Perp walk - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A perp walk, or walking the perp,The term "perp

PERP

p53 apoptosis effector related to PMP-22 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the PERP gene.PERP is a direct transcriptional target of p53.-Further reading:...

" is short for "perpetrator", and is commonly used by police departments for those they arrest. It is legally inaccurate since the arrested individual's guilt has not been judicially established at that point. is a common custom of American law enforcement, the practice of taking an arrested suspect through a public place at some point after the arrest, creating an opportunity for the media to take photographs and video of the event. The defendant is typically handcuffed or otherwise restrained, and is sometimes dressed in prison garb. Within the United States the perp walk is most closely associated with New York City. Originally only those accused of violent street crimes were subjected to it, but since Rudolph Giuliani had accused white-collar criminals

White-collar crime

Within the field of criminology, white-collar crime has been defined by Edwin Sutherland as "a crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation" . Sutherland was a proponent of Symbolic Interactionism, and believed that criminal behavior was...

perp-walked in the 1980s, it has been extended to almost every defendant.

The perp walk arose incidentally from the need to transport a defendant from a police station to court after arrest, and the general prohibition of prior restraint under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment

First Amendment to the United States Constitution

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...

. Law enforcement agencies often coordinate with the media in scheduling and arranging them. It has been criticized as a form of public humiliation

Public humiliation

Public humiliation was often used by local communities to punish minor and petty criminals before the age of large, modern prisons .- Shameful exposure :...

that violates a defendant's right to privacy and is prejudicial to the presumption of innocence

Presumption of innocence

The presumption of innocence, sometimes referred to by the Latin expression Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat, is the principle that one is considered innocent until proven guilty. Application of this principle is a legal right of the accused in a criminal trial, recognised in many...

, and defended as promoting transparency in the criminal justice system. American courts have permitted it on the grounds that it arises from the limitations and necessity of police procedure, but have also limited it only to those times when it is actually necessary.

Procedure

In the United States, once a person has been charged with a crime, the government may request that a judge either issue a summons

Summons

Legally, a summons is a legal document issued by a court or by an administrative agency of government for various purposes.-Judicial summons:...

for that person or an arrest warrant

Arrest warrant

An arrest warrant is a warrant issued by and on behalf of the state, which authorizes the arrest and detention of an individual.-Canada:Arrest warrants are issued by a judge or justice of the peace under the Criminal Code of Canada....

, which can lead to a perp walk. This decision is largely at the discretion of the prosecutor; judges often defer to it.
Since the arrest power is meant to ensure the defendant's presence in court, lawyers defending the white-collar criminals who have been perp-walked since the late 1980s have complained it is unnecessary and superfluous in their clients' cases, even if it does give the appearance of preferential treatment for wealthy defendants. Lea Fastow

Lea Fastow

Lea Weingarten Fastow is the wife of former Enron executive and convicted felon Andrew Fastow and is the second former Enron executive to go to prison after Enron collapsed due to fraud in December 2001....

, the wife of former Enron

Enron

Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. Before its bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, Enron employed approximately 22,000 staff and was one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies, with...

executive Andrew Fastow

Andrew Fastow

Andrew Stuart Fastow was the chief financial officer of Enron Corporation that was based in Houston, Texas until the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation into his and the company's conduct in 2001...

, cited the perp walk she was made to take even though she had expressed her willingness to surrender to a summons in an unsuccessful motion for a change of venue

Change of venue

A change of venue is the legal term for moving a trial to a new location. In high-profile matters, a change of venue may occur to move a jury trial away from a location where a fair and impartial jury may not be possible due to widespread publicity about a crime and/or its defendant to another...

. Some, like Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart is an American business magnate, author, magazine publisher, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, and merchandising...

, have still managed to avoid being perp-walked by responding to summonses, or surrendering in the courtroom as soon as the indictment is presented in open court.

This did not prevent another Houston-area defendant, former Dynegy

Dynegy

Dynegy Inc. , based in Houston, Texas, United States, is a large owner and operator of power plants and a player in the natural gas liquids and coal business...

natural gas trader Michelle Valencia, from undergoing a perp walk in 2003. After waiting all day for the indictment, her attorney told prosecutors she would return there the next morning. Instead, she was arrested at her home before the courthouse opened. Her attorney said prosecutors were bullying her for refusing to cooperate with them. Similarly, lawyers for Adelphia Communications chairman John Rigas criticized prosecutors for having him arrested at his home on Manhattan's Upper East Side

Upper East Side

The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...

in 2002 despite his offer to surrender. Defense lawyers have been advised, if they are aware an indictment and arrest are imminent, to announce to the media that their client will surrender at a particular time in the near future, making a subsequent arrest and perp walk seem gratuitous.

Law enforcement

The ultimate discretion over whether a perp walk occurs belongs to the arresting law enforcement agency. Local departments may inform the media prior to an arrest even occurring, if they wish to have footage of that being broadcast. Federal agencies, on the other hand, are generally prohibited from informing the media of arrests in advance by Justice Department

United States Department of Justice

The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...

policy. However, they cannot prohibit photography or video of a defendant being transported through public places after the arrest has been publicized.

Once the decision is made to arrest the suspect, or they have voluntarily surrendered, they are photographed and fingerprint

Fingerprint

A fingerprint in its narrow sense is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. In a wider use of the term, fingerprints are the traces of an impression from the friction ridges of any part of a human hand. A print from the foot can also leave an impression of friction ridges...

ed at a police station, and then taken to the appropriate courthouse for an arraignment

Arraignment

Arraignment is a formal reading of a criminal complaint in the presence of the defendant to inform the defendant of the charges against him or her. In response to arraignment, the accused is expected to enter a plea...

or similar procedure that brings the case into the legal system. The New York City Police Department

New York City Police Department

The New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...

(NYPD) usually advises the mediaIn New York City, local media includes three daily newspapers and many weeklies, six broadcast television stations and one citywide cable channel, as well as various Internet outlets. Cases involving defendants arrested in New York often attract national and international interest, and those media are notified as well if they have expressed interest. as to when this will happen in cases that may be of interest; other large departments do not, so photographers and camera crews wait at the central location in hopes of getting a perp-walk image. In 2011, some New York camera crews and photographers waited 15 hours for former International Monetary Fund

International Monetary Fund

The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...

director Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Dominique Gaston André Strauss-Kahn , often referred to in the media, and by himself, as DSK, is a French economist, lawyer, politician, and member of the French Socialist Party...

to be brought by for his arraignment on charges of sexually assaulting a hotel maid

Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexual assault case

New York v. Strauss-Kahn was a criminal case relating to allegations of sexual assault and attempted rape made by a hotel maid, Nafissatou Diallo, against Dominique Strauss-Kahn at the Sofitel New York Hotel on May 14, 2011. The charges were dismissed at the request of the prosecution which pointed...

.

Many police departments require that defendants facing felony

Felony

A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...

charges wear at least handcuffs regardless of the nature of the crime they are accused of. The defendant taken to court is usually brought in through an entrance from a public area such as the street or sidewalk, often escorted by plainclothes police officers (who may be those who have investigated the case and made the arrest, especially if multiple agencies were involved) and sometimes accompanied by his or her attorney. Those areas are accessible to all, including the media. It is there that they may take still or moving images of the defendant, and often ask questions of him or her. In high-profile cases, with major media interest, such as a crime which has received considerable public attention or in which the defendant is a celebrity, measures such as barricades or extra uniformed officers will be present to ensure there is space to get the defendant and escorting officers into the building. "You naturally assume you're seeing a barbaric mob wreaking random havoc," writes New York Times columnist John Tierney

John Tierney (journalist)

John Marion Tierney is a journalist and author who has worked for the New York Times since 1990.-Career and background:...

of such scenes. "But that's not the case. It's actually a barbaric mob wreaking exquisitely planned havoc."

Defendants

Suspects sometimes pull clothing over their heads or walk with their heads down to hide their faces.This is also sometimes a consequence of how they are handcuffed. The police have the discretion to cuff the defendant either in front or back, with hands back-to-back or not, and tightly or loosely based on how cooperative the defendant has been and the severity of the crime he or she has been charged with. When cuffed tightly, back-to-back in the rear, it is more comfortable to walk in a slightly bent position. The police also sometimes provide certain defendants, such as accused current or former police officers and criminals who have been useful to them as informant

Informant

An informant is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law enforcement world, where they are officially known as confidential or criminal informants , and can often refer pejoratively to the supply of information...

s, with hoods and abbreviated perp walks from a side entrance. Conversely, in a high-profile case, the police may accommodate the media by extending the perp walk into a "perp parade" beyond the necessary distance, such as around the block, or delaying the court proceeding until the media can be present, as was the case at the 1999 arraignment of former Wu-tang Clan

Wu-Tang Clan

The Wu-Tang Clan is a hip-hop group from Staten Island that consists of RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa, and the late Ol' Dirty Bastard. They are frequently joined by fellow childhood friend Cappadonna, a quasi member of the group...

rapper Russell Jones

Ol' Dirty Bastard

Russell Tyrone Jones was an American rapper and occasional producer, who went by the stage name Ol' Dirty Bastard or simply ODB...

on charges that were later dropped. Perp walks were restaged for the benefit of the media until a 2000 court ruling restricted them to those necessary for law enforcement purposes.

