Olympics bombing figure Richard Jewell dies

Trial set for January
Jewell sued several media organizations, including NBC, CNN and the New York Post, and settled for undisclosed amounts. According to Lin Wood, Jewell’s longtime attorney, Jewell also settled a lawsuit against Piedmont College, a former employer. That amount was also confidential.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution never settled a lawsuit Jewell filed against it, and the case is set for trial in January.

“I expect to pursue it for Richard and his estate,” Wood said. “But that is a decision for a less sad day.”

A lawyer for the newspaper, Peter Canfield, has said that the newspaper stands by its coverage of Jewell. Publisher John Mellott declined to comment about the lawsuit on Wednesday but said that Jewell was a hero “as we all came to learn.”

“The story of how Mr. Jewell moved from hero to suspect and back in the Olympic Park bombing investigation is one The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has reported fully even as it defended itself in a libel case brought by him,” Mellott said.

Jewell, in an interview with the AP last year around the 10th anniversary of the bombing, insisted the lawsuits were not about making money. He bought his mother a place to live and gave 73 percent of the settlement money to his attorneys and to the government in taxes. He said the cases were about ensuring the truth was told.

“I’m not rich by any means monetarily,” he said at the time. “I’m rich because of my family. If I never get there, I don’t care. I’m going to get my say in court.”

'She'll never get that back'
Jewell told the AP last year that Rudolph’s conviction helped clear his name, but he believed some people still remember him as a suspect rather than for the two days in which he was praised as a hero.

“For that two days, my mother had a great deal of pride in me — that I had done something good and that she was my mother, and that was taken away from her,” Jewell said. “She’ll never get that back, and there’s no way I can give that back to her.”

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