Home | About | RSS Feed | Contact and Publicity Guidelines | Comment Policy the Law, the Universe, and Everything 

Search


Concurring Opinions is a
general-interest legal blog
operated by Concurring
Opinions LLC, a Pennsylvania
Limited Liability Corporation.

jr_114_9780195367195_bnr

jr_114_9780195383768_bnr

advertise-here4


FC-CO(SS)

Our Podcast

Subscribe to Law Talk

law-rev-contents2.jpg


  • Posts by Author

  • Categories

  • Archives


  • Recent Comments

    • Legal Fact Finder on Ricci: Color-Blind Standards in a Race Conscious Society?

    • Observer on Ricci: Color-Blind Standards in a Race Conscious Society?

    • RJ on Ricci: Color-Blind Standards in a Race Conscious Society?

    • RJ on Ricci and Briscoe as Disparate Impact Cases

    • Mike Rich on Negligent Corpse Mishandling

    • anon on Privacy and Tattletales

    • orly lobel on At CELS, Hoping to Blog

    • harry brooks on Ricci: Color-Blind Standards in a Race Conscious Society?

    • RJ on Ricci: Color-Blind Standards in a Race Conscious Society?

    • Michael H Schneider on Negligent Corpse Mishandling

    • flood pictures on Public opinion on same-sex marriage

    • gtownstudent on And Justache For All at GW Law

    • AF on Ricci and Briscoe as Disparate Impact Cases

    • RJ on Ricci and Briscoe as Disparate Impact Cases

    • Maryland Conservatarian on Ricci: Color-Blind Standards in a Race Conscious Society?

  •  

    Site Meter

A Semantic Term of Interest

posted by Gerard Magliocca

In the graduate-student murder that occurred at Yale last week, media reports indicate that the police are looking at a “person of interest.”  I guess this term has now officially replaced “suspect” in the lexicon.  As far as I can tell, this change started with the case of Richard Jewell, the alleged Olympic bomber, who was cleared of any wrongdoing but successful sued various news outlets for calling him a suspect.

Does this distinction mean anything or is it just a feel-good change?  Is someone is falsely or incorrectly labeled as a “person of interest,” are they barred from recovering because that sounds more innocuous?  I doubt it, but input from people who know would be welcome.

My favorite example of semantic failure, BTW, is when governments officials in the early 1930s decided that using “panic” to describe economic downtowns was a mistake.  So they came up with “depression.” Quite the pick-me-up.

UPDATE:  I really should have called this post “Round Up The Usual Persons of Interest.”  Oh well.


 September 15, 2009 at 3:27 pm   Posted in: Criminal Law, Current Events   Print This Post Print This Post

Responses (3)

  1. michael webster - September 15, 2009 at 6:37 pm

    Reasonable thread here:

    http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389×1935663

  2. Robert Heverly - September 15, 2009 at 7:01 pm

    There are a few of cases that discuss “person of interest” in relation to defamation or reputation, but two are messy and not particularly helpful (one is the “anthrax doctor” case, which was primarily a convoluted federal claims case – Hatfill v. Ashcroft, 404 F.Supp.2d 104 (D.D.C. 2005) – the other involved a claim of privilege that was upheld – Kelley v. Tanoos, 865 N.E.2d 593 (Ind. 2007)). One case that does seem to address the question, though without much discussion, is Dicus v. State of Washington Dept. of Natural Resources (unpublished; 100 Wash.App. 1063, 2000 WL 669654):

    “Mr. Dicus failed to establish a prima facie case of defamation. First, he was unable to produce specific, material facts that any of the alleged defamatory statements were false. Admittedly, Mr. Dicus presented declarations and affidavits of persons to whom Mr. Wruble allegedly made statements regarding Mr. Dicus’s status as a person of interest in the arson investigations. However, statements that communicate ideas or opinions cannot support a defamation claim, because false ideas are not actionable. [citation omitted]. The court found and the record supports that Mr. Dicus was, at one time, being investigated as an arson suspect.”

    Not much help, really; I’m not sure why “person of interest” conveys an idea or opinion (or how that analysis would differ from “suspect”), but if we ignore that, it seems like the court is saying that if the person was actually a “person of interest” then that person can be identified as a “person of interest” and such identification will not be defamatory.

    Interesting (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

  3. Bruce Boyden - September 16, 2009 at 12:39 pm

    It’s not too early to speculate about what the *next* term will be, after “person of interest” acquires secondary meaning. I nominate: “Person-we’re-interested-in-talking-to, just-curious-really, nothing-out-of-the-ordinary, carry-on.”

