The Kentucky Supreme Court decided yesterday that Western and the Student Life Foundation are immune from a wrongful death lawsuit involving a freshman killed on campus in 2003.

The court voted 6-0 to uphold a previous decision that Western was immune and reversed a Court of Appeals’ decision that Western’s Student Life Foundation was not immune.

Pellville freshman Melissa “Katie” Autry was raped, sodomized and set on fire in her Poland Hall dorm room May 4, 2003, after returning from a party at the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house. She died from third-degree burns May 7 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.

Western has immunity from this lawsuit because it is a governmental agency. The Student Life Foundation has qualified immunity from this lawsuit, meaning it performed a service for a governmental agency that the agency would have done itself, said Charles English, attorney for the Student Life Foundation.

Ben Crocker, attorney for the Autry estate, said he will still pursue the case further in the Board of Claims, where lawsuits against immune governmental agencies are often handled.

Read Tuesday’s Herald for more on this story.

Reach Alex Fontana at news@wkuherald.com.