Defendants who can anticipate their arrest often dress with the perp walk in mind. Two former federal prosecutors turned defense attorneys advise that a white-collar defendant "should be prepared to look as professional as possible under the circumstances," as the fictional character Sherman McCoy does after he surrenders to face a charge stemming from a hit-and-run accident

Hit and run (vehicular)

Hit-and-run is the act of causing a traffic accident , and failing to stop and identify oneself afterwards...

in Tom Wolfe

Tom Wolfe

Thomas Kennerly "Tom" Wolfe, Jr. is a best-selling American author and journalist. He is one of the founders of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s.-Early life and education:...

's 1987 novel The Bonfire of the Vanities
The Bonfire of the Vanities
The Bonfire of the Vanities is a 1987 novel by Tom Wolfe. The story is a drama about ambition, racism, social class, politics, and greed in 1980s New York City and centers on four main characters: WASP bond trader Sherman McCoy, Jewish assistant district attorney Larry Kramer, British expatriate...

. New York publicist Mortimer Matz recommends an old raincoat

Raincoat

A raincoat is a waterproof or water-resistant coat worn to protect the body from rain. The term rain jacket is sometimes used to refer to raincoats that are waist length. A rain jacket may be combined with a pair of rain pants to make a rain suit.Modern raincoats are often constructed of...

. In addition to concealing the handcuffs, he says, it is not a problem when the garment inevitably gets smudged by fingerprint ink remaining on the defendant's hands. New York Mafia boss John Gotti

John Gotti

John Joseph Gotti, Jr was an American mobster who became the Boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. Gotti grew up in poverty. He and his brothers turned to a life of crime at an early age...

wore the expensive custom-tailored

Bespoke

Bespoke is a term employed in a variety of applications to mean an item custom-made to the buyer's specification...

suits that earned him his "Dapper Don" nickname during perp walks, in contrast to the sweatpants

Sweatpants

Sweatpants are a casual variety of soft trousers intended for comfort or athletic purposes.In Britain, Australia and New Zealand they are known as "jogging bottoms" or "track pants".- Design :...

and jackets seen among other contemporary organized-crime figures.

Susan McDougal

Susan McDougal

Susan McDougal is one of the few people who served prison time as a result of the Whitewater controversy although fifteen individuals were convicted of various federal charges...

, subjected to a brief perp walk in a miniskirt

Miniskirt

A miniskirt, sometimes hyphenated as mini-skirt, is a skirt with a hemline well above the knees – generally no longer than below the buttocks; and a minidress is a dress with a similar meaning...

, leg irons and a waist chain as she was taken to jail for refusing to testify before special prosecutor

Special prosecutor

A special prosecutor generally is a lawyer from outside the government appointed by an attorney general or, in the United States, by Congress to investigate a government official for misconduct while in office. A reasoning for such an appointment is that the governmental branch or agency may have...

Kenneth Starr

Kenneth Winston "Ken" Starr is an American lawyer and educational administrator who has also been a federal judge. He is best known for his investigation of figures during the Clinton administration....

's grand jury

Grand jury

A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...

investigating Whitewater

Whitewater

Whitewater is formed in a rapid, when a river's gradient increases enough to disturb its laminar flow and create turbulence, i.e. form a bubbly, or aerated and unstable current; the frothy water appears white...

, wrote of the experience in her memoir, The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk:

In The Bonfire of the Vanities
The Bonfire of the Vanities
The Bonfire of the Vanities is a 1987 novel by Tom Wolfe. The story is a drama about ambition, racism, social class, politics, and greed in 1980s New York City and centers on four main characters: WASP bond trader Sherman McCoy, Jewish assistant district attorney Larry Kramer, British expatriate...

, lawyer Tommy Killian similarly advises Sherman McCoy to affect aloofness and indifference prior to his perp walk.

Ed Hayes

Eddie Hayes (lawyer)

Edward Walter Hayes is an American lawyer, journalist, and memoirist. He is known for his role in settling the estate of Andy Warhol and representing several organized crime figures.-Early life:...

, the lawyer Killian was modeled on, gives similar advice to his own clients.

Media

Reporters usually ask questions such as "Did you do it?" if the defendant is not known to have confessed to the crime, or "Why did you do it?" when they have. Usually defendants do not answer or even acknowledge, since by that point they have been advised of their right to remain silent as required under the Fifth Amendment

Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, protects against abuse of government authority in a legal procedure. Its guarantees stem from English common law which traces back to the Magna Carta in 1215...

. One exception was Emmanuel Torres, arrested in 1984 on suspicion of murdering a woman in the course of an attempted rape. He told reporters that the victim was a "slut" and deserved her fate. At trial he protested his innocence

Actual innocence

Actual innocence is a state of affairs in which a defendant in a criminal case is innocent of the charges against them because they did not in fact commit the crime of which they have been accused....

. His remarks during the perp walk were introduced into evidence, and he was convicted. Another defendant, in 1993, suspected of stealing Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....

memorabilia, turned to face the cameras and apologized to his dead parents. Actor Judd Hirsch

Judd Hirsch

Judd Hirsch is an American actor most known for playing Alex Rieger on the television comedy series Taxi, John Lacey on the NBC series Dear John, and Alan Eppes on the CBS series Numb3rs.-Early life and education:...

's son Alex, arrested in 1995 by Chicago police

Chicago Police Department

The Chicago Police Department, also known as the CPD, is the principal law enforcement agency of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States, under the jurisdiction of the Mayor of Chicago. It is the largest police department in the Midwest and the second largest local law enforcement agency in the...

on drug charges that were later dropped, promoted an upcoming appearance by his band. An Ohio murder suspect once said "Hi Mom!" to the cameras.

Photographers find perp walks their second most-dreaded assignment after going to the home of someone who has recently died to ask for a picture. They must wait a long time for a period of a few seconds in which they will be competing with a potentially large group of other photographers and television crews. This presents the possibility that they can be trampled beneath the group, as depicted in the 1994 film The Paper
The Paper
The Paper is a 1994 American comedy-drama film directed by Ron Howard and starring Michael Keaton, Robert Duvall, and Glenn Close. The film depicts 24 hours in a newspaper editor's professional and personal life.-Plot:...

, and the difficulty of photographing a defendant who may be looking downward to keep his face from view. Marty Lederhandler, an Associated Press

Associated Press

The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

photographer who worked for the last half of the 20th century and shot the perp walks of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, as well as David Berkowitz

David Berkowitz

David Richard Berkowitz , also known as Son of Sam and the .44 Caliber Killer, is an American serial killer and arsonist whose crimes terrorized New York City from July 1976 until his arrest in August 1977.Shortly after his arrest in August 1977, Berkowitz confessed to killing six people and...

, describes the perp walk as "it's, 'He'll be out in 10 minutes.' You line up. He comes out and into the car, and you've got your picture. Nice." When he began in the years after World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Lederhandler says, the media was more polite during perp walks than they are now. "We all had the same lenses those days, and everybody would stand 8 or 10 feet back, and nobody was pushing or shoving."

Some photographers have found creative ways around these limitations. Louie Liotta of The New York Post told John Tierney he holds his camera near the ground, pointing upward, and walks with it for a short distance, in order to get a shot of the defendant's face. Andrew Savulich of the Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....

looks for unusual angles and juxtapositions, once putting the station house's sleeping cat in the foreground. To catch the defendant's face, he stands near the front door at the top of the steps. "For some reason, even when a guy has decided to duck his head, he usually lifts it for a second when he starts to go down steps", he explains. "You sometimes catch this lost-in-space look, the eyes fixed at a distance, as if he's trying very hard to be somewhere else." Jim Estrin of the Times says the police officers at the door sometimes block that shot for him, so he starts in the middle, shooting as he runs, and then gets on the other side of the police car for a shot as the defendant enters.

Purpose

The perp walk has been described as primarily serving the interests of the police and the media rather than the defendant. "Cynics might call the perp walk the crime reporter's red carpet

Red carpet

A red carpet is traditionally used to mark the route taken by heads of state on ceremonial and formal occasions, and has in recent decades been extended to use by VIPs and celebrities at formal events.- History :...

", says crime reporter Art Miller. "Police and prosecutors get to show off their trophy. [We] lap it up because that's all we know we're going to get" since so many other aspects of the criminal justice system prior to trial take place out of public view, and even trials themselves may not always be televised or even photographed. "Those 30 seconds of a perp walk are the lifeblood to the TV news. Between that and the mug shot that is often all you got as visuals to tell a crime story." Retired NYPD detective Nicholas Casale likens it to a service: "It promotes the arrest, it allows the defendant an opportunity to make a statement to the press, and it's centralized".

Prosecutors say it sends a message that no one is above the law, and the likelihood of being perp-walked after arrest deters criminal behavior on the part of offenders, especially white-collar criminals, who might otherwise believe they could successfully avoid conviction. Mary Jo White

Mary Jo White

Mary Jo White was the first woman to be U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, serving from 1993 to 2002.White was born in Kansas City, Missouri and grew up in McLean, Virginia. She received her B.S...

, former United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the federal prosecutor's office that handles most crimes committed in the financial sector, believes perp walks in such cases restore investor confidence. Police say that the image of a suspect being taken into custody, when publicized, can encourage other witnesses to come forward with relevant information. Lastly, prosecutors may be trying to get an advantage in a bail hearing if they consider the defendant to be a flight risk, since it bolsters their case if the defendant apparently had to be arrested.

Outside of its tactical benefit to law enforcement, "[i]t does perform some social functions", says Tierney. "A community shaken by an act of deviancy wants reassurance that moral order has been restored, and a perp walk accomplishes this much more quickly than the courts can. But, then, so does a lynching

Lynching

Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...