Leave a Reply

*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture. Click on the picture to hear an audio file of the word.
Click to hear an audio file of the anti-spam word


  • « Previous post
  • Next post »

Authors

Daniel J. Solove

Website
Understanding Privacy

Kaimipono Wenger

Website
SSRN Page

Dave Hoffman

Website
SSRN Page

Nate Oman

Website
SSRN Page

Frank Pasquale

Website
SSRN Page

Deven Desai

Website
SSRN Page

Danielle Citron

Website
SSRN Page

Lawrence Cunningham

Website
SSRN Page

Sarah Waldeck

Website
SSRN Page

Jaya Ramji-Nogales

Website
SSRN Page

Solangel Maldonado

Website
SSRN Page

Gerard Magliocca

Website
SSRN Page


Guests

Rachel Godsil
Alex Kreit
Anita Krishnakumar
Matthew Sag
Michael Zimmer






Previous Guests

Michael Abramowicz
Michelle Adams
Robert Ahdieh
Michelle Anderson
Laura Appleman
Ann Bartow
Francesca Bignami
Jeremy Blumenthal
Kathleen Boozang
Bruce Boyden
Donald Braman
Al Brophy
Neil H. Buchanan
Bill Burke-White
Scott Burris
Paul Butler
Naomi Cahn
Anupam Chander
Miriam Cherry
Jack Chin
Jennifer Collins
Allison Danner
Brannon Denning
Deven Desai
Mike Dimino
Mark Edwards
David Fagundes
Christine Haight Farley
Kim Ferzan
Dan Filler
Michael Froomkin
Amanda Frost
Timothy Glynn
Rachel Godsil
Eric Goldman
David Gray
Craig Green
Tristin Green
Jeffrey Harrison
Erica Hashimoto
Carissa Hessick
Laura Heymann
Robert Hillman
Christine Hurt
Darian Ibrahim
John Ip
Kevin Johnson
Dan Kahan
Brian Kalt
Sam Kamin
Michael Kang
Chimène Keitner
Orin Kerr
Nancy Kim
Heidi Kitrosser
Adam Kolber
Russell Korobkin
Anita S. Krishnakumar
Susan Kuo
Greg Lastowka
Sarah Lawsky
Erik Lillquist
Jeff Lipshaw
Jonathan Lipson
Jacqueline Lipton
Joseph Liu
Michael Madison
Solangel Maldonado
Jason Mazzone
Linda McClain
William McGeveran
Salil Mehra
Carrie Menkel-Meadow
Max Minzner
Scott Moss
Eric Muller
Jaya Ramji-Nogales
Helen Norton
Elizabeth Nowicki
Paul Ohm
Michael O'Shea
David Opderback
Kristen Osenga
Rafael Pardo
Marcy Peek
Eduardo Peñalver
Robert Percival
David Post
Shruti Rana
Geoffrey Rapp
Neil Richards
Lori Ringhand
Alice Ristroph
Susan Scafidi
Paul Secunda
Jonathan Siegel
Jessica Silbey
Peter Smith
Charles Sullivan
Rick Swedloff
Steph Tai
Andrew Taslitz
Robert Tsai
Jenia Turner
Steve Vladeck
Sarah Waldeck
Melissa Waters
Alfred Yen
David Zaring
Timothy Zick
Spencer Weber Waller
Howard Wasserman
Frank Wu
Corey Yung
Jonathan Zittrain

Blogroll

Above the Law
ACS Blog
Althouse
Balkinization
Becker-Posner Blog
BlackProf
BoingBoing
Chicago Law Faculty Blog
Conglomerate
CrimLaw
Crime & Federalism
CrimProf Blog
Crooked Timber
Discourse.net
Dorf on Law
Election Law
Emergent Chaos
The Faculty Lounge
Feminist Law Profs
43(B)log
Freakonomics Blog
Freedom to Tinker
Google Blogoscoped
How Appealing
Ideoblog
Info/Law
Instapundit.com
Juris Novus
Jurisdynamics
Law and Humanities Blog
Law and Letters
Law Librarian Blog
Legal Profession Blog
Legal Theory Blog
Legal Times Blog
Leiter Reports
Brian Leiter's Law School Reports
Lessig Blog
Madisonian Theory
Media Law Blog
Mirror of Justice
The Moderate Voice
National Security Advisors
Opinio Juris
Point of Law
PrawfsBlawg
ProfessorBainbridge.com
Property Prof Blog
Red Tape Chronicles
The Right Coast
Schneier on Security
SCOTUSBlog
Security Dilemmas
Sentencing Law and Policy
Simple Justice
Sivacracy.net
The Situationist
Susan Crawford
TalkLeft
Talking Points Memo
TaxProf Blog
Tech & Marketing Law
Truth on the Market
Volokh Conspiracy
WorkPlace Prof Blog
WSJ Law Blog
Wonkette
The Yin Blog


© Concurring Opinions

Powered by WordPress