A judge shut a courtroom from the public and reporters Thursday during pretrial motions in the death penalty case of a South Carolina man charged with killing two police officers in a 2018 ambush.
Court hearings in South Carolina are almost always open. But lawyers for Frederick Hopkins successfully argued that potential jurors could be exposed to information that a judge might later decide to exclude from trial. Thursday's hearing centered on whether some evidence or statements from witness would be allowed at trial.
