Miami Reporter Fired After Art Teele's Suicide
Miami Herald reporter Jim DeFede has been fired for taping his last phone call with indicted Miami politician Art Teele. After the call, Teele went to the Herald's offices and killed himself. Sad story. The Southern District of Florida blog has a good wrap-up and these thoughts, by David Oscar Markus.
On a personal note, I'm just sickened by this. It's an eye-opening reminder that targeting someone (either by the press or by the state or by the feds) has real consequences. I am not suggesting that anyone is to blame for Teele's actions. That said, I have wondered why the feds needed to prosecute Teele after he had been convicted in state court and after he had lost his job and his life. In the end, was it necessary? Even assuming that he committed a crime, there are times when our prosecutors should use discretion. It's easy, of course, to say now that this was one of those cases, but I still wonder why this man (after what he had already gone through) needed to be prosecuted.
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