Hustler Magazine's VILE request!

Gary Michael Hilton, 61, pled guilty January 31 to killing Meredith Emerson, 24, after he met her hiking in the North Georgia mountains. Authorities believe Hilton killed Emerson on January 4, three days after she disappeared while on a hike with her dog.

Hilton directed authorities to Emerson's body on January 7. An autopsy found she died from blunt-force trauma to the head and was decapitated after she died. Hustler magazine has filed a Open Records Act application in an attempt to obtain the pictures for publication in their magazine.

While there are legitimate reasons for a news agency to request crime scene photos for news stories, I cannot fathom why HUSTLER would or could justify doing a story on a poor woman that was kidnapped on a hiking trail, raped, tortured and partially decapitated. Is Hustler catering to sexual deviates? I have investigated homicides where a person has been nearly decapitated and I can say first hand that these are some of the most gruesome scenes that a member of Law Enforcement will encounter. The thought that Hustler wants to print these photos in a porn magazine is deeply disturbing and it appears that the magazine is acknowledging the fact that some people may get aroused by the gruesome violence and forceable rape these photos depict.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation refused to release the photographs to Hustler even though the Open Records Act provides for their release.

At the same time, the Georgia State Legislature moved closer to enacting a law that will change the state's Open Records Act. The law would prevent anyone from obtaining gruesome crime scene photographs.

Full story here at http://www.11alive.com/

http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=141649&catid=3