." He argues its real social value lies in shaming:
Writing for a panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals...

, federal judge Guido Calabresi found the perp walk serves the interests of both law enforcement and media. "[It] both publicizes the police's crime-fighting efforts and provides the press with a dramatic illustration to accompany stories about the arrest". He nevertheless held that perp walks that did not arise naturally from the transport of arrestees but rather were staged purely for media purposes violated the Fourth Amendment

Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures, along with requiring any warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause...

.

In a later Second Circuit decision upholding the general constitutionality of perp walks, Judge Fred I. Parker

Fred I. Parker

Fred I. Parker was a federal judge in the United States.- Early life and education :A native of Boston, Parker attended the University of Massachusetts and Georgetown University Law Center...

agreed that perp walks were primarily driven by media interest. "Whether the accused wrongdoer is wearing a sweatshirt over his head or an Armani suit on his back, we suspect that perp walks are broadcast by networks and reprinted in newspapers at least in part for their entertainment value." But he found them to serve a legitimate state interest as well:

History

Perp walks have historical antecedents in public spectacles around the administration of justice throughout history. Within the United States, again particularly in New York City, the process has evolved over time and through some celebrated instances.

Prehistory

Tierney finds some precedent for perp walks in Biblical, mythological and historical events as they have been depicted in art. "In paintings of the expulsion from Eden

Garden of Eden

The Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...

, Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve were, according to the Genesis creation narratives, the first human couple to inhabit Earth, created by YHWH, the God of the ancient Hebrews...

are modestly trying to cover their bodies from public view, and the sword-wielding angel's stern expression anticipates the look on a homicide detective walking an accused cop-killer." Similar elements, he writes, are also present in depictions of Achilles

Achilles

In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Plato named Achilles the handsomest of the heroes assembled against Troy....

dragging Hector

Hector

In Greek mythology, Hectōr , or Hektōr, is a Trojan prince and the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War. As the first-born son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, a descendant of Dardanus, who lived under Mount Ida, and of Tros, the founder of Troy, he was a prince of the royal house and the...

's corpse behind his chariot outside the walls of Troy, Jesus being exposed to the people before walking to Calvary

Calvary

Calvary or Golgotha was the site, outside of ancient Jerusalem’s early first century walls, at which the crucifixion of Jesus is said to have occurred. Calvary and Golgotha are the English names for the site used in Western Christianity...

and French aristocrats being taken in tumbrel

Tumbrel

A tumbrel , is a two-wheeled cart or wagon typically designed to be hauled by a single horse or ox. Their original use was for agricultural work in particular they were associated with carrying manure. Their most notable use was taking prisoners to the guillotine during the French Revolution. They...

s to the guillotine

Guillotine

The guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...

during the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

. A major difference, he allows, is that "those spectators seem far more polite than the New York City press corps."

In medieval Europe, the end of the judicial process, often an execution, was often its most public, and sometimes the only public, aspect. French philosopher Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas...

wrote in Discipline and Punish
Discipline and Punish
Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison is a book by philosopher Michel Foucault. Originally published in 1975 in France under the title Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la Prison, it was translated into English in 1977. It is an interrogation of the social and theoretical mechanisms behind...

, his influential history of the evolution of criminal justice over the course of the Enlightenment

Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...

:

At that point, "[i]t was the task of the guilty man to bear openly his condemnation and the truth of the crime he had committed." Convicts wore placards summing up their offense, and on the way to the gallows

Gallows

A gallows is a frame, typically wooden, used for execution by hanging, or by means to torture before execution, as was used when being hanged, drawn and quartered...

were stopped at churches to make an amende honorable
Amende honorable
Amende honorable was originally a mode of punishment in France which required the offender, barefoot and stripped to his shirt, and led into a church or auditory with a torch in his hand and a rope round his neck held by the public executioner, to beg pardon on his knees of his God, his king, and...

, a ceremonial plea for forgiveness. The executions themselves were long, almost theatrical spectacles, such as the 1757 drawing and quartering of Robert-François Damiens

Robert-François Damiens

Robert-François Damiens was a French domestic servant whose attempted assassination of King Louis XV of France in 1757 culminated in his notorious and controversial public execution...

for his attempted assassination of King Louis XV

Louis XV of France

Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...

. A detailed account of that procedure, the last execution by that method in French history, opens Foucault's book.

In the 19th century, as penal-reform efforts began to succeed, imprisonment began to replace execution as the preferred punishment for egregious crimes, since it offered the possibility of the convict's eventual repentance. The spectacles surrounding execution became more restrained, even when those were held in public. By the middle of the century larger cities were establishing police departments, professionalizing the prevention and investigation of crime.

1890s–1960s: The early years

In the United States, the perp walks dates back more than a century, to when cameras' shutter speed

Shutter speed

In photography, shutter speed is a common term used to discuss exposure time, the effective length of time a camera's shutter is open....

became fast enough to allow photography of a small group of individuals walking. It is believed to have been done even prior to Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...

's tenure as New York City police commissioner in the 1890s. The city's newspaper photographers soon ritualized it. J. Edgar Hoover

J. Edgar Hoover

John Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...

, the first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

(FBI), made sure the press could witness his agents bringing accused gangsters Alvin Karpis

Alvin Karpis

Alvin Francis Karpis , nicknamed "Creepy" for his sinister smile, was an American criminal known for his alliance with the Barker gang in the 1930s. He was the last "public enemy" to be taken.-Early life:Karpis was born to Lithuanian immigrants in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and was raised in Topeka,...

and Harry Campbell to justice.

ABC News

ABC News

ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...

reporter John Miller

John Miller (journalist)

John Miller is an American journalist and a former government official.He is the former Associate Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analytic Transformation and Technology...

, who has also worked as a press secretary

Press secretary

A press secretary or press officer is a senior advisor who provides advice on how to deal with the news media and, using news management techniques, helps their employer to maintain a positive public image and avoid negative media coverage....

for law enforcement agencies, has identified three distinct stages in the evolution of the perp walk. Until the 1940s, suspects were paraded before reporters across a stage in the basement of police headquarters. The reporters decided if any would make a good story. After that period, reporters were assigned to individual station houses, and watched as suspects were booked and fingerprinted. They often were allowed to talk to them, and if any were deemed worthy of coverage a photo opportunity was usually provided. Bank robber Willie Sutton

Willie Sutton

William "Willie" Sutton was a prolific U.S. bank robber. During his forty-year criminal career he stole an estimated $2 million, and eventually spent more than half of his adult life in prison...

's legendary response (which he denied ever having made) of "Because that's where the money is" to a question about why he robbed banks, was said to have been uttered during a perp walk held in this fashion. A variant of the perp walk from this era, now no longer practiced, was the "confession shot" in which the defendant would be photographed signing or reviewing his written statement admitting to the crime.

This era ended with the 1962 Borough Park Tobacco warehouse robbery in Brooklyn. Two detectives were killed, the first double homicide of NYPD officers in 30 years led to a massive manhunt. One of the accused robbers, Tony Dellernia, surrendered in Chicago. Upon his extradition

Extradition

Extradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...

to New York, he was perp-walked. Some photographers complained to the police at the Brooklyn precinct house where he was being held that they had missed it. Albert Seedman, a high-ranking detective, not only restaged it for reporters three hours after the original walk, he held up Dellernia's head so it would be visible. The defendant's pained expression, next to Seedman with a cigar stub in his mouth, "stretching the suspect's face as if it were pizza dough", as the New York Times put it years later, was captured in the photographs, leading to public outrage. Seedman, who later became the department's chief detective, knew he would regret it, and was later reprimand

Reprimand

A reprimand is a severe, formal or official reproof. Reprimanding takes in different forms in different legal systems, such as in UK law.- UK :...

ed. Another, Jerry Rosenberg

Jerry Rosenberg

Jerome "Jerry" Rosenberg was a jailhouse lawyer. He was incarcerated for 46 years, longer than any other prisoner in New York State history. Rosenberg was sentenced to death for his involvement in a double homicide of two New York City police officers...

, also surrendered. "He is the killer," Ray Martin, the detective in charge, told the press during the perp walk, "and he is going to burn for it. After his conviction, Rosenberg sued the city and Martin for that and alleged police brutality

Police brutality

Police brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer....

during his arrest. Representing himself

Pro se legal representation in the United States

Pro se legal representation means advocating on one's own behalf before a court, rather than being represented by a lawyer. This may occur in any court proceeding, whether one is the defendant or plaintiff in civil cases, and when one is a defendant in criminal cases. Pro se is a Latin phrase...

, the beginning of his career as a jailhouse lawyer

Jailhouse lawyer

Jailhouse lawyer is a colloquial term in North American English to refer to an inmate in a jail or other prison who, though usually never having practiced law nor having any formal legal training, informally assists other inmates in legal matters relating to their sentence or to their conditions...

, Rosenberg won a small verdict against Martin in district court that was later reversed on appeal.

The next year a perp walk ended tragically. After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald was, according to four government investigations,These were investigations by: the Federal Bureau of Investigation , the Warren Commission , the House Select Committee on Assassinations , and the Dallas Police Department. the sniper who assassinated John F...

