RIP Richard Jewell

Richard Jewell, the hero of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing who got people out of the area in Centennial Olympic Park after having discovered a bomb that had not yet exploded, died today of problems related to diabetes at the age of 44. Jewell, of course, was suspected to have been the bomber, and he was believed to have called the police about the bomb then returned to the scene of the incident to become a hero - a suspicion long since disproved. (The call was made by Eric Rudolph, the actual perpetrator of the crime.)

After what was perhaps one of the most spectacularly mishandled investigations ever conducted by the FBI, Jewell was ultimately cleared, but a good deal of damage to his reputation and his life and been done in the process. I give Jewell credit for moving on and trying to make the most of his life in the eleven years between the bombing and his death, and he lived an honorable and productive life by devoting himself to law enforcement and to the security and safety of others. And what the FBI and the media did to him was almost as big a crime as the bombing.

(Note of interest: Jewell's death came a day after the thirty-sixth birthday of American Olympic swimmer Janet Evans, who witnessed the actual blast at Centennial Olympic Park from a nearby pavilion during a television interview.)