MOSCOW, November 12 (RAPSI) - A New York court will decide Tuesday whether Fox News reporter Jana Winter should be compelled to reveal her sources in a story about disturbing notebook entries penned by suspected Colorado theater gunman James Holmes, Fox News reported Monday.

During a midnight screening of Batman: the Dark Night Rises in July 2012, a man burst into a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado and opened fire on the massive crowd inside. 12 were killed and 58 injured in the rampage. Holmes was formally charged the following month with 24 counts of first degree murder, 116 counts of attempted first degree murder, one count of possession of explosives, and one count of violence in connection with the mass shooting.

In the meantime, on July 25, 2012 Fox News published an exclusive by Winter describing a gorily detailed notebook that Holmes had allegedly sent to a psychiatrist at his former university prior to carrying out the attack.

In the report, Winter quoted an anonymous law enforcement source as having stated, "Inside the package was a notebook full of details about how he was going to kill people… There were drawings of what he was going to do in it -- drawings and illustrations of the massacre." The drawings reportedly included a stick figure firing on other stick figures.

According to US-based advocacy group the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP), the notebook had been considered sealed evidence when Winter published the story, thus inspiring the defense team to go after her sources on the basis that the news coverage might impact the trial.

In March, the RCFP reported that a New York judge had signed a subpoena that would require Winter to testify in Colorado, in accordance with a New York state law providing that a judge can compel a state citizen to appear in another state’s court, “provided the citizen’s testimony is “material and necessary” and testifying will not cause the citizen undue hardship.”

In August, the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division ruled that the New York judge had acted appropriately in choosing to sign the subpoena, according to a copy of the decision published on the RCFP website.

A three-judge majority held in August, “The narrow issue before the Supreme Court was whether respondent should be compelled to testify, and privilege and admissibility are irrelevant for this determination… Respondent is entitled to assert whatever privileges she deems appropriate before the Colorado District Court. Compelling respondent to testify is distinguishable from compelling her to divulge the identity of her sources.” Two judges drafted a dissenting opinion.

According to Monday’s Fox News report, the narrow 3/2 split automatically vested Winter with the right to appeal. According to the report, she plans to argue on Tuesday that she should be protected from having to testify in Colorado, where she could be compelled to disclose her sources, based on New York’s strong public policy interest in protecting reporters’ confidential sources.