Michael Nifong is the District Attorney charged with prosecuting the Duke rape case. If circumstances are as they seem at this point, it appears that Nifong is not guilty of mere negligence but was actively involved in the attempt to railroad these defendants for his own political gain. Isn’t misusing a public position in this fashion similar to taking a bribe? Don’t folks go to jail for that?
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=N2Q5ZGM1YTJjN2YzZGZhMjcxZmJkOTUxMDRjNjU2OGI=
Oh, yeah. If there was any Justice left in the Justice System, he would be tossed into the jug for a nice long time. His conduct, IMO, has been heinous.
Something needs to happen. He ruined the lives of a lot of people and completely destroyed a top-notch program on the altar of his ambition. Essentially, Duke imposed the “Death Penalty” on their own lacrosse team. Ask SMU football how well they’ve done since 1987. That’s what Duke lacrosse is looking at.
I read the Thomas Sowell article quoted in the OP, and found a news source for what Sowell said here.
You know, people like the bulldog tenacity when a guy like Nifong is fighting for the underdog. At first it seemed like he was doing just that, going after privliged white kids who took advantage of the poor stripper/hooker/whatever she was. However, it has become clear that the initial conditions were not what they seemed and Nifong can’t or won’t accept it. If he had kept it up for a week or two after it appeared that the case had completely fallen apart, he probably would have been okay.
At this point, I would have to guess that Nifong has well and truely screwed himself. Maybe it is pride, maybe it is ego, but why can’t he admit a mistake? It seems that he has no chance of winning a trial and he has dragged the process on far too long. Now you add in this potential conspiracy and realize that he is not looking at a bright future. The best he can hope for is to never hold public office again, but it is starting to look like jail is a real potential.
Seems to me that disbarment may be in order, if Nifong was concealing potentially exculpatory evidence. (The details are not entirely clear from the article.)
Wasn’t it reported a while ago that the DNA didn’t match any of the accused men? I read this proclaimation to mean that Nifong didn’t release the names of the person/people whose DNA was found (ie. her boyfriend, etc.). If that is the case, and the accuser sticks by her claim that those particular men raped her, I don’t think the prosecutor is to blame for all this. He certainly shouldn’t be arrested or disbarred.
If Nifong knew that the DNA evidence shot the accuser’s claim out of the water, and concealed that fact, he should be disbarred, tried, convicted, and imprisoned. Period.
As noted in the OP’s link, Nifong conspired with the head of the lab to hide exculpatory evidence from the defense. The first round of DNA tests (from the SBI) excluded the lacrosse players. Nifong decided to have a private lab do a second round of tests. These also absolutely excluded the lacrosse players. However, the tests found DNA from 5 men, none of them her boyfriend, in the swabs from her vagina, pubic hair, panties, and anus. In her statement to the police, she had denied having sex with anyone for a week prior to the alleged assault, and that the last time she had sex it was with her boyfriend.
Evidence that this was a lie clearly undermines her credibility. Hiding that evidence from the defense is a violation of NC state law as well as the Supreme Court’s *Brady *decision.
Anything and everything you want to know about the Duke Hoax can be found here.
That’s pretty damning evidence of prosecutorial misconduct, deserving (IMO) of a sentence at least double what he attempted to impose upon the victims of his frame-up.
Nifong’s alleged misconduct doesn’t begin to approach that of District Attorney Jim Garrison in the prosecution of Clay Shaw, for supposedly conspiring to kill JFK.
Garrison’s theory was loony, his evidence minimal and his witnesses laughable if not downright mentally ill. He was supposedly humiliated by Shaw’s acquittal and scathing press coverage afterwards. Yet he was re-elected D.A. and went on to a long tenure as a judge.
Don’t bet the farm on Nifong’s career going down the tubes.
Turns out them cowboys weren’t rustling cattle like Zeke said they were. I know, let’s hang Zeke instead. No sense wasting a good lynch mob.
Take a breath, people. If anything should have been learned from this incident, it’s the importance of not rushing to judgement based on an incomplete and possibly biased set of facts.
I haven’t seen anyone comment on the state lab’s failure to pick up on all this DNA. If this is a significant amount of DNA that we’re talking about–as in, signficant enough to make or break a case–that’s rather troubling to think that the state was not able to detect it at all. Is this type of discrepancy typical? If so, it makes me wonder why we bother even having state testing.
And how many people have gotten off or been sent to prison because their case rested only on what the state lab found or didn’t find?
What exactly could be incomplete or biased? Meehan testified, in court, under oath, that he and Nifong agreed to withhold exculpatory evidence, which the Supreme Court in *Brady *determined was unconstitutional. NC state law requires the DA to turn over all evidence. The conspiracy is a matter of public record.
The private lab utilized Y-Chromosome DNA tests, explained here.
Back when the case first became public, a lot of people were essentially saying, “We all know those rich frat boys are rapists. They’re guilty; let’s get this over with.” Other people were saying, “We all know strippers are whores who’ll say or do anything for money. She’s lying; let’s get this over with.” Very few people were saying, “Let’s wait and hear what both sides have to say and look over all the evidence and then make a decision on what we think happened.”
I’m seeing the same thing again. A lot of people are now saying, “We all know Nifong is a grand-standing politician who’s been lying all along. Let’s disbar him and impeach him and prosecute him for all the crimes we’re sure he committed.”
Personally, I have strong doubts about the way Nifong handled this case. But at this point, I’m going to stop trying to outrun the court system and wait and see what happens. I’m trying to maintain faith that if Nifong committed any actual crimes they will be exposed and properly handled in a reasonable manner by the local legal system.
I’ll ask this question again, since you did not answer it he first time. When you have a confession under oath, what more do you need?
is it your contention that withholding evidence* might not* be a violation of the defendants’ rights? That the DNA from the five unknown males might not be evidence? That Meehan was *lying *when he testified that he and Nifong agreed to conceal the evidence? What is *incomplete *or *biased *about this particular set of facts, specifically.
Given that that makes Meehan himself a party to the crime, it’s a rather impressive admission against interest (which enhances its credibility for obvious reasons).
Well, here’s a few things I think we should at least stop and consider.
None of us were present, so we’ve only heard second hand accounts of what was said by Meehan.
Meehan, by his own admission, appears to have been willing to lie once during this prooceeding.
I doubt any of us our experts enough in court procedures to know for certain what actions are prohibited under local laws and what loopholes might exist.
As far as I know, Nifong has not yet offered his defense of his actions.
So, yes, I think there are a few steps that should be taken before building the gallows.
Meehan’s confession is certainly strong evidence against Meehan. But it’s slightly less strong against Nifong. If Nifong and Meehan were tried jointly for this offense, Meehan’s confession could not be admitted against Nifong.
We have an uncorroborated statement that a crime was committed, so the next steps are clear. Arrest Nifong immediately, bring him before a grand jury and get him indicted for a felony, force him to post bail and defend himself in the press. Then, months and months later, whatever clear and convincing evidence there is to exonerate him can be brought to the criminal trial and he can be acquitted.
A bit less tongue in cheek, does Meehan personally have a duty to make the information public or known to anyone other than Nifong? Did he testify in court that the amended report was complete prior to this new admission? Maybe I’m missing a detail, but I’m not sure what crime he committed. I can’t really fault the guy for going along with the DA’s orders, considering how much this DA has made life hell for 3 people who didn’t screw him over.