PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Two reporters face fines of $40,000 each, tallied at $100 a minute, after refusing to turn over interview notes with a defendant in a murder trial.
Common Pleas Judge Jane Cutler Greenspan ordered the fines to begin at noon Wednesday and continue until the end of testimony on Thursday.
Prosecutor Emily Zimmerman told the judge she had understood that the fine would accrue overnight. But on Thursday, Greenspan said it would add up only while the reporters were in court. By the time testimony ended midday, each fine amounted to $40,000.
The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Tribune, a twice-weekly black newspaper, said they would appeal the contempt fines imposed on their reporters.
Brian Tyson, on trial for the 1997 shooting death of 23-year-old Damon Millner, was under house arrest when he told the reporters he fired in self-defense after a gang of drug dealers shot at him and tried to blow up his car.
Inquirer reporter Mark Bowden, testifying Thursday, declined to answer questions unless they related to his 1998 three-part series on the case. He cited Pennsylvania shield laws and the First Amendment.
Tribune reporter Linn Washington Jr. was not asked to testify, though his notes had been subpoenaed.
"The job of a newspaper is not to serve as an investigative arm of the prosecution," Inquirer Editor Robert Rosenthal said.
Pennsylvania is one of 40 states with a shield law protecting journalists from divulging unpublished reporting. However, the state Supreme Court rejected the newspapers' appeal for a stay on Monday, saying the interview notes are not protected because Tyson did not request confidentiality.
