Hoping to Identify Dead Man, Paper Publishes Morgue Photo

By: E&P Staff The Times Union in Albany, N.Y., published a morgue photograph Thursday in the hopes of identifying a man who was struck and killed by a car on Sept. 14 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

A note from the newspaper's editor, Rex Smith, said that it wasn't customary for the Times Union to publish such grisly photographs, but that it was doing so to help local police identify the pedestrian.

Smith said in his note that before making the decision, editors consulted a group of the newspaper's readers, which he said was formed "to help us in just such circumstances." He said that the Times Union Reader Network, via email, overwhelmingly urged the paper to publish the photograph.