, suspected of the crime and the related killing of a Dallas police officer, was frequently taken before the media, whose questions he sometimes answered, at the police station where he had been arrested. On one two days after the crime, as he was to be transferred to the county jail, he was fatally shot on live television by Jack Ruby

Jack Ruby

Jacob Leon Rubenstein , who legally changed his name to Jack Leon Ruby in 1947, was convicted of the November 24, 1963 murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President John F. Kennedy. Ruby, who was originally from Chicago, Illinois, was then a nightclub operator in Dallas, Texas...

, a civilian who was a frequent visitor to the police station. As a result of that, security would be tightened on future perp walks to prevent similar future revenge killings.

1960s–1980s: The televised perp walk

In New York, the rise of television news later in that decade led to other changes. Reporters came with camera crews, which could no longer be accommodated inside precinct houses. In 1969 a group of journalists, judges and police officers drew up guidelines for perp walks after a conference. "Law enforcement and court personnel should not prevent the photographing of defendants when they are in public places outside the courtroom", they read. "They should neither encourage nor discourage pictures or televising, but they should not pose the accused." A few years later they were formally adopted by the NYPD.

Later that decade, in 1978, an amused-looking David Berkowitz

David Berkowitz

, the "Son of Sam" serial killer

Serial killer

A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...

, was paraded in front of a large group of media after his arrest, a spectacle that calmed a city his string of murders had left on edge. Two years later, following Mark David Chapman

Mark David Chapman

Mark David Chapman is an American prison inmate who murdered former Beatles member John Lennon on December 8, 1980. He committed the crime as Lennon and Yoko Ono were outside of The Dakota apartment building in New York City. Chapman aimed five shots at Lennon, hitting him four times in his back...

's arrest after he killed John Lennon, police took precautions against the sort of revenge killing that had happened to Oswald.

1980s–1990s: White-collar perp walks

In the 1980s, white-collar criminals

White-collar crime

began to be perp-walked as well, as federal prosecutors saw the public-relations value of the practice. During his tenure as United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Rudolph Giuliani often had Wall Street

Wall Street

Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...

investment bankers

Investment banking

An investment bank is a financial institution that assists individuals, corporations and governments in raising capital by underwriting and/or acting as the client's agent in the issuance of securities...

perp-walked. Defendants such as Richard Wigton, a Kidder Peabody trader accused of insider trading

Insider trading

Insider trading is the trading of a corporation's stock or other securities by individuals with potential access to non-public information about the company...

, were arrested at their place of business and walked off a trading floor in handcuffs with a uniformed police escort, as Charlie Sheen

Charlie Sheen

Carlos Irwin Estevez , better known by his stage name Charlie Sheen, is an American film and television actor. He is the youngest son of actor Martin Sheen....

's character Bud Fox is in Oliver Stone

Oliver Stone

William Oliver Stone is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Stone became well known in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, for which he had previously participated as an infantry soldier. His work frequently focuses on...

's 1987 film Wall Street. "Rudy Giuliani made an art form out of [the perp walk]", says Loyola Law School

Loyola Law School

Loyola Law School is the law school of Loyola Marymount University, a private Catholic university in the Jesuit and Marymount traditions, in Los Angeles, California. Loyola was established in 1920. Like Loyola University Chicago School of Law and Loyola University New Orleans College of Law , it...

professor Laurie Levenson. Former Manhattan district attorney

District attorney

In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...

Robert Morgenthau agrees, calling Giuliani "the master of the perp walk".

At the same time, the term "perp walk" became common usage for the practice. New York Times language columnist William Safire

William Safire

William Lewis Safire was an American author, columnist, journalist and presidential speechwriter....

found 1986 to be its earliest use in the media. His colleague John Tierney

John Tierney (journalist)

John Marion Tierney is a journalist and author who has worked for the New York Times since 1990.-Career and background:...

claims the term was in use among photographers and the police as early as the 1940s.

Major figures in organized crime

Organized crime

Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...

had always been perp-walked when arrested. Later in the 1980s, one of these, John Gotti

John Gotti

, head of the Mafia

Mafia

The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...

's Gambino family

Gambino crime family

The Gambino crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia . The group is named after Carlo Gambino, boss of the family at the time of the McClellan hearings in 1963...

, "took the perp walk to a whole new level", according to Miller. He made his walks wearing the expensive custom-tailored suits that earned him the "Dapper Don" nickname. Reporters would politely ask him how he was doing as he walked. A Times freelancer

Freelancer

A freelancer, freelance worker, or freelance is somebody who is self-employed and is not committed to a particular employer long term. These workers are often represented by a company or an agency that resells their labor and that of others to its clients with or without project management and...

once asked him the question in formal Italian: "Buona sera, signore, come sta?". Gotti responded in kind "Bene, grazie" and turned to the cameras and smiled, giving the photographers and television cameras the memorable image they had sought.

During the Whitewater

Whitewater

investigation in the 1990s, Susan McDougal

Susan McDougal

Susan McDougal is one of the few people who served prison time as a result of the Whitewater controversy although fifteen individuals were convicted of various federal charges...

, held in contempt

Contempt of court

Contempt of court is a court order which, in the context of a court trial or hearing, declares a person or organization to have disobeyed or been disrespectful of the court's authority...

for refusing to testify before special prosecutor

Special prosecutor

Kenneth Starr

's grand jury

Grand jury

, was perp-walked wearing leg irons and a waist chain as well as handcuffs, which she wore over an ensemble consisting of a jacket, white blouse, miniskirt

Miniskirt

A miniskirt, sometimes hyphenated as mini-skirt, is a skirt with a hemline well above the knees – generally no longer than below the buttocks; and a minidress is a dress with a similar meaning...

, black stockings and high heels. Starr was criticized for what was seen as a gratuitous attempt to humiliate an uncooperative witness. He claimed his office had nothing to do with the level of restraint she wore, and the marshals' service said that was standard for all prisoners in transit. In 1995 Oklahoma City

Oklahoma city

Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...

bomber Timothy McVeigh

Timothy McVeigh

Timothy James McVeigh was a United States Army veteran and security guard who detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995...

, already in Oklahoma Highway Patrol

Oklahoma Highway Patrol

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol is a major state law enforcement agency of the government of Oklahoma. It is a division of the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol was legislatively created in 1937 due to the growing problem of motor vehicle accidents, the expansion of a...

custody for a firearms violation, was paraded before television cameras by the FBI nearly three hours before he was officially arrested for the bombing. His lawyers later asked to have eyewitness

Eyewitness

Eyewitness may refer to:*Witness, someone who has knowledge about a crime or dramatic event through seeing it firsthand*Eyewitness , natural history television series*Eyewitness *Eyewitness...

identifications of him excluded from evidence, on the grounds that they were all based on the widely-televised perp walk and none of the witness had been asked to pick him out of a lineup

Police lineup

A police lineup or identity parade is a process by which a crime victim or witness's putative identification of a suspect is confirmed to a level that can count as evidence at trial....

1990s–present: Legal challenges and resumption

Some of the NYPD's own officers were subjected to a notable perp walk in 1994. After a wide-ranging investigation found extensive corruption

Police corruption

Police corruption is a specific form of police misconduct designed to obtain financial benefits, other personal gain, or career advancement for a police officer or officers in exchange for not pursuing, or selectively pursuing, an investigation or arrest....

at the 30th Precinct

Police precinct

Police precinct is a form of division of a geographical area patrolled by a police force.Police forces using this format include:* New York Police Department* Boston Police Department* Portland Police Bureau* Seattle Police Department-See also:...

in Harlem

Harlem

Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...

, a large group of officers were arrested in uniform and led out in handcuffs before the media. William Bratton, then the city's new police commissioner

New York City Police Commissioner

The New York City Police Commissioner is the head of the New York City Police Department, appointed by the Mayor of New York City. Governor Theodore Roosevelt, in one of his final acts before becoming Vice President of the United States in March 1901, signed legislation replacing the Police Board...

was present, holding a news conference

News conference

A news conference or press conference is a media event in which newsmakers invite journalists to hear them speak and, most often, ask questions. A joint press conference instead is held between two or more talking sides.-Practice:...

to announce the arrests. He removed the officers' badges, with the cameras rolling, and threw them in the garbage.

In the late 1990s, the NYPD stopped doing perp walks when one led to a lawsuit. John Lauro, doorman

Doorman (profession)

A doorman is an individual hired to provide courtesy and security services at a residential building or hotel. They are particularly common in urban luxury highrises. At a residential building, a doorman is responsible for opening doors and screening visitors and deliveries...

at an Upper East Side

Upper East Side

apartment building, was arrested on theft charges in 1995. After his original perp walk, the detective, Michael Charles, did another one three hours later so a local television news crew could film the event. The charges were later dropped, and he filed a Section 1983 suit against Charles, the police and the city in federal court, arguing that the perp walk was an unreasonable seizure of his person that thus violated his Fourth Amendment

Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution

rights. The judge agreed the perp walk violated the Fourth Amendment. On appeal that judgement was limited strictly to perp walks staged for the media.

At the same time, another suit challenged the constitutionality of perp walks per se. In 1999, the government of Westchester County

Westchester County, New York

Westchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Westchester covers an area of and has a population of 949,113 according to the 2010 Census, residing in 45 municipalities...

, the suburban area directly to the north of New York City, had several of its correctional officers arrested for filing falsified injury claims. They were videotaped by county employees immediately after their arrest at government offices, then taken to be arraigned in a local court where county executive

County executive

A county executive is the head of the executive branch of government in a county. This position is common in the United States.The executive may be an elected or an appointed position...

