Text Box: innocence as well as a trial by a fair and impartial jury of peers? Examples of perp walks of the famous and the infamous include Julius and Ethel Ronsenberg, Bruno Richard Hauptmann, and Lee Harvey Oswald, to name a few. Aside from the issues of due process and the presumption of innocence, perp walks also unnecessarily expose persons not yet convicted of crimes to great body harm or death. The most famous example of the danger of a perp walk was the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy. Oswald was not afforded due process and the American people were denied the opportunity to hear the evidence and pass judgment. This vacuum of due process created a fertile field for assassination conspiracy theories, which will never be satisfied. The case of Gary Doucet is another example of an accused individual murdered during a perp walk. In March 1984, Doucet was being returned to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to stand trial for kidnapping and sexual molestation of an 11-year old. As Doucet was being paraded before waiting new cameras in the airport, the father of the 11-year old shot him in ambush. Like Oswald, Doucet was robbed of due process because of this police/media relationship. But what of those arrested and paraded before the media in a traditional perp walk who are later found innocent? Is it realistic to believe that the innocent will be accepted back into society, and that all of the images of guilt and the labeling effect of the arrest will be erased from the minds of those who know the former accused? This is an unrealistic expectation in American society. The stigmatizing effect of being arrested, and charged or tried in a criminal case does not vanish on a finding of innocence. The case of Richard Jewell is a prime example of this stigmatization. Jewell had the misfortune to be a conscientious hero. For reasons that are still unclear, the Federal Bureau of Investigation decided that Jewell was responsible for the July 27, 1996 bomb blast during a concert at Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park. Through an insidious campaign of mysterious FBI leaks and misinformation, Jewell’s life was made a living hell as the FBI and the news media shadowed Text Box: his every move. Condemning stories were broadcast and written concerning Jewell. Finally, on October 26, 1996, the Justice Department cleared Jewell. But to what end? Despite the $500,000 settlement made with Jewell by the National Broadcasting Company, they still refused to issue a retraction. The Atlanta-Journal Constitution also refused to retract its coverage. Although Jewell was cleared, the albatross still hangs around his neck. Jewell wanted to be a police officer, and, after he was cleared of the Atlanta bombing, he applied to a number of police departments. Administrators were afraid to hire him, but not because of any involvement with the bombing. Rather, they were concerned that an incident that normally would not gather media attention would simply because Jewell was involved. Perp walks do not promote due process, nor do they preserve the presumption of innocence. They do not serve the interests of justice. Rather, they serve the needs of police and law enforcement agencies as well as those of the news media. Those arrested are branded for life as that which the media reports. Clearly, the identities of those charged with offenses should not be reported to the news media until after they are convicted of an offense. Only in this way can we avoid the stigmatizing effect of Text Box: Text Box: COMMITTING TO CONSCIENCE Building a Unified Strategy to End the Death Penalty Thursday, November 16, 2000 11 a.m. to Sunday, November 19, 3 p.m. Cathedral Hill Hotel, Van Ness Avenue San Francisco, California FEATURED SPEAKERS Mike Farrell Danny Glover Reuben "Hurricane" Carter Sister Helen Prejean Rep. Maxine Waters Sen. Russ Feingold Michael Radelet Donald Spoto Bianca Jagger Dolores Huerta Angela Davis Ø PRE-REGISTRATION (by 10/16) $55 Ø inc. TICKET FOR SATURDAY EVE BANQUET $95 Ø LATE REGISTRATION $70 Ø SEPARATE TICKET FOR SATURDAY BANQUET $40 Ø SINGLE DAY REGISTRATION $20 Ø CONFERENCE HOTEL ROOM RATE PER NIGHT $125 Sponsored by National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Washington DC. For registration info, go to www.deathpenalty.org or email Idavidson@ncadp.org Information also available from Kristin Vorhies Skinner, Death Penalty Focus, San Francisco, email KVorhies@igc.org