The Plain Dealer has this editorial, entitled "A legal twist that chokes justice," calling for Ohio's public records law to be changed to allow criminal defendants and their attorneys access to public records which are accessible to everyone else.

• Note:  Part of the current law in effect since a 1994 ruling by Ohio Supreme Court (State ex rel. Steckman v. Jackson (1994), 70 Ohio St.3d 420, 639 NE.2d) drew attention as a result of the inability of attorneys for Tyrone Noling to obtain public records used by the Plain Dealer in it's recent investigative report on the Noling case (until the PD posted the items on its website here).  A listing of some relevant current exemptions in the Ohio open records law is here (excerpted from the Ohio Open Gov't Guide, prepared by the Baker Hostetler law firm for the The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press).
• Some history of Ohio's "Sunshine" laws can be found in this 2003 article (22-page pdf), entitled "Interpreting Ohio's Sunshine Laws: A Judicial Perspective"  written by Ohio Sup Ct Chief Justice Thomas Moyer for the NYU Annual Survey of American Law.

(Earlier posts on the Tyrone Noling case are here.)