Vanessa Leggett

Vanessa Leggett
BornVanessa Levrier
(1968-05-18) May 18, 1968 (age 56)
Houston, Texas, United States
Occupation
LanguageEnglish
EducationBachelor's degree
Master's degree
Alma materUniversity of St. Thomas
GenreNarrative nonfiction
True crime
Literary movementJailed for not revealing sources
Notable awardsPresident's Award
Ancil Payne Award
PEN/Newman's Own
SPJ 1st Amendment
Zenger Award
Herb Block Freedom Award
SpouseDoak Leggett

Vanessa Leggett (née Levrier; born May 18, 1968) is an American freelance journalist and lecturer who was jailed by the U.S. Justice Department for 168 days for protecting sources and research notes for an independent book about a federal murder-for-hire case. At the time, it was the longest contempt-of-court imprisonment of a journalist in United States history for protecting sources.[1] Leggett holds the record for serving the most time for protecting source material and without providing that material to negotiate a release from prison.[2][3]

  1. ^ "True Crime and Punishment". The Austin Chronicle.
  2. ^ "Journalists jailed or fined for refusing to identify confidential sources, as of 2019". RCFP.org.
  3. ^ "Who Counts As A Journalist, For First Amendment Purposes?". findlaw.com.