Don't ID suspects until they're found guilty

Your recent editorial regarding the printing of information and mug shots of people arrested for a crime illustrates a distressing trend away from the principle of innocent until found guilty.

Many arrested people are later found to be innocent of the crime or their cases are simply dropped for lack of evidence. Nevertheless, these people, whose mug shots have been printed in their local newspaper, are likely to have lost reputation, friends and employment as a result.

The bill being considered by the Illinois legislature, which your editorial criticizes, would prevent the printing of arrestee mug shots until "as soon as practical" after arraignment. This would be an improvement over the current practice of releasing arrest information within 72 hours of a suspect being taken into custody. However, even this measure could result in the social punishment of an innocent person. It is my opinion that names and mug shots of an arrested person should not be printed until he or she has been found guilty in a court of law.

I would suggest an addition to the bill which would stipulate that any newspaper which publishes the name and mug shot of a person later found not guilty, or whose case is dropped before going to trial, must then publish a full-page retraction, explaining in detail that the person had not, in fact, committed any crime.

Dick Page

Naperville