ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 7, 1995                   TAG: 9507070086
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: COLUMBIA, S.C.                                  LENGTH: Short

JOURNALIST WILL GO TO JAIL FOR CONTEMPT

A newspaper reporter was told Thursday she will go to jail for refusing to reveal who gave her information about the sanity of Susan Smith, who has confessed to killing her two sons.

South Carolina's Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the need for Twila Decker to reveal her source far outweighs any ``asserted'' First Amendment right to keep it a secret.

``Decker must divulge her source or suffer the consequences,'' the court said in its ruling, without specifying a deadline.

Decker, a reporter for the The State newspaper in Columbia, was found in contempt on May 26 for refusing to reveal who told her that state doctors had found Smith competent to stand trial but that she had a mental disorder that may have contributed to her actions.

- Associated Press 

Memo: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.
by CNB