Andrew Spano

Andrew J. Spano is a Democratic politician from the state of New York, who served as Westchester County Executive from 1998 until 2010, when he was defeated by challenger Rob Astorino in the November 2009 elections by a surprising upset....

gave a news conference

News conference

on the arrests. It culminated with the defendants being perp-walked before the media present. The district court, relying the Lauro case as precedent

Precedent

In common law legal systems, a precedent or authority is a principle or rule established in a legal case that a court or other judicial body may apply when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts...

, found the perp walk constitutional since it was necessary for law enforcement to take the defendants to court for arraignment, a decision again upheld on appeal.

Perp walks resumed, with many corporate executives charged in the scandals of the early 2000s, such as Andrew Fastow

Andrew Fastow

and John Rigas, subjected to them. In 2003, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq Joseph C. Wilson

Joseph C. Wilson

Joseph Charles Wilson IV is a former United States diplomat best known for his 2002 trip to Niger to investigate allegations that Saddam Hussein was attempting to purchase yellowcake uranium; his New York Times op-ed piece, "What I Didn't Find in Africa"; and the subsequent "outing" of his wife...

evoked the perp walk, and provided another term for it, when accusing a senior Bush Administration official of leaking the name of his wife

Plame affair

The Plame Affair involved the identification of Valerie Plame Wilson as a covert Central Intelligence Agency officer. Mrs. Wilson's relationship with the CIA was formerly classified information...

, Valerie

Valerie Plame

Valerie Elise Plame Wilson , known as Valerie Plame, Valerie E. Wilson, and Valerie Plame Wilson, is a former United States CIA Operations Officer and the author of a memoir detailing her career and the events leading up to her resignation from the CIA.-Early life :Valerie Elise Plame was born on...

, a covert intelligence operative, to the media as retaliation for a New York Times op-ed in which he had cast doubt on key aspects of the administration's claims in support of the Iraq War: "It's of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove

Karl Rove

Karl Christian Rove was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to former President George W. Bush until Rove's resignation on August 31, 2007. He has headed the Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Public Liaison, and the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives...

frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs." Liberal critics of the administration created

Photo manipulation

Photo manipulation is the application of image editing techniques to photographs in order to create an illusion or deception , through analog or digital means.- Types of digital photo manipulation :...

images of that occurring; in 2008 a Code Pink

Code Pink

Code Pink: Women for Peace is an anti-war group that is mainly composed of women. It has regional offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City, and Washington, D.C., and many more chapters in the U.S. as well as several in other countries...

protester in San Francisco attempted to make a citizen's arrest

Citizen's arrest

A citizen's arrest is an arrest made by a person who is not acting as a sworn law-enforcement official. In common law jurisdictions, the practice dates back to medieval Britain and the English common law, in which sheriffs encouraged ordinary citizens to help apprehend law breakers.Despite the...

of Rove, who had by then left the government.

Back in Iraq, deposed dictator Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...

made what an American photographer present called "the ultimate perp walk", in restraints, escorted by two Iraqi security personnel, with a media presence, to the start of his trial

Trial of Saddam Hussein

thumb|300 px| Saddam Hussein sits before an Iraqi judge at a courthouse in Baghdad, 1 July 2004.The Trial of Saddam Hussein was the trial of the deposed President of Iraq Saddam Hussein by the Iraqi Interim Government for crimes against humanity during his time in office.The Coalition Provisional...

in 2004. "I felt his anger at my camera, at me," Karen Ballard recalled, "and actually thought he might spit on me. He didn't know exactly what was about to happen and, suddenly, the formerly fierce dictator seemed small and disheveled." To her, and other observers, it symbolized the end of his reign and the beginning of hopes for a more democratic Iraq.

In the first years of the next decade, two prominent foreign citizens were perp-walked by American law enforcement agencies. Viktor Bout

Viktor Bout

Viktor Anatolyevich Bout is a convicted arms smuggler. A citizen of Russia, he was arrested in Thailand in 2008 and was extradited in 2010 to the United States to stand trial on terrorism charges after being accused of smuggling arms to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia to use against...

, a Russian long wanted by the U.S. and other governments for arms smuggling, was arrested in Thailand and taken past waiting media by federal Drug Enforcement Administration

Drug Enforcement Administration

The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...

agents upon his extradition

Extradition

Extradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...

in 2010. The next year, Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Dominique Gaston André Strauss-Kahn , often referred to in the media, and by himself, as DSK, is a French economist, lawyer, politician, and member of the French Socialist Party...

, then director of the International Monetary Fund

International Monetary Fund

and considered a leading candidate to challenge Nicholas Sarkozy in the 2012 French presidential election

French presidential election, 2012

The 2012 French presidential election is the next presidential election, to be held on 22 April and 6 May 2012, the latter being used for a run-off if necessary...

, was arrested and charged with the attempted rape of a hotel housekeeper

Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexual assault case

. French journalists covering the incident in New York were stunned into silence when a handcuffed Strauss-Kahn was brought by them. In France, where it is illegal to publish pictures of an identifiable person in handcuffs or police custody unless they have been convicted, the images sparked considerable public outrage.

Two months later, criticism of the perp walk resumed when Strauss-Kahn's bail terms were reduced from house arrest

House arrest

In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...

to his own recognizance

Recognizance

In some common law nations, a recognizance is a conditional obligation undertaken by a person before a court. It is an obligation of record, entered into before a court or magistrate duly authorized, whereby the party bound acknowledges that he owes a personal debt to the state...

after the office of Manhattan district attorney

District attorney

Cyrus Vance, Jr.

Cyrus Roberts Vance, Jr. is an American trial lawyer. He is the incumbent New York County District Attorney , and was previously a principal at the law firm of Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Isaon, Anello & Bohrer, P.C...

found the housekeeper had been dishonest with them about other aspects of her story than the attack. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who had earlier defended the perp walk, criticized it as "outrageous". City Councilman

New York City Council

The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of the City of New York. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The Council serves as a check against the mayor in a "strong" mayor-council government model. The council monitors performance of city agencies and...

David G. Greenfield

David G. Greenfield is an American attorney and a member of the New York City Council representing the 44th council district, which comprises the neighborhoods of Bensonhurst, Boro Park, and Midwood in Brooklyn, New York. Greenfield is the founding director and counsel of TEACH NYS and prior to his...

introduced legislation that would ban perp walks. "I honestly believe it's unconstitutional," he said. "If we banned it here we could send a message to the country." Police Commissioner

New York City Police Commissioner

Raymond Kelly said the media was to blame, not his department. "If they make a decision to stake out a location when someone is walked out of the front of a precinct ... it's not a decision that the Police Department makes", he said. "We have been walking prisoners out of the front doors of stationhouses for 150 years in the Police Department ... This is how we transport people to court ... I don't think the genie's ever gonna be put back inside the bottle. That's the way it is." The legislation was seen as unlikely to pass.

Legality

In the 1931 Near v. Minnesota
Near v. Minnesota
Near v. Minnesota, 283 U.S. 697 , was a United States Supreme Court decision that recognized the freedom of the press by roundly rejecting prior restraints on publication, a principle that was applied to free speech generally in subsequent jurisprudence...

decision, the United States Supreme Court held that laws limiting what could be published, called prior restraint

Prior restraint

Prior restraint or prior censorship is censorship in which certain material may not be published or communicated, rather than not prohibiting publication but making the publisher answerable for what is made known...

, infringed on the freedom of the press

Freedom of the press

Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published materials...

guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. "The fact that the liberty of the press may be abused by miscreant purveyors of scandal", wrote Chief Justice

Chief Justice of the United States

The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the United States federal court system and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Chief Justice is one of nine Supreme Court justices; the other eight are the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States...

Charles Evans Hughes

Charles Evans Hughes, Sr. was an American statesman, lawyer and Republican politician from New York. He served as the 36th Governor of New York , Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States , United States Secretary of State , a judge on the Court of International Justice , and...

,"does not make any the less necessary the immunity of the press from previous restraint." Later the Court would allow a limited exception for national security

National security

National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...

purposes, in the Pentagon Papers

Pentagon Papers

The Pentagon Papers, officially titled United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political-military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967...

case, New York Times Co. v. United States
New York Times Co. v. United States
New York Times Co. v. United States, 403 U.S. 713 , was a United States Supreme Court per curiam decision. The ruling made it possible for the New York Times and Washington Post newspapers to publish the then-classified Pentagon Papers without risk of government censure.President Richard Nixon had...

.

In the early 1980s a series of cases established the right of the press to cover all aspects of criminal proceedings in court. The first, Richmond Newspapers v. Virginia, held that the right to be informed about government action was specifically protected by the Constitution. Judges may still close criminal court proceedings to the media if they believe that coverage would create a "substantial probability" of denying the defendant his or her right to a fair trial

Fair Trial

Fair Trial was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and Champion sire. He was bred and raced by John Arthur Dewar who also bred and raced Tudor Minstrel....

, but must state their reasons for doing so on the record.

With this underlying law, no defendant had challenged the constitutionality of the perp walk prior to John Lauro. Despite criticisms that it undermined the presumption of innocence

Presumption of innocence

, defendants who had been convicted or pled guilty never claimed their rights had been violated by the perp walk, and could not claim injury to reputation from it. Lauro, who had been perp-walked only to have the charges later dropped, was the first claimant to have standing

Standing (law)

In law, standing or locus standi is the term for the ability of a party to demonstrate to the court sufficient connection to and harm from the law or action challenged to support that party's participation in the case...

