Jewell Libel Suit Lingers in Atlanta

By: This unsigned editorial appeared in the Aug. 25 issue of E&P.

Like Hollywood's tired resurrection of the oft-killed 1980s horror icons Freddy Krueger and Jason, Richard Jewell's libel lawsuit against The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is trying to lurch back to life this summer.

Jewell is the former security guard who saved many lives during the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta by trying to clear Centennial Olympic Park when a disguised bomb he discovered exploded, killing one person and injuring 110. The FBI, watching Jewell's obvious pleasure in the media limelight, quickly concluded that he must have set the bomb himself. The suspicion leaked to the Journal-Constitution, which published an accurate story and ignited a predictable frenzy of pack journalism.

Jewell endured a taste of media hell for some weeks as camera trucks planted themselves outside the apartment he shared with his mom. But media attention also eviscerated the FBI case, and Jewell was exonerated with considerable hoopla. He and attorney L. Lin Wood Jr. then turned to shaking down the news media with libel suits. It worked wonderfully at first: NBC reportedly settled for $500,000, and CNN shelled out an undisclosed amount.

But the Journal-Constitution refused to lie down, and the truth of its reporting has proved an unshakable defense in court.

In 2001, a Georgia appeals court delivered a mortal blow to the case -- noting, among other things, that Jewell himself had acknowledged the truth of many statements his suit claims are "defamatory."

Wood is now asking Fulton State Court Judge John R. Mather to order the Journal-Constitution to reveal the names of its sources. The appeals court has already rejected a nearly identical request. Judge Mather would do better to order Jewell, who just turned 40, to get a life.

Persistence pays: On Aug. 15, the city of Garland, Texas, finally agreed to reimburse The Dallas Morning News for $99,000 in legal fees incurred during an epic 10-year struggle to force officials to release some public records. City fathers still don't get it, though. The Associated Press quoted City Attorney Charles M. Hinton Jr. as saying officials made a "business decision" to save the expense of yet another trial. Smarten up, counselor: Garland isn't a private corporation; it's a democracy that cannot hide its operations from the people.

Hit the sealing: The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press called attention to a little-noticed June 29 California appeals court decision with big implications for access to court documents. Ruling in a case involving Universal City Studios, the court declared that documents in civil litigations cannot be sealed merely because the parties involved would like to keep them secret. The decision is a welcome rejection of the idea, so popular among lawyers, that the public somehow can be excluded when litigants choose to take their private disputes into open court.