Word: libeler
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Then last spring, in successfully appealing another libel judgment to the U.S. Supreme Court,* the Times won a landmark decision (TIME, March 20, 1964). The Supreme Court ruled, in effect, that unless malice was proved, the conduct of public officials was fair game for criticism, even if the criticism was unwarranted or untrue...
...what may be the year's prize legal oddment, a canny convicted robber has just used Britain's stern libel laws to win a $45,000 judgment against no less a personage than the detective who sent him to jail eleven years...
Alfie sued Sparks for libel-in effect demanding that Sparks prove that the original conviction was correct. Sparks tried, but a London jury was unconvinced. It found in Alfie's favor-thus casting Alfie's robbery rap in doubt. "Now," he says happily, "I shall press for my conviction to be quashed...
...first glance, Alfie seems to be asking too much. The doctrine of res judicata (the thing is decided) holds that a fully adjudicated conviction is final. But that doctrine applies only to the original parties-in Alfie's robbery case, that means the Crown v. Hinds. The libel suit involved different parties: Hinds v. Sparks, and only by coincidence was the robbery the key issue. Since it was the issue, however, Alfie managed to have himself found "innocent" in what laymen at least could view as a retrial. Whether he now deserves a pardon is up to Home Secretary...
Barry fired right back. "I would call that ignorant," he said, "but it certainly was within their constitutional rights to do it." Well, not really. The Constitution guarantees no one the right to libel another individual-and if Eisenhower had chosen to, he could have stuck Candymaker Welch with a libel suit that would have melted him down to peanuts...