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CNN Saturday Morning News
Author Who Refused to Hand Over Notes Released From Jail
Aired January 05, 2002 - 08:29 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Five months after being sent to jail, a novice crime writer is out this morning. Authorities jailed Vanessa Leggett after she refused to hand over her notes to a federal grand jury about a high society murder case. Now free, she says she'll finish her story, even it means returning to jail.
CNN's Ed Lavandera reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VANESSA LEGGETT: This has been the longest five months of my life.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After 168 days in a Houston federal prison, aspiring author Vanessa Leggett stopped to savor the moment.
LEGGETT: God, downtown Houston never smelled so good.
LAVANDERA: Leggett was in jail because she refuses to hand over research notes about the high profile murder of Houston socialite Doris Engelton. Authorities say Engelton's husband, Robert, hired his own brother to kill his wife in 1997. Robert Engelton was found not guilty in the murder for hire scheme. Leggett, who's writing a book about the case, interviewed the brother, Roger, in jail just before he committed suicide. She gave up those tapes last year.
But prosecutors want to know who else she talked to. And argue that because Leggett doesn't work for a paper or a magazine, that she didn't enjoy a journalist's First Amendment protection.
Who did she talk with? Leggett won't say, but does say she'll go to jail again to protect her sources.
LEGGETT: I really feel that I've done the right thing. And that really has helped me throughout this stay. I mean, it's a good feeling to know that you're doing the right thing.
LAVANDERA: Leggett has won the support of journalism organizations and First Amendment advocates.
BOB LATHAM, ATTORNEY: I view it as a significant threat.
LAVANDERA: Like Bob Latham. The Dallas attorney says this case threatens freedom of the press and the public's right to hear that information.
LATHAM: Nobody, nobody, has been able to articulate what it was that was so compelling, that she had, that the government needed, that required the government to jail her for six months.
LAVANDERA: It's rare for prosecutors to go this route. Such subpoenas are hard to get. But still most federal and state laws don't protect journalists from being subpoenaed or put in jail if they don't comply.
LATHAM: They're not like -- they're not considered as the same level as attorney-client, doctor-patient. All those kind of privileges that the law recognizes, journalists don't occupy that exalted position in the law.
LAVANDERA: Until Vanessa Leggett's release, there were only two journalists in the Western Hemisphere imprisoned for doing their job. Leggett was one. The other journalist is sitting in a Cuban jail.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Dallas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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