Getting the Facts Straight: Son of Sam Laws (First published in the Sisters in Crime Guppy Newsletter, First Draft) This month, we'll talk about Son of Sam laws, the state statutes that limit a convicted criminal's ability to tell his story -- and keep the profits. New York enacted the first restriction in 1977, after accused murderer David Berkowitz, known as "Son of Sam," tried to sell his story. Similar anti-notoriety laws -- often called Son of Sam laws -- now exist in 40 states and the federal system. The goal is to prevent criminals from profiting by books or movies about their crimes while their victims suffer financially -- and suffer from the added publicity. The criminal may still write a book or sell his story to a magazine or a movie producer. But instead of paying the criminal, the publisher or producer pays the state where he was convicted. Systems vary. In some states, the author's victims must sue him in civil court for money damages; judgment in hand, they file a claim with the state against the money received. Others deposit payments in the state crime victims' fund; victims don't need a judgment to file a claim. Money not paid to victims may be returned to the criminal, used to cover the costs of trial, or used to compensate victims of other crimes. In 1981, Simon & Schuster published Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family, by Henry Hill, the pseudonym of a man in the federal witness protection program. Hill's book readily acknowledged his participation in crimes for which he was not prosecuted. New York attempted to force the publisher to pay the state all money Hill earned. In 1991, the Supreme Court held that the law unconstitutionally infringed on freedom of speech because it applied not only to convicted criminals, but also to persons accused but not convicted and to persons who admitted an unprosecuted crime. The Court agreed that New York has a "compelling interest" in depriving criminals of the profits of their crimes, and in using those profits to help victims -- both of the crimes involved and of other crimes. But the state can't confiscate payment for works that only tangentially refer to a crime. Since then, New York -- and most other states -- have rewritten their statutes to focus on convicted criminals who write or sell a story primarily about their specific crimes. Other examples: several political figures have written biographies admitting involvement in Watergate, but they were never convicted of a crime. They can keep their profits. An ex-President who makes a passing reference in a memoir to having once inhaled can keep the profits. And Son of Sam laws don't restrict a convicted felon who writes of how prison changed his life but only incidentally mentions the crimes that landed him there, because the focus is his personal transformation. A 1984 graduate of Notre Dame Law School, a former law clerk to the Washington State Court of Appeals, and a lawyer admitted in Washington and Montana, Leslie Budewitz lives, writes, and practices law in northwest Montana. If you have a question about a legal issue in your fiction, please browse this website or email her at leslie@lawandfiction.com. Site contents © Leslie Ann Budewitz webmaster@lawandfiction.com 1182 
|
