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Richard Jewell Dies at 44
-- Wrongly Linked to Olympic Bombing
AP
Thursday Aug 30, 2007
Richard Jewell, the former security guard who was
erroneously linked to the 1996 Olympic bombing, died Wednesday,
the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.
Jewell, 44, was found dead in his west Georgia home, GBI spokesman
John Bankhead said.
''There's no suspicion whatsoever of any type of foul play. He
had been at home sick since the end of February with kidney problems,''
said Meriwether County Coroner Johnny Worley.
The GBI planned to do an autopsy Thursday, Bankhead said.
Lin Wood, Jewell's longtime attorney, said in an e-mail to The
Associated Press that he was ''devastated'' by the news. He declined
to comment further, saying he was in New York trying to get back
to Atlanta.
(Article continues below)
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.
The blast killed one and injured 111 others.
Three days after the bombing, an unattributed report in The Atlanta
Journal-Constitution described him as ''the focus'' of the investigation.
Other media, to varying degrees, also linked Jewell to the investigation.
He was never arrested or charged, although he was questioned and
was a subject of search warrants.
As recently as last year, Jewell was working as a sheriff's deputy.
Eighty-eight days after the initial news report, U.S. Attorney
Kent Alexander issued a statement saying Jewell ''is not a target''
of the bombing investigation and that the ''unusual and intense
publicity'' surrounding him was ''neither designed nor desired
by the FBI, and in fact interfered with the investigation.''
In 1997, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno expressed regret over
the leak regarding Jewell. ''I'm very sorry it happened,'' she
told reporters. ''I think we owe him an apology.''
On the Journal-Constitution's Web site Wednesday, the paper defended
its unattributed 1996 report, for which Jewell had sued the AJC
for libel. The Web story read, in part:
"Jewell was initially lauded as a hero after a bomb went
off at the July 27, 1996, Olympic celebration. He called attention
to the suspicious knapsack that held a bomb and helped evacuate
the area.
"But days later he became the FBI's chief suspect, as The
AJC and other media outlets reported.
"The FBI later cleared Jewell of any wrongdoing. He was
never charged with a crime.
"Eric Robert Rudolph pleaded guilty to the bombing in 2005
and is serving life in prison for it and other attacks.
"After he was cleared, Jewell sued the Journal-Constitution
and other media outlets for libel, arguing that their reports
defamed him. Several news organizations settled, including NBC
and CNN.
"The Journal-Constitution did not settle. The newspaper
has contended that at the time it published its reports, Jewell
was a suspect, so the articles were accurate. The newspaper also
has asserted that it was not reckless or malicious in its reports
regarding Jewell. Much of Jewell's case was dismissed last year.
One claim, based on reports about a 911 call, is pending trial."
The case was still pending as of last year. A lawyer for the
newspaper did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Eventually, the bomber turned out to be anti-government extremist
Eric Rudolph, who also planted three other bombs in the Atlanta
area and in Birmingham, Ala. Those explosives killed a police
officer, maimed a nurse and injured several other people.
Rudolph was captured after spending five years hiding out in
the mountains of western North Carolina. He pleaded guilty to
all four bombings last year and is serving life in prison.
Jewell told the AP last year that Rudolph's conviction helped,
but he believed some people still remember him as a suspect rather
than for the two days in which he was praised as a hero.
''For that two days, my mother had a great deal of pride in me
-- that I had done something good and that she was my mother,
and that was taken away from her,'' Jewell said around the time
of the 10th anniversary of the bombing. ''She'll never get that
back, and there's no way I can give that back to her.''
A year ago, Gov. Sonny Perdue commended Jewell at a bombing anniversary
event. ''This is what I think is the right thing to do,'' Perdue
declared as he handed a certificate to Jewell.
Jewell said: ''I never expected this day to ever happen. I'm
just glad that it did.''
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