By Karen Gutierrez
The Cincinnati Enquirer

COVINGTON - For the second straight day Tuesday, jurors were unable to reach a verdict in the case of a Northern Kentucky professor who claims he was libeled by Fox News.

The jury deliberated for about seven hours Tuesday before asking U.S. District Judge David Bunning to allow a recess until today. In all, jurors deliberated three hours on Monday and seven more Tuesday.

Clinton Hewan, a political science professor at Northern Kentucky University, sued Fox News over a story published on its Web site, Foxnews.com, on May 2, 2001. In the article, Fox News described a controversy over comments Hewan had made at an NKU student forum on race. The forum took place on April 19, 2001 - 12 days after the fatal shooting of Timothy Thomas, an unarmed African-American man, by Cincinnati Police Officer Stephen Roach.

NKU's campus newspaper, The Northerner, quoted Hewan as saying at the forum: "I do not advocate any violence as an initiate. But in the case of willful murder, the family (of Timothy Thomas) should go out and get that policeman." According to The Northerner, Hewan also said the family should "quietly stalk that SOB and take him out" in order to stand up for themselves.

NKU president James Votruba issued a stinging rebuke of Hewan's comments after confirming their accuracy with administrators who attended the forum.

Out of context?

Hewan later contended his words had been taken out of context, and during the federal court trial, several students testified they knew he was not advocating murder but speaking hypothetically about possible responses to police brutality.

The Fox News story, published six days into the controversy, was headlined, "Prof's Kill-a-cop Comments Prompt Outcry at College Near Cincinnati." The first paragraph said the professor's "call for deadly vigilante justice" against Roach had sent shock waves across NKU. Later paragraphs gave Hewan's side of the story and even quoted Votruba as saying the professor was a good person and a good teacher with a sometimes confrontational style.

Hewan's attorneys have tried to keep the jury focused on the headline and first paragraph of the story. But the judge told it that the story must be considered in its entirety.

E-mail kgutierrez@enquirer.com