News Groups Ask To Open Documents In Teacher Death

Lawyers for several news organizations have asked a Massachusetts judge to unseal documents in the case of a 14-year-old boy charged with killing his math teacher.

Lawyers for The Associated Press and other news outlets argued in court Monday that a search warrant affidavit and other documents should be made public in the case of Philip Chism.

Chism has been charged in the Oct. 22 killing of Colleen Ritzer, a 24-year-old math teacher at Danvers High School.

Prosecutors asked the judge to continue to keep the names of underage witnesses sealed, as well as certain sensitive details of the investigation into Ritzer's killing.

But media lawyers cited strong public interest in school violence and said prosecutors had not shown the necessary "good cause" to keep the documents sealed.

The judge did not immediately rule.