh-from-the-oven McClatchy article, the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled that the trial judge went too far when he blocked release of the 11-page, 55-question forms filled out by the Levy jurors.

"The values underlying the First Amendment right of access _ for example, the public trial as a check on the fair functioning of the criminal justice system _ are served even after the verdict is in," Associate Judge Kathryn A. Oberly wrote.

The trial ended in November 2010 with the conviction of Ingmar Guandique, now serving a 60-year prisoni sentence. The Washington Post led the way on the fight to open up the juror questionnaires, first with the paper's dogged courthouse reporters Keith Alexander and Henri Cauvin agitating to obtain the forms and then with lawyers weighing in. Attorney Bruce D. Brown successfully argued the case last fall before the appellate court.

Separately, attorney Bruce Gottleib filed an amicus brief on behalf of 16 media organizations including the Associated Press, Atlantic Media, Inc., Dow Jones and Company, Inc., Gannett Co., Hearst Corporation,  National Public Radio,  The New York Times Company and The New Yorker.

Superior Court Judge Gerald I. Fisher will now have to specifically identify what parts, if any, will be redacted before the questionnaires are released.