Andrea Vogt, a former Idaho reporter now based in Italy, reports on a public records battle with Boise State University over the work of Professor Greg Hampikian, the head of the Idaho Innocence Project and a DNA expert who has played a key role in the Amanda Knox case. Vogt has been looking into public resources, both state and federal, that have gone into Knox’s defense in the murder case in Italy, but ran into a surprising roadblock: Boise State denied her requests under the Idaho Public Records Law for Hampikian’s correspondence about the case, claiming they’re trade secrets.

Writes Vogt, a former Spokesman-Review reporter, “It raises the following questions: Do U.S. citizens have the right to know if public university resources, labs and funds were used (and how) to aid the defense of a private citizen accused abroad of murder, justly or unjustly?  What are the parameters for this kind of advocacy?  When should public universities be allowed to come to the aid of those imprisoned at home or abroad, who decides who gets help and who doesn’t, and how transparent should those university efforts be?”

You can read her full report here at her website, “The Freelance Desk.” Her work in three languages has been published by The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Week, BBC, Discovery Channel and A & E's Crime and Investigation Network, among others. For more on the Idaho Innocence Project and its funding, click here.