A man accused of murdering his sister, mother, and mother’s boyfriend in Weymouth last Thursday had previously been arraigned in a separate case in Quincy District Court on September 8 on charges of attempting to commit a crime and being in possession of burglarious tools.

This morning 18-year old Donald Rudolph was arraigned in Quincy District Court, accused of murdering his mother Paula, 50, sister Caylin, 24, and his mother’s boyfriend, Frederick Medina, 52, in Weymouth, Mass. last Thursday.

While the livestream of Quincy District Court is the cornerstone of our project to open the court through digital technology, we’re in the process of expanding. One of our hopes is that the project be used as a resource for high school civics classes.

Our big day in court has come and gone. Now we await a decision.

Tomorrow morning the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) will hear two cases involving OpenCourt and the First Amendment press rights of a news organization to report information that was gathered legally in an open courtroom.

Both OpenCourt and Diorio have filed legal briefs replying to the arguments in the briefs filed on October 17. The District Attorney’s office did not file reply briefs.

OpenCourt filed legal briefs yesterday leading up to a November 8 hearing before the full Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

“‘Equal justice under law’ is the inscription on the face of the court building. It is time that we the people had equal access to the process by which that justice is meted out.”

Instead of following the guidelines for requesting a redaction that were developed in consultation with the DA’s office and at the request of the Court, the Norfolk County DA’s office filed a motion to the Court, asking them to order us to redact the conversation from our archives. They said the redaction would be “necessary for the safety and privacy of the assistant district attorney and all Norfolk District Attorney’s Office employees.”

A single SJC justice reserved her ruling and suggested a public hearing before the full seven-member Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The central issue at stake in the case is a First Amendment question of whether the court can order a news organization to redact material that has been presented to the public in open court.