Lauro v. Charles

In 1995 Lauro, doorman

Doorman (profession)

at a small Upper East Side

Upper East Side

apartment building, was arrested on burglary charges after a resident sent video from a hidden camera

Hidden camera

A hidden camera is a still or video camera used to film people without their knowledge. The camera is "hidden" because it is either not visible to the subject being filmed, or is disguised as another object...

to police that apparently showed Lauro stealing from his apartment while on vacation. After his arrest the detectives were told he should be taken on a perp walk for cameras from a local TV station, to which the tenant had licensed his surveillance video. He was taken, in handcuffs, out to a police car, driven around the block and walked back into the building.

While the video showed Lauro looking through the tenant's drawers and closets, it did not show him taking anything. On further investigation the tenant, who had allowed Lauro to enter his apartment during his vacation to water plants and deliver mail, could not identify any missing items in the areas Lauro had looked through. The charges were reduced to attempt

Attempt

Attempt was originally an offence under the common law of England.Attempt crimes are crimes where the defendant's actions have the form of the actual enaction of the crime itself: the actions must go beyond mere preparation....

ed petit larceny, a misdemeanor

Misdemeanor

A misdemeanor is a "lesser" criminal act in many common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished much less severely than felonies, but theoretically more so than administrative infractions and regulatory offences...

, and adjourned in contemplation of dismissal. Lauro, who had been fired

Termination of employment

-Involuntary termination:Involuntary termination is the employee's departure at the hands of the employer. There are two basic types of involuntary termination, known often as being "fired" and "laid off." To be fired, as opposed to being laid off, is generally thought of to be the employee's...

, was unable to get his job back.

Lauro filed a Section 1983 lawsuit against the city, the police department and Detective Michael Charles in federal court for the Southern District of New York

United States District Court for the Southern District of New York

The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York is a federal district court. Appeals from the Southern District of New York are taken to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case...

. He alleged the arrest and perp walk violated his rights under the Fourth

Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution

, Sixth

Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights which sets forth rights related to criminal prosecutions...

, Eighth

Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights which prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishments. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that this amendment's Cruel and Unusual...

and Fourteenth

Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.Its Citizenship Clause provides a broad definition of citizenship that overruled the Dred Scott v...

amendments. Judge Allen G. Schwartz

Allen G. Schwartz

Allen G. Schwartz was a United States federal judge.Born in Brooklyn, New York, Schwartz received a B.B.A. from City College of New York, Baruch College in 1955 and an LL.B. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1958. He was in the United States Army from 1958 to 1959, remaining in the...

held in 1999 that the arrest was lawful but the perp walk was not.

"The perp walk conducted with plaintiff", Schwartz wrote, "was a seizure that intruded on plaintiff's privacy interests and personal rights, and was conducted in a manner designed to cause humiliation to plaintiff with no legitimate law enforcement objective or justification." He found it even more humiliating than the police stops approved by the Supreme Court in Terry v. Ohio
Terry v. Ohio
Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 , was a decision by the United States Supreme Court which held that the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures is not violated when a police officer stops a suspect on the street and frisks him without probable cause to arrest, if the police...

. "In addition to the indignity of the walk itself is the fact that the police were aware that the walk was to be featured on the Fox 5

WNYW

WNYW, virtual channel 5 , is the flagship television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in New York City. The station's transmitter is atop the Empire State Building and its studio facilities are located in the Yorkville section of Manhattan...

News and exposed to the entire New York metropolitan area

New York metropolitan area

The New York metropolitan area, also known as Greater New York, or the Tri-State area, is the region that composes of New York City and the surrounding region...

. All this in a nation where an accused is presumed to be innocent until proven otherwise."

He ruled that Charles was not entitled to qualified immunity

Qualified immunity

Qualified immunity is a doctrine in U.S. federal law that arises in cases brought against state officials under 42 U.S.C Section 1983 and against federal officials under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, 403 U.S. 388 . Qualified immunity shields government officials from liability for the...

for his actions since Ayeni v. Mottola, a previous decision of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals...

, which has appellate jurisdiction

Appellate jurisdiction

Appellate jurisdiction is the power of the Supreme Court to review decisions and change outcomes of decisions of lower courts. Most appellate jurisdiction is legislatively created, and may consist of appeals by leave of the appellate court or by right...

over New York, held that unnecessary media exposure by law enforcement was unconstitutional.In that case a crew from a CBS-TV newsmagazine show, Street Stories, had been allowed to accompany Secret Service

United States Secret Service

The United States Secret Service is a United States federal law enforcement agency that is part of the United States Department of Homeland Security. The sworn members are divided among the Special Agents and the Uniformed Division. Until March 1, 2003, the Service was part of the United States...

agents executing a search warrant

Search warrant

A search warrant is a court order issued by a Magistrate, judge or Supreme Court Official that authorizes law enforcement officers to conduct a search of a person or location for evidence of a crime and to confiscate evidence if it is found....

. Charles appealed to the Second Circuit himself, arguing that no court had held the perp walk unconstitutional. The next year, 2000, a panel of three judges agreed and reversed the district court, while still finding a constitutional violation.

Charles relied on two precedents, the Supreme Court's Paul v. Davis
Paul v. Davis
Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693 , is a United States Supreme Court case in which a sharply divided Court held that the plaintiff, whom the local police chief had named an "active shoplifter," suffered no deprivation of liberty resulting from injury to his reputation. The plaintiff sued the local...

and the Second Circuit's own Rosenberg v. Martin, Jerry Rosenberg

Jerry Rosenberg

's case, to support his argument that the injury to Lauro's reputation did not in itself deprive him of his constitutional rights.In Paul, a man who, like Lauro, was arrested on a petit larceny charge that was never formally disposed, sued a local police chief for including his name and photograph on a list of "known and active shoplifters

Shoplifting

Shoplifting is theft of goods from a retail establishment. It is one of the most common property crimes dealt with by police and courts....

" distributed to local retailers. Writing for the panel, Guido Calabresi, former dean of Yale Law School, rejected those two arguments since in neither case had the plaintiff

Plaintiff

A plaintiff , also known as a claimant or complainant, is the term used in some jurisdictions for the party who initiates a lawsuit before a court...

s asserted a Fourth Amendment violation, as Lauro had. He turned to the perp walk itself, which he agreed seemed to be a question of first impression

First impression (law)

First impression is a legal case in which there is no binding authority on the matter presented. Such a case can set forth a completely original issue of law for decision by the courts. A first impression case may be a first impression in only a particular jurisdiction...

.

He looked to Ayeni and Wilson v. Layne, decided by the Supreme Court the year before, as precedents. In the latter case the Court had unanimously held it was unconstitutional for reporters to accompany federal marshals executing an arrest warrant

Arrest warrant

in a private residence since their presence served no valid law enforcement purpose. Since the two cases involved private homes with a reasonable expectation of privacy, he distinguished Lauro's by noting the perp walk had occurred on a public street and sidewalk in front of the police station.

Instead, what rendered Lauro's perp walk a violation of his rights was that it had been staged. "Even assuming that there is a legitimate state interest in accurate reporting of police activity," Calabresi wrote, "that interest is not well served by an inherently fictional dramatization of an event that transpired hours earlier." He declined to rule on the constitutionality of perp walks as a general issue since that question was not before the court, and held that Charles indeed had qualified immunity because the facts of Ayeni were not sufficiently identical with Lauro's case to consider it settled law as of 1995.

Caldorola v. County of Westchester

As the district court was getting ready to rule on Lauro's case, another challenge to the perp walk was beginning. In 1998 the Department of Corrections in Westchester County

Westchester County, New York

Westchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Westchester covers an area of and has a population of 949,113 according to the 2010 Census, residing in 45 municipalities...

just north of New York City began investigating whether several of its corrections officers were falsely claiming disability benefits

Disability pension

A disability pension is a form of pension given to those people who are permanently or temporarily unable to work due to a disability. It is distinct from welfare.- North America :...

. Video surveillance found four were seemingly more active than their claimed disabilities would allow, and a fifth was living outside the state in violation of a residency requirement.

They were charged with third-degree grand larceny

Grand Larceny

Grand Larceny is a 1987 thriller film directed by Jeannot Szwarc and starring Marilu Henner, Ian McShane, Omar Sharif and Louis Jourdan.-Plot summary:...

, a felony, and arrested at DOC offices. County employees videotaped them being led, handcuffed, to vehicles after their arrest. At a press conference that afternoon, County Executive

County executive

A county executive is the head of the executive branch of government in a county. This position is common in the United States.The executive may be an elected or an appointed position...

Andrew Spano

announced the arrests and showed the surveillance video. He told the reporters the defendants were being arraigned at a nearby municipal court, and the defendants were made to wait until the media could film them being led into the courthouse.

They filed suit in the Southern District, alleging that the maximized media exposure of their perp walk violated their Fourth Amendment rights even though it had not been staged as Lauro's had. In 2001 Judge Colleen McMahon

Colleen McMahon

Colleen McMahon is a United States federal judge.Born in Columbus, Ohio, McMahon received a B.A. from Ohio State University in 1973 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1976. She was in private practice in New York from 1976–1979 and from 1980 to 1995. She was a Speechwriter / special assistant...

ruled for the county. Videotaping the defendants under arrest on county property did not violate their privacy, since "[t]he fact that a person can be found in a particular place at a particular time does not give rise to some possessory interest, and it would be unreasonable to conclude otherwise." In fact, she wrote, "[p]laintiffs have not identified any possessory interest they had in not being videotaped, and this [c]ourt can think of none." On the other hand, the county could have had many reasons for videotaping the defendants, such as protecting itself from later accusations of abuse or other improper conduct.

