pulls up lawn chair, opens ice chest to reveal two sixers of Duvel
I tell you, vindictive glee beats the heck out of recreational outrage any ol’ day of the week. 
I’ve wondered about this. It’s pretty well known these days that the Duke players are innocent. Had Nifong dropped the charges early, would those guys be spending the rest of their lives fending off a hostile community?
You can be aggressive and honest at the same time. Once Nifong realized the DNA evidence did not support the accusations, he could have held a press conference and settled the whole thing. Instead, he refused to listen to ironclad alibis, made inflammatory statements, and whipped up the frenzy so he could position himself as the Hero who was going to put the Bad White Boys Away For Life.
Way to stand up there and accept reponsibility, professor. :rolleyes:
There’s a current hue and cry over a case here in the San Jose area with many parallels to the Duke incident (no apparent racial overtones, though) because the prosecutor decided not to press charges. The DA is now reviewing the case, but the biggest issue seems to be that no specific reasons were given for the decision.
It’s also unclear how much Nifong’s stupidity impacted this.
Today’s hearing was absolutely brutal for Nifong - probably the worst day of his life thus far. Brad Bannon (one of the lawyers for the accused lacrosse players) offered devastating testimony detailing Nifong’s unethical and illegal actions. Marsha Goodenow (assistant DA from elsewhere in North Carolina) offered stinging testimony contrasting Nifong’s performance with that of a fair prosecutor (One comment during her testimony: “She is beating Nifong senseless!”)
Durham is a strange place, but it’s going to take more than a small miracle for Nifong to survive. Current thinking seems to be that he’s unlikely to retain his law license or his job as DA, and will do well to avoid criminal charges.
It’s something of a tossup which is stranger: That Nifong would take a false case so far, apparently with some real belief that he could make a success of it, or that a prosecution based on nothing could get as far as it did before it was finally derailed.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,265740,00.html
Although, exactly what the nature of that evidence was was apparently never revealed.
It was apparently never revealed to the AG, either. That is why the guys were declared innocent, instead of the AG just saying there was not enough evidence to proceed.
There were a number of posters in this sacrosant Doper community that also eagerly jumped on the bandwagon of condemnation early on. Some of them have since indicated they may have been a bit hasty; others have remained silent on the point.
We can’t do much about Duke professors, but perhaps we could prod some of our own into action.
I think a lot of people, both on this board and in real life, assumed that a DA wouldn’t lie - which this one did - and wouldn’t prosecute a case without evidence - which this one did.
That is one reason I think it is so important that the Bar get rid of this slime; they need to show the public that this type of behavior is not going to be tolerated.
Absolutely astonishing that Fox News gets to (correctly) taunt the New York Times for shallow, incomplete and fundamentally dishonest coverage.
Agreed. People typically allow for the possibility of small lies, but this was the Big Lie - a prosecutor repeatedly and publicly giving details of a brutal crime that in fact he had no valid reason to believe had ever been committed.
His allegations played to the sensibilities of the Group of 88 (among many others) and so got all sorts of reinforcement. Duke University gave some lip service to a presumption of innocence, but then quickly caved in the face of outcry at the horrible criminals in their midst.
What I find telling is IIRC the absence of media crackwhore Al Sharpton in Raleigh when the nasty mess went down. Perhaps he could smell the stink of Tawana Brawley II?
That being said, if the roles were reversed, and a quartet of upstanding black students had been falsely accused of assaulting and raping a white stripper, Al and company would be calling for the prosecutor’s head on a pike.
You know, if you’re going to be a champion for justice, it’s gotta be there across the board.
Not just “misunderstood” – one of the assholes (or a Massachusetts running dog sympathizer, can’t recall) wrote a letter to the editor of the Boston Globe, upon the AG’s declaring the players innocent, basically saying that it was just political expediency and The Man saving those rich white boys’ asses; that the AG was suppressing evidence and, if all were known, the lacrosse players quite likely would indeed be proven guilty of a heinous attack upon a poor black woman.
It was one of those letters that drops your jaw and makes you shake your head while your eyes goggle right out of their sockets.
Perhaps it was smoke and mirrors
It does not look like the NYT coverage of this case is their shinning hour.
The media coverage in general on this case was not the media’s shining hour - which is one reason Professor Johnson started Durham in Wonderland. The media took what Nifong spoon-fed them and ran with it.
Danceswithcats (I love your username!) - notorious media whore Jessie Jackson was present at the start of the festivities, when pots were being banged and lies were flying like confetti. He offered to pay Crystal Magnum’s college tuition. Interestingly enough, he hasn’t been heard from lately.
True.
I think, though, faced with the truth of this man’s gross misconduct, they ought to have the decency to say they themselves were wrong as well. Perhaps understandably so, but wrong just the same.
On these boards it really doesn’t matter very much, but in the case of the Group of 88 it most certainly does.
(Has anyone else been creeped out over the name this group chose? Especially given how popular the number 88 is for neo-Nazis?)
I’m more reminded of a bunch of Japanese men with kato masks and katanas.
Nifong Resigns
In a whisper, Nifong is suggesting that it does not serve the cause of justice for Durham for him to remain as DA.
“Whatever mistakes I made in this case are my mistakes”–though not the mistakes of which the Bar has accused him.
“My community has suffered enough.” His actions in the case were "honorably intended but had unforeseen consequences.
Apologizes for his actions causing pains to the three families (as he continues to mispronounce the name of the Seligmanns).
- from Durham in Wonderland
I wonder if he thinks this will let him escape with his license to practice law intact? I hope not.
At least he resigned.
I have a question…if he’s disbarred in NC, what’s to stop him from moving to South Carolina and taking the bar exam there and becoming a licensed attorney again? Or can you take the bar exam in another state once you’re disbarred?
Admission to the Bar isn’t limited to passing the state’s exam. You have to fill out a big application and be found to be fit to practice. Generally, having been disbarred in one state will prevent admission in another state. And for states that have reciprocity (admission to one state based on prior admission to another), being disbarred in one state will lead to reciprocal disbarment in the other. That’s why disbarment is such a big deal: It is almost always the end of the lawyer’s legal career.