How to Avoid the Perp Walk
Very few law enforcment practices are more inisidious than the perp walk. The National Law Journal has an article (free link here) on how to avoid them in white collar crime cases. It begins by telling us who was responsible for creating them: Rudy Giuliani.
Rudolph Giuliani is given credit for "patent[ing] the perp walk" for white-collar defendants during his tenure as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. ...When the time came to arrest three prominent Wall Street traders and bankers that his office accused of insider trading, Giuliani directed that the defendants be arrested at their offices, handcuffed and escorted from the building to a mob of press that had been previously alerted. Charges against one of the defendants were dismissed, although damage to his reputation based on the perp walk and media frenzy was irreparable.
Since the decision in federal cases whether to arrest or issue a summons is up to the prosecutor, there's often little that can be done to avoid it. The Second Circuit, however, has case law that says the perp walk is only constitutional if it satisfies a legitimate law enforcment purpose. (Lauro, 219 F.3d 202, 212.)
The U.S. Attorneys' Manual also can provide some help.
.... Specifically, the policy provides that, when an arrest warrant is to be executed, "no advance information will be provided to the news media about actions to be taken by law enforcement personnel, nor shall media representatives be solicited or invited to be present." [U.S. Attorneys' Manual" §1-7.600.]
Via Wall Street Journal's Law Blog which has some good comments, including this one:
"Perp walks" have nothing to do with the criminal justice system, and everything to do with the political ambitions of the prosecutor. See Spitzer, Giuliani, etc.
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