He was the security guard who got the crowd away from the mysterious backpack that exploded at the 96 Olympics. Then every news organization in the wrld said he was a suspect because he fit the “Lone Bomber” profile. He was cleared 88 days later, but it fu*ked him up for life. Eric Rudolph later confessed to it.
This story has always depressed me. Can you imagine how terrified this guy must have been, knowing he did nothing wrong when the FBI and the whole world came crashing down on the doorstep of his little one bedroom apartment? Yeah, he got some big settlements from NBC and a couple others, but still. He probably saved dozens of lives.
I was an officer in Atlanta during the Olympics. A few years later, after he was cleared, we saw Jewell and he walked up to me and my partner and pointed out something he thought was suspicious. I thought that was odd. I don’t think I’d have a thing to do with police after the experience he went through.
whenever i’m writing a story and i’m on the edge of whether i should include or disinclude something juicy, or scoopy, or sexy, i think of that one guy. i understand he sued the the atlanta constitution and even now that case is ongoing. i’m going to be interested in seeing whether they write an oped about him, and what it is they write.
The AJC has always maintained that he was a suspect when they wrote about him, and that they stood by their story even though it was an anonymous source. They had something on their website right after his death was confirmed, but they have since taken it down.
This story more than any other made me ashamed to work in media.
I always suspected that law enforcement at all levels, clear up to the white house pretty much played along with it, so they could tell the world that they “got their man and the Olympics were safe”. What he went through is a sad paragraph in our nations history.
"Jewell was initially hailed as a hero for spotting a suspicious backpack in a park and moving people out of harm’s way just before a bomb exploded during a concert at the Atlanta Summer Olympics.
Then the media called him a suspect and he became a public spectacle.
The blast killed one and injured 111 others.
As recently as last year, Jewell was working as a sheriff’s deputy in rural Meriwether County.
The frenzy that changed Jewell’s life started three days after the bombing with an unattributed report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that described him as “the focus” of the investigation.
Other media, to varying degrees, also linked Jewell to the investigation."
Yet, the story title is: Former Olympics Bombing Suspect Dies
“The AJC has always maintained that he was a suspect when they wrote about him”
just because you can write something does not mean you ought to write something. i know something very juicy right now, but i’m not writing about it, because it would inflict damage on a variety of people who’re just trying to pursue their lives and their work. nothing about writing this would aid the reader. the only person it would aid is me. so i’m not writing it.
news organizations often throw up that thing that the reader’s right to know trumps everything. the reader’s position of preeminence does not mean that readers are best served by knowing everything the writer knows or thinks he knows.
I agree with what you’re saying. From a legal standpoint, the AJC says, he was a suspect, they wrote that he was a suspect, their source at the FBI said he was a suspect. They did not accuse him, they didn’t say he did it. Too bad if the public can’t tell the difference. That is where their legal department made their stand. Big bold headline saying he was a suspect…tiny headline when he was cleared.
In an interview his defense lawyer, Jack Martin, he said that at the very top of the FBI, they believed they had the right guy, and then they were suddenly dead wrong. The U.S. attorney here at that time, Ken Alexander, wrote a letter exonerating Jewell. Martin said in all his years as an attorney, he never saw that happen
Yet, the story title is: Former Olympics Bombing Suspect Dies
I find that rather ironic.
That pretty much sums up the screw-job Jewell got. The guy turns out to have been a hero (or at least a man worthy of significant praise) but he gets f**ked even with the headline about his death.
I recall, if memory serves, a picture of Richard Jewell taken back then. In it, he was sitting outside his apartment, head in hands, as the FBI was inside searching. I took a quick look and couldn’t find that picture. Unless I imagined the whole thing, it was a haunting picture. A man truly alone, confused, and frightened.
Just think what might have happened to the guy in today’s climate. He might have been given a free Syrian vacation and a bit of it’s-not-really-torture-because-we-do-it-to-our-own-troops treatment.
Well he may have gotten hung out by the press and the FBI, but myself and everyone I knew at the time considered him guilty, also. I think law enforcement uses this “person of interest” ploy way too much. They figure they know who did it based on circumstantial evidence and by publically naming someone, the person will crack or someone will come up with other evidence. On the flip side if you are close to a crime and refuse to answer questions or cooperate you get branded as a suspect automatically, but what do they expect?
Trouble is you have a right to remain silent, but you also have a moral obligation to help. This probably comes up most often with domestic problems. If your wife goes missing and you do’nt report it for a few days, then when it comes to light and you refuse to answer any questions, you’re the suspect. In most cases rightfully so, but if their is no other evidence I don’t think police should publicly announce that you are the prime suspect in the hopes that public pressure will cause you to crack.