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'28*&2//,(5ʔ$)3ʔ*(77< 6,'(%$5 $//,^621^6+,^55())6 &2857(6<^2)$%5$06^35(66NO ONE IS PERFECT
Alexander (top,left)
and Salwen attempt to
give a complete portrait
of Jewell in their book.
Salwen tells Newsweek,
“and I believe that his
entire family believes
that we have done that.”
BOOKS
Q&A: Kent Alexander and
Kevin Salwen spoke with
Newsweek about their new
book The Suspect.
EDITED EXCERPTS:
Is profiling like what was
used in the Jewell case still in
use in law enforcement?
Was it new then?
ALEXANDER: 3URɿOLQJZDVQŠWQHZ
then, but it was maybe at the high
water mark as a tool in the investi-
gation. In this case, it was a tool that
drove much of the investigation. In
IDFWWKHSURɿOLQJKDVQHYHUEHHQ
revealed before this book.
How can someone clear their
name once they’ve been exoner-
ated by law enforcement?
SALWEN: ,WŠVKDUGHUDQGKDUGHU
and harder for someone who is
falsely accused to clear their name.
In many ways, the public moves
on, the media moves on, but the
only remaining rubble in all of this
is the accused. It becomes a very
dangerous thing. It requires sort
of a collective decision to kind of
VD\ţ:K\GRQŠWZHVORZGRZQIRUD
minute and get it right, as opposed
WRJHWWLQJLWɿUVW"Ť
Does this have implications for
the #MeToo movement?
ALEXANDER: It has implications
for many of the social issues that
are right in our face. The reality
is that we saw irresponsible and
incorrect news out there on a very
regular basis and in many ways
what social media has done is it
has allowed anybody to accuse
anyone else, oftentimes behind
the cloak of anonymity.
Is there anything we can do
about the kind of leaks that
happened in Jewell’s case?
ALEXANDER: There was no excuse
for the law enforcement leaks. It
ZDVQŠWHQGRUVHGRUFRQGRQHGE\
VXSHUYLVRUVDWWKH)%,$WDNHDZD\
lesson is to start prosecuting peo-
ple for leaking. Criminally.
SALWEN: I also think that if you
look at the way Kathy Scruggs
sourced the first story and
the way that the Atlanta Jour-
nal-Constitution cautiously
decided when to run it, you can
have a very interesting
discussion within our society about
whether they should have run that
story. The reality is that Richard
Jewell was the lead suspect by the
)%,DWWKDWSRLQW$QGWKHQWKHUH
is the question that you can have
inside every single newsroom:
“Is it irresponsible to name the
guy and write the story that
LVWUXH"Ť7KHUHDUHDOZD\VJUD\V
that attract me in a story, and I
think that is one of the really
interesting grays.
What is the relevance of
Jewell’s story today?
ALEXANDER: Everybody needs to
get back to valuing accuracy over
speed and being the first to get
WKHVWRU\7KHUHŠVDUHDOKXPDQ
toll at the end, and law enforce-
ment and media each need to
bear that in mind.
SALWEN: Richard Jewell is a hero,
and the work that he did saved
scores of lives and he deserves to
be looked at as something other
than the former suspect. If we had
slowed down to try to understand
the story as opposed to try to
sprint through it, for our own
convenience and for others, we
would have recognized that.
NEWSWEEK.COM 45