In the May 17 issue of the Maroon, a front-page article entitled, “Recent Incidents Spark Discussion on Plagiarism” inaccurately described Alan Dershowitz’s response to allegations of plagiarism. The last sentence in the second paragraph of the article read, “Two earlier scandals similar to the [Harvard Law Professor Laurence H.] Tribe incident surrounded law professors Charles Ogletree and Alan Dershowitz, who both apologized for ‘accidental’ copying of passages in their books…” While Ogletree did in fact apologize for copying passages in his book, Dershowitz denied any wrongdoing and instead fought the charges.

The Harvard Crimson article referenced in the Maroon contained the information about Ogletree’s apology in a paragraph adjacent to information about Dershowitz’s reaction to accusations of plagiarism (“Prof Admits to Misusing Source,” The Harvard Crimson, 9/27/04). The distinct responses of the two professors were unfortunately conflated, thus erroneously representing Dershowitz’s position with respect to the accusations.

After a review of our sources and the facts, the Maroon retracts the statement made about Dershowitz.