McMahon agreed with the plaintiffs that the arrests were "choreographed", but distinguished their perp walks from Lauro's: "[T]he footage shot in this case was 'reality television

Reality television

Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...

' (albeit with scripted stage directions). Plaintiffs were actually being transported for arrest processing, so what was filmed was legitimate law enforcement activity—not a wholly fictitious event." In conclusion, she went further than the appeals court had in Lauro.
On appeal, a panel composed of judges Fred I. Parker

Fred I. Parker

Fred I. Parker was a federal judge in the United States.- Early life and education :A native of Boston, Parker attended the University of Massachusetts and Georgetown University Law Center...

, Dennis Jacobs (now the Second Circuit's chief judge), and Sonia Sotomayor

Sonia Sotomayor

Sonia Maria Sotomayor is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving since August 2009. Sotomayor is the Court's 111th justice, its first Hispanic justice, and its third female justice....

(later elevated to the Supreme Court) affirmed the district court. For the panel, Parker elaborated on the defendants' minimal expectation of privacy on the property where they were arrested, saying it was irrelevant that the media were not generally allowed there: "DOC employees ... are generally aware that it is their employer's prerogative, not their own, to decide who may have access to DOC grounds ... [They] could have no reasonable expectation that other County employees would be excluded from access to DOC property merely because [they] had been arrested." His opinion otherwise echoed McMahon's, and reaffirmed Lauro's distinction between residential and public spaces where privacy interests are at stake.

Criticism

The perp walk has been criticized by both lawyers and journalists. In 2011, the perp walk of the head of a prominent head of a non-governmental organization

Non-governmental organization

A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...

drew widespread criticism in his native country, where he had up till his arrest been considered a leading candidate in its next presidential election.

Legal

In a footnote to his decision in the Lauro case, Judge Schwartz made his distaste for all perp walks clear.

Critics have also said it is detrimental to the presumption of innocence

Presumption of innocence

. "It's a way for the police to try their case in the press and to get the intimation of guilt by virtue of an arrest," says New York Civil Liberties Union

New York Civil Liberties Union

The New York Civil Liberties Union is an civil rights organization in the United States. Founded in 1951 as the New York affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, it is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan organization with nearly 50,000 members across New York State.NYCLU's stated mission is to...

director Donna Lieberman. "The question is, does it poison the right to a fair trial? And that depends on each case." Nat Hentoff

Nat Hentoff

Nathan Irving "Nat" Hentoff is an American historian, novelist, jazz and country music critic, and syndicated columnist for United Media and writes regularly on jazz and country music for The Wall Street Journal....

of the Village Voice observed that "[u]nder such circumstances, even Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa , born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu , was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950...

would look extremely suspicious, especially if her hands were cuffed behind her back." Acknowledging a common response to such criticisms, that no arrested defendant is spared the perp walk, law professor Patricia Williams says "the perp walk is a social equalizer all right, but not in a good way" since the United States leads the world in incarceration rates. "[It] is hardly the greatest icon of equal rights".

The case of Richard Wigton has been cited as an example of the destructive effects of a perp walk. At the behest of Rudolph Giuliani, then U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Wigton, then head of risk arbitrage

Risk arbitrage

Risk arbitrage, or merger arbitrage, is an investment or trading strategy often associated with hedge funds.Two principal types of merger are possible: a cash merger, and a stock merger. In a cash merger, an acquirer proposes to purchase the shares of the target for a certain price in cash...

at now-defunct Kidder Peabody was arrested at his office on insider trading

Insider trading

Insider trading is the trading of a corporation's stock or other securities by individuals with potential access to non-public information about the company...

charges in 1987. He sobbed openly as he was walked in handcuffs past his coworkers. Three months later the charges against him and an associate were dropped, supposedly to seek an expanded indictment that never came. Giuliani's successor closed the investigation, by which time Wigton had been forced into retirement. Shortly before his death in 2007, Wigton said that he was a "victim of Giuliani's ambition."

Legal criticism of the perp walk is not limited to the defense bar. Charles Hynes, district attorney

District attorney

for New York City's borough of Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, opposes perp walks and refuses to have those his office prosecutes subjected to them. In her novel Final Jeopardy, Linda Fairstein

Linda Fairstein

Linda Fairstein is an American feminist author and former prosecutor focusing on crimes of violence against women and children. She served as head of the sex crimes unit of the Manhattan District Attorney's office from 1976 until 2002 and is the author of a series of novels featuring Manhattan...

, former head of the Manhattan district attorney's sex crimes unit, has her main character, prosecutor Alexandra Cooper, ask a detective to hold off on the perp walk until all the victims have had the chance to pick the defendant out of a police lineup

Police lineup

A police lineup or identity parade is a process by which a crime victim or witness's putative identification of a suspect is confirmed to a level that can count as evidence at trial....

, since defense lawyers were often able to exclude such identifications made after the perp walk had been broadcast.

Journalistic

"I think you could make the argument that showing this 'walk' in such circumstances is exploitative and may even be viewed by some as 'knocking someone down a peg' especially if the person under arrest is of one who has a high profile in the community", says Stephen Stock, investigative reporter for WFOR-TV

WFOR-TV

WFOR-TV, virtual channel 4.1 , is the CBS owned-and-operated station in Miami, Florida. WFOR shares its TV studio facilities with sister station WBFS-TV in Doral, near Miami International Airport, and its transmitter is located in Miramar.WFOR-TV also previously had two translator stations in the...

in Miami. "Perp walks are often the very first 'money shot

Money shot

A money shot is a moving or stationary visual element of a film, video, television broadcast, print publication, etc., that is disproportionately expensive to produce and/or is perceived as essential to the overall importance or revenue-generating potential of the work.-Cinema:Originally, in...

s' of a high-profile crime case", says Lori Waldon, news director for Milwaukee

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...

station WISN

WISN-TV

WISN-TV, virtual channel 12.1 , is a television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin serving as an affiliate of the ABC television network. Its signal covers most of southeastern Wisconsin and parts of northeastern Illinois, including Racine, Kenosha, Sheboygan and Waukesha...

. "Those first images are important when the story breaks. But we also know that the perp walk often looks and feels like a circus. Unfortunately, those images often portray journalists at their worst."

In particular, Waldon points to the questions reporters ask the defendant.

Veteran crime reporter Art Harris attributes questions like that to television reporters trying to impress their superiors: "Usually you get no response. The journalists who shout probably knows they are not going to get an answer but the reporter gets the voice on tape and his boss says, 'Hey, hey he is out there doing his job.'"

The images are often broadcast in slow motion

Slow motion

Slow motion is an effect in film-making whereby time appears to be slowed down. It was invented by the Austrian priest August Musger....

. "Everyone looks guilty when they're slo-mo'ed", observes Lisa Taylor. Waldon complains that lazy television news operations often reuse the perp-walk clip to the point that "[they] not only become wallpaper, they lose their effectiveness. Those images become caricatures." She asks that reporters and editors should find another image to tell the story as it progresses past the initial arrest.

Edward Wasserman, a former South Florida newspaper reporter and editor who now holds the Knight chair in journalistic ethics at Washington and Lee University

Washington and Lee University

Washington and Lee University is a private liberal arts college in Lexington, Virginia, United States.The classical school from which Washington and Lee descended was established in 1749 as Augusta Academy, about north of its present location. In 1776 it was renamed Liberty Hall in a burst of...

, sees the perp walk as exemplifying the irony

Irony

Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...

of the relationship between the media and law enforcement in American public life.

French reaction to Strauss-Kahn perp walk

When detectives from the NYPD's Special Victims Unit

Special Victims Unit

The Special Victims Unit is the name of a specialized division within some police departments. The detectives in this division typically investigate crimes involving sexual assault, the very young, or the very elderly, as well as any crime loosely connected with any of the three.-New York City...

walked a handcuffed Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Dominique Gaston André Strauss-Kahn , often referred to in the media, and by himself, as DSK, is a French economist, lawyer, politician, and member of the French Socialist Party...

past waiting reporters on the way to his arraignment

Arraignment

on charges (eventually dismissed) of sexually assaulting a hotel housekeeper

Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexual assault case

in 2011, the perp walk was heavily criticized in his native France. "I found that image to be incredibly brutal, violent and cruel", said Élisabeth Guigou

Élisabeth Guigou

Élisabeth Guigou is a French Socialist politician.-Biography:After attending ENA, France's elite graduate school of public affairs, she worked on Jacques Delors' staff in 1982 before being hired by Hubert Védrine in François Mitterrand's...

, who as French minister of justice in 2000 lobbied successfully for the passage of a law that forbids the publication of any images of an identifiable defendant in handcuffs who has not yet been convicted. "I don't see what the publication of images of this type adds."

Another former member of the French cabinet, Jack Lang

Jack Lang (French politician)

Jack Mathieu Émile Lang is a French politician. A member of the Socialist Party, he served as France's Minister of Culture from 1981 to 1986 and 1988 to 1992, and as Minister of Education from 1992 to 1993 and 2000 to 2002. He was also the Mayor of Blois from 1989 to 2000...

