Judge Allen Baddour will consider the motion at a hearing next Wednesday. He has temporarily sealed the document, pending his review to determine whether releasing it would compromise the ongoing police investigation.

Judges have sealed almost every public record related to the slaying of the UNC-Chapel Hill student body president. Last week, Baddour upheld the sealings of search warrants as well as an unknown document after the Durham Herald-Sun moved to unseal them.

In a motion filed Monday, N&O attorney Michael Tadych explained that the newspaper wants "to intervene solely for the purpose of protecting [its] rights and the rights of the public to observe and report on this criminal proceeding."

The autopsy report would say how many times Carson was shot and what killed her. It might also identify the weapon or weapons used.

"There are details related to the cause of death and manner of death of Eve Carson that should remain confidential until all interviews of possible witnesses have been completed," District Attorney Jim Woodall wrote in his motion to seal the medical report.

Police found Carson's body in a wooded neighborhood near UNC-CH about 5 a.m. March 5. Police have said she was shot multiple times, including once in the right temple. Within days of the shooting, police released security-camera photographs of two suspects charged in the case, Demario Atwater and Laurence Alvin Lovette.

Woodall said the Carson autopsy report is the first local autopsy report sealed since Eric Miller's in 2001. Miller, 30, an AIDS researcher at UNC-CH, died from arsenic poisoning. A judge sealed his autopsy report twice, saying its release would hinder the investigation.