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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (31065)	10/6/2001 10:36:19 AM
From: gao seng	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Well, you do know how to push my buttons. I think Bush needs to set this woman free. edit: or do I? She is hampering a murder investigation by refusing to hand over the notes she took while interviewing one of the murder suspects. Writer breaks journalist's jail record, faces more time Free-lancer is refusing to turn over her notes on society slaying case 10/06/2001 By TODD J. GILLMAN / The Dallas Morning News BELLEVUE, Wash. – The lawyer for Vanessa Leggett, the Houston free-lance writer who has been jailed for 78 days for refusing to give a federal grand jury her notes about a society slaying, said Friday that she will probably spend at least six more months behind bars. Ms. Leggett, 33, a novice crime writer and part-time writing instructor at the University of Houston, already has been jailed three weeks longer than any other journalist in U.S. history. `"We had hoped that she would be out by now," her lawyer, Mike DeGeurin of Houston, told about 700 journalists and students at the annual convention of the Society of Professional Journalists. "It's an outrageous situation." The grand jury's term expires Oct. 12, and by law, that's when Ms. Leggett would have to be freed unless the panel's term is extended. Mr. DeGeurin said prosecutors told him they will seek a six-month extension. SPJ, with nearly 9,000 members, has given $12,500 toward Ms. Leggett's legal fees, which Mr. DeGeurin capped at $25,000. Convention leaders invited Ms. Leggett weeks ago. In her place, Mr. DeGeurin read Friday from a thank-you letter penned from a Houston detention facility. "Let me assure you that no one regrets more than I that I can't address you today," she wrote. The part-time University of Houston writing instructor has spent four years investigating the 1997 death of Doris Angleton, the wife of a wealthy bookmaker. The FBI wanted Ms. Leggett's notes and tape recordings from confidential interviews, including some with federal agents involved in the case. Court rulings make it difficult for authorities to compel journalists to turn over such material. But until a recent article in Newsweek about her ordeal, Ms. Leggett had no magazine or newspaper clips to her name, and a book about the Angleton case would be her first. Based on that, federal prosecutors contend that she is not a journalist and does not enjoy special protection under the First Amendment. A district judge agreed and found her in contempt on July 20, and last month, a three-member panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld the ruling. Ms. Leggett has appealed to the full court. News organizations, including SPJ, say the government shouldn't have the authority to declare who is a journalist and who is not. The issue has become more acute in light of restrictions on newsgathering that many media law experts say they expect as the nation fights a war on international terrorism. The previous jail-time record by a journalist was 46 days: a Los Angeles Herald-Examiner reporter who refused to disclose sources in coverage of the Charles Manson trial in 1972. dallasnews.com stupid registration required site.