The state of Kansas has been ordered to pay nearly $170,000 in legal fees over its attempt to prevent the publication of files related to the murders portrayed in Truman Capote’s book “In Cold Blood.” As Dan Margolies explains for the Kansas News Service, a state appeals court found Kansas wrongly blocked the sale of private notebooks kept by one of the lead investigators in the case.
(AP version)
Court: State Must Pay Legal Fees over "In Cold Blood" Case Notes
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A court has ordered Kansas to pay legal fees arising from its efforts to block publication of notebooks kept by the lead investigator into the murders chronicled in Truman Capote's book "In Cold Blood." KCUR Radio reports the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled last week the state must pay more than $168,000 to attorneys who represented the investigator's son and a literary memorabilia dealer in Seattle. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt sued in 2012 to prevent the publication or selling of notes from Harold Nye, lead investigator into the killings of the Clutter family in 1959 in Holcomb, Kansas. A judge ruled in 2014 that Nye's son, Ronald, could use the notebooks as the basis for a book. He also ordered the state to pay legal fees.
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