Re: slander & the dead -- the dead have no right to a reputation.  Heirs
cannot sue for libel on behalf of the deceased.  Back in the 1980s the NY
legislature considered overturning this legal principle after the Borough
President of Queens, Donald Manes, killed himself.  He was a beloved
figure, but the newspapers soon found that he had killed himself because
he was totally corrupt and he had learned that he would soon be exposed.
His grieving widow blasted the press for libelling a dead man; through her
tears she said "he's not around to defend himself."  Manes's cronies in
the legislature, crooked themselves, proposed a bill that would allow Mrs.
Manes to sue for libel of her dead husband.  It never went anywhere, and
NY soon witnessed the unravelling of a huge municipal scandal, whose
exposure was not impeded by the Donald Manes Memorial Libel Law.

Henry Wiencek

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