COLUMBIA -- The South Carolina Supreme Court decided in favor of The Greenville News on Tuesday in a ruling that a circuit judge closed a death-penalty case hearing to the public and press without sufficient justification.

"The rights of the public and the press to attend criminal trials are guaranteed by the South Carolina Constitution and the United States Constitution," wrote Chief Justice Jean Toal.

Circuit Judge J.C. Nicholson of Anderson closed the 2005 pretrial hearing in the case against Charles Christopher Williams. Williams was facing the prospect of the death penalty in the September 2003 slaying of Maranda Leigh Williams at an Eastside grocery store. He was subsequently convicted and sentenced to death.

Nicholson closed the hearing on a motion by defense attorneys. The hearing was to determine whether a journal kept by Williams would be admitted as evidence and whether jurors would hear testimony from a state psychiatrist who interviewed him.

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Nicholson's ruling was appealed to the Supreme Court by The News and WYFF-TV.

Lawyers for the newspaper and the television station maintained that the judge didn't make specific findings of fact as required by the law and misapplied facts in the case. They also contended the judge had made up his mind to close the hearing before hearing their arguments to keep it open.

The justices ruled that the judge's reasons for closing the hearing were insufficient. Nicholson had concerns about racial issues involved in the case and the "hot button" issue of domestic violence, Toal wrote, which were to be discussed in the hearing.

"Though these concerns were no doubt genuine, closing the courtroom could not possibly have alleviated either of them," she wrote.

Toal also wrote: "Because closing the courtroom had no effect on preventing additional publicity regarding defendant's case, the case as it related to the issue of domestic violence in South Carolina or any racial issues involved in the trial, we reverse the trial court's decision .... "

She noted that The News had published at least 38 stories and opinion pieces on the case.

Nicholson could not be reached for comment.

Tuesday's ruling also cements the use of a three-prong test derived from U.S. Supreme Court decisions on the issue of closed-court proceedings and pretrial publicity, Toal wrote.

South Carolina's Constitution, unlike the U.S. Constitution, has a provision expressly guaranteeing open courts. As a result, South Carolina's justices have long required judges to make specific findings before justifying any closed hearing. They have vacated orders in a string of cases when it found judges closed hearings but failed to state their findings on the record.

The three-prong test requires that judges make specific findings of fact that there is a substantial probability that a defendant's right to a fair trial will be prejudiced by publicity before closing a courtroom, Toal wrote. They must also find that closing the courtroom will prevent that prejudice and that reasonable alternatives to closure cannot adequately protect a defendant's rights.

Nicholson's original idea to limit the hearing to legal arguments would have worked, the justices ruled. However, the jury-selection process remains the preferred method of protecting defendants from the effects of pretrial publicity, Toal wrote.

"I think it's a very strong statement by the court reiterating a long-standing practice in this state that the courts should be open," said Rivers Stillwell, the newspaper's lawyer.

Stilwell and Carl Muller, a Greenville lawyer who made oral arguments before the Supreme Court last month on behalf of the news organizations, argued in a motion filed last year that Nicholson invited defense lawyers three times to make a motion to close the hearing before one did.

The justices found Tuesday that judges can close a courtroom on their own if they believe doing so will protect a defendant.

They also found that Nicholson "paid careful consideration" to the news organizations' due process rights in deciding to close the courtroom.

Muller had maintained that the subject of the hearing's focus -- Williams' journal and the psychiatric interview -- had already been reported months earlier by The News. He said the judge wouldn't acknowledge that the "cat was already out of the bag."

Bill Rogers, executive director of the South Carolina Press Association, said the ruling was good for those who value open courts.

"It sends the right message to judges who consider closing courtrooms," he said. "There has to be a really strong, compelling reason for this to happen. And that wasn't here in this case."

Solicitor Bob Ariail of Greenville, whose office argued on behalf of Nicholson before the Supreme Court, said the ruling did not surprise him.

"I would only say it was not an unexpected decision," he said.