FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CIV
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 1999
(202) 616-2765
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(202) 514-1888

ARBITRATORS APPOINTED TO DETERMINE
COMPENSATION FOR ZAPRUDER FILM

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Justice announced today the appointment of a three-member arbitration panel that will determine the amount of compensation the government must pay the heirs of the late Abraham Zapruder for his film of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The Honorable Arlin M. Adams, a former Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, will chair the panel. Judge Adams served as independent counsel from 1990 to 1995 to investigate alleged influence-peddling at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during the 1980s. He is currently of counsel to the firm Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis, in Philadelphia.

The other members of the panel are Walter Dellinger and Kenneth R. Feinberg. Mr. Dellinger, who formerly served as acting Solicitor General and Assistant Attorney General, is a law professor at Duke University and a member of the firm O'Melveny & Myers, in Washington, D.C. Mr. Feinberg has served as court-appointed special settlement master in numerous complex litigation matters, including the Agent Orange Product Liability Litigation. He is an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University and the founding member of the firm Kenneth R. Feinberg & Associates in Washington, D.C.

The Department of Justice selected Dellinger, and the LMH Company, the former owner of the Zapruder film, selected Feinberg. Dellinger and Feinberg then selected Judge Adams to chair the panel.

A law passed by Congress in 1992 requires that all records of President Kennedy's assassination be transferred to the National Archives so that they may be preserved and copies may be made available to the public for personal study, research, and other non-commercial purposes. Under that law, on August 1, 1998, the camera original of the film became public property when it was transferred to the JFK Records Collection at the Archives.

Under the Constitution, the government is required to provide just compensation to the owners of private property that is taken for the public good. A decision from the panel is expected by late June.

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