Journalist subpoenaed in the prosecution of a serial killer

On Nov. 25, 2020, journalist and author Jillian Lauren Shriner was subpoenaed by Samuel Little for “unpublished communications with her sources.” The subpoena was issued in connection to Little’s prosecution in the killing of a woman in San Bernardino, California.

In 2018, Little, who the FBI says is the most prolific serial killer in U.S. history, confessed to some 90 murders committed between 1970 and 2005. Fifty of the confessions made by Little have been verified by law enforcement, according to the FBI.

Shriner started talking to Little after she’d interviewed an Los Angeles Police Department detective who had prosecuted him and suspected him of having committed several additional unsolved murders across the country. In her interviews with Little, who at the time was serving three consecutive life sentences for murdering three women in Los Angeles, he confessed to dozens of additional homicides.

A trial court compelled Shriner to comply with the subpoena. On Dec. 23, Shriner appealed the decision with the California Court of Appeal, stating that “to disclose unpublished communications with her sources flagrantly violates California’s shield laws” and that the decision “disregards the fundamental principle, enshrined in California’s Constitution, that journalists must be independent of the judicial process and able to protect their unpublished information, including communications with sources. The Court of Appeal stayed the trial court’s order.

On Dec. 30, Little, 80, died, rendering the criminal case against him and the subpoena effectively moot. The Court of Appeal, though, has not yet dismissed the case and, on Feb. 2, 2021, granted the public defender’s request for an extension to file its response to Shriner’s petition by March 11.

Neither Shriner nor the public defender’s office responded to a request for comment as of press time.