, Minister of Culture

Minister of Culture (France)

The Minister of Culture is, in the Government of France, the cabinet member in charge of national museums and monuments; promoting and protecting the arts in France and abroad; and managing the national archives and regional "maisons de culture"...

in the early 1980s, likened the perp walk to a lynching

Lynching

. "The heart can only contract before these humiliating and poignant images" French Senator Jean-Pierre Chevènement

Jean-Pierre Chevènement

Jean-Pierre Chevènement is a French politician. He was Minister of Defense from 1988 to 1991 and Minister of the Interior from 1997 to 2000. He was a presidential candidate in 2002 and since 2008 has been a member of the Senate....

, a longtime acquaintance of Strauss-Kahn's, wrote on his blog. "A horrible global lynching! And what if it were all a monstrous injustice?"

"When one of the world's most powerful men is turned over to press photos, coming out of a police station handcuffed, hands behind his back, he is already being subjected to a sentence which is specific to him", Le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...

editorialized. "Is it necessary that a man's fame deprive him of his presumption of innocence in the media? Because if they must assuredly be equal before the justice system, all men are not equal before the press."

The Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel

Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel

The Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel is a French institution, created in 1989, whose role is to regulate the various electronic media in France, such as radio and television, including through eventual censorship...

(CSA), the agency of the French government which oversees broadcast media, reminded television stations there that it was still illegal to broadcast footage of the perp walk, as some did, even though it took place overseas. Violators could face a fine as high as €15,000; but the CSA said it would leave it to Strauss-Kahn to pursue complaints. French journalists said the law shouldn't be applied to criminal-justice proceedings elsewhere. "We can't cover the DSK story like a French story for the simple reason it is happening in the U.S.", said Olivier Ravanello, deputy managing editor at i>-Télé. "The images we saw are brutal indeed, but that's because of the nature of the U.S. judiciary."

Not all French observers were so horrified. Eva Joly

Eva Joly

Eva Joly is a Norwegian-born French magistrate and politician for the French Green Party.-Early life:Born in Grünerløkka, Oslo, she moved to Paris at 20 to work as an au pair...

, who as a magistrate brought corruption charges against Strauss-Kahn (of which he was later acquitted) and was herself expected to run for the French presidency on the Europe Écologie

Europe Écologie

Europe Écologie was a French electoral coalition created for the 2009 European elections composed of The Greens and other ecologists and regionalists....

-The Greens

The Greens (France)

The Greens were a Green political party to the centre-left of the political spectrum in France. They had officially been in existence since 1984, but their spiritual roots could be traced as far back as René Dumont’s candidacy for the presidency in 1974...

line, agreed that "these are very violent images". But, she added, the American system "doesn't distinguish between the director of the I.M.F. and any other suspect. It's the idea of equal rights." She also noted that American prosecutors always have to convince a jury of the defendant's guilt, as opposed to their French counterparts, who must only do so in the most severe cases.

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg

Michael Bloomberg

Michael Rubens Bloomberg is the current Mayor of New York City. With a net worth of $19.5 billion in 2011, he is also the 12th-richest person in the United States...

agreed it was humiliating, but defended the practice. "If you don't want to do the perp walk, don't do the crime", he told reporters. "I don't have a lot of sympathy for that." New York novelist Jay McInerney

Jay McInerney

John Barrett McInerney Jr. is an American writer. His novels include Bright Lights, Big City; Ransom; Story of My Life; Brightness Falls; and The Last of the Savages...

observed, "The mayor seems to have forgotten about the presumption of innocence

Presumption of innocence

, but his statement probably reflects the attitude of his constituents pretty accurately. New York's a tough place. Deal with it." Seven weeks later, when doubts about the accuser's credibility made it unlikely the case would be tried, Bloomberg reversed position. "I've always thought perp walks were outrageous," he said. "[W]e vilify them for the benefit of theater, for the circus. You know they did it in Roman times, too."

American-born British journalist Janet Daley

Janet Daley

Janet Daley is an American-born British journalist who is currently a columnist and leader writer for the Daily Telegraph.-Life and career:...

remarked that the uproar in the French media over Strauss-Kahn's treatment missed the point about America's robustly open society: "The US does not like secrets. Its political culture takes as a basic premise that nothing should take place out of the public view except the most critical life-or-death security matters. . . And it certainly has no privacy law of the kind that has protected the great and powerful in France for generations."

Responses and defenses

John Tierney

John Tierney (journalist)

John Marion Tierney is a journalist and author who has worked for the New York Times since 1990.-Career and background:...

says that without the perp walk, reporters "would start buying old snapshots and home videos from disgruntled relatives and neighbors" and use them to depict the defendant. Those images might be more invasive, and more prejudicial to the defendants' innocence, he observes. Some broader social benefits have been suggested, in particular transparency. The perp walk allows the police to demonstrate that they did not physically abuse the defendant upon arrest or during the subsequent interrogation

Interrogation

Interrogation is interviewing as commonly employed by officers of the police, military, and Intelligence agencies with the goal of extracting a confession or obtaining information. Subjects of interrogation are often the suspects, victims, or witnesses of a crime...

. "Our judicial system works where the public can see the alleged perpetrators", said Mayor Bloomberg in response to French criticism. In the opening chapter of The Gulag Archipelago
The Gulag Archipelago
The Gulag Archipelago is a book by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn based on the Soviet forced labor and concentration camp system. The three-volume book is a narrative relying on eyewitness testimony and primary research material, as well as the author's own experiences as a prisoner in a gulag labor camp...

, Alexander Solzhenitsyn describes the Soviet

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

secret police

Secret police

Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....

agencies' general practice in the Stalinist

Stalinism

Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...

era of making arrests either at night or in isolated private places, in order to maximize the perception of governmental omnipotence. In one instance a public arrest led to a rare act of resistance:
Art Miller dismisses concerns that the perp walk prejudices the jury pool: "This is not Napoleonic
Napoleonic code
The Napoleonic Code — or Code Napoléon — is the French civil code, established under Napoléon I in 1804. The code forbade privileges based on birth, allowed freedom of religion, and specified that government jobs go to the most qualified...

justice where the judge is the fact finder, prosecutor and jury. Here the people will decide ultimately. And no matter who you are, if you have been arrested for something, it is understood you are going to be subject to all the scrutiny the press is going to give you." Her description of the American perp walk as a "circus" notwithstanding, Lisa Taylor is opposed to remedies like France's Guigou Law which forbid such photos from being published. "People who have been treated unfairly should have civil remedies, but to be that prescriptive to put a blanket on coverage, this freedom of expression proponent is nervous about a prohibition of photographing and publishing anything." Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute

Poynter Institute

The Poynter Institute is a non-profit school for journalism located in St. Petersburg, Florida. The school's mission statement says that "The Poynter Institute is a school dedicated to teaching and inspiring journalists and media leaders. It promotes excellence and integrity in the practice of...

says the remedy for the perp walk's effect is to:

In other countries

In Canada reporters are similarly allowed to witness defendants being brought to court in restraints, and photograph it. However, Ryerson University

Ryerson University

Ryerson University is a public research university located in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its urban campus is adjacent to Yonge-Dundas Square located at the busiest intersection in Downtown Toronto. The majority of its buildings are in the blocks northeast of the square in Toronto's Garden...

journalism professor Lisa Taylor says that such activities, were they undertaken deliberately to shame or humiliate a defendant, could lead to "a legal claim for abuse of legal process". This, she explains, helps avoid "the deliberate or circus atmosphere that so often surrounds high-profile arrests in the States."

Policies elsewhere in the world vary. In Britain and France defendants are brought to court in vans with blacked-out windows. In some other European countries the accused's name may not be published, or the media decline to, in order to make it easier for an offender to resume normal life after conviction. Edward Wasserman speculates that criticism of European criminal-justice systems in light of a perceived rise in crime stemming from immigration, and the availability of suppressed or unreported information online, may lead to a greater openness there. "The next U.S. export to join Starbucks and iPads in the Old World may yet be the perp walk."

Similar practices, some involving greater exposure and potential incrimination of the defendant, exist outside Europe and North America. Police in some Latin American countries have those arrested confess to the crime before the cameras. In Mexico

Law enforcement in Mexico

Law enforcement in Mexico is divided between federal, state, and municipal entities. There are two federal police forces, 31 state police forces and one estimate suggests over 1,600 municipal police forces...

, the equivalent practice is called a presentacion (Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

for "introduction"). Defendants suspected of involvement in the drug trade are posed for pictures surrounded by weapons, cash, and drugs, clothed in whatever they were wearing when arrested. Presentaciones have drawn criticisms similar to those directed at the perp walk.

In some Asian countries an arrested suspect is also exposed to the media. Police in Japan and South Korea often invite the media to re-enactments of crimes staged by the accused, a practice common in Thailand as well. In 2010, South Korean police had a man suspected of raping a child re-enact the crime at the scene, with not only the media but angry, jeering neighbors looking on. Prosecutors there also frequently parade white-collar suspects before the media, although even convicted felons can bring cases against them for an offense against honor. China, where images of chained suspects have often been broadcast to deter crime, ended in 2010 a long practice of forcing suspected prostitutes

Prostitution in the People's Republic of China

Shortly after taking power in 1949, the Communist Party of China embarked upon a series of campaigns that purportedly eradicated prostitution from mainland China by the early 1960s. Since the loosening of government controls over society in the early 1980s, prostitution in mainland China not only...

to walk in "shame parades" through the streets, after public outrage. In contrast, Hong Kong police puts specially designed bags over the heads of arrested suspects to conceal their identity.

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