the statement was "highly unusual" because "it was a tacit admission by Federal officials that they had been wrong in their suspicion of Mr. Jewell." At a press conference in July 1997, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno expressed personal regret over the leak that led to intense scrutiny of Jewell. She said, "I'm very sorry it happened. I think we owe him an apology. I regret the leak." In 1998, Eric Rudolph was named as a suspect in the Centennial Park bombing and the bombings of abortion clinics. He was arrested in 2003 after a lengthy manhunt. Rudolph later agreed, in April 2003, to plead guilty to the Centennial Park bombing and other attacks on an abortion clinic and a lesbian nightclub, as part of a plea bargain to avoid the death penalty. In 2006, Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue honored Jewell for his rescue efforts during the attack, and publicly thanked him for saving people's lives. Perdue said Jewell "deserves to be remembered as a hero." Subsequent life, career and public appearances Jewell worked in various law enforcement jobs, including as a police officer in Pendergrass, Georgia. He worked as a deputy sheriff in Meriwether County, Georgia, until his death. He also gave speeches at colleges. On July 30, 1997, Jewell testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives in which he called for an independent investigation into methods used by FBI agents during their investigation of him. He appeared in Michael Moore's 1997 film The Big One. He had a cameo in the September 27, 1997, episode of Saturday Night Live, in which he jokingly fended off suggestions that he was responsible for the deaths of Mother Teresa and Diana, Princess of Wales. Jewell married Dana Jewell in 1998; they remained married until his death. The couple moved to a farm they bought together, south of Atlanta. In 2001, Jewell was honored as the Grand Marshal of Carmel, Indiana's Independence Day Parade. Jewell was chosen in keeping with the parade's theme of "Unsung Heroes." On each anniversary of the bombing until his illness and eventual death, he privately placed a rose at the Centennial Olympic Park scene where spectator Alice Hawthorne died. Libel cases After he was dropped as a suspect, Jewell filed libel suits against NBC News, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, CNN, the New York Post, and Piedmont College. Jewell sued the Atlanta Journal-Constitution because, according to