So this idiot ruins the lives and reputations of three young men, costs their parents hundreds of thousnds $ in legal costs, destroys DUKE Univ. lacross, and ties up state lawyers for a useless case. Why should he just be allowed to say’ so s :smack: orry’?
I’ve been following this case through the articles printed in the Washington Post newspaper. Nifong seems to be trying to step delicately in a minefield of his own making. As noted be others in this thread, he’s made incendiary accusations about the Duke players, and the reason he gives for not revealing the DNA evidence was that he “didn’t want to drag anyone’s name through the mud unnecessarily.” Huh? This does not compute. He was full of fire and brimstone earlier and now he’s concerned with actual guilt or innocence? Now, the latest news I’ve read is that he’s only dropped the rape charges. This is due to the fact that the accuser is now not sure she was actually penetrated by anyone’s penis. Under state law, rape charges can’t be proven if a penis wasn’t used in penetration. That’s what I read in the paper. I agree with the poster who said that in order to save himself, Nifong has to convict the Duke players of something. I’m thinking he’s going to be offering plea deals; if I were one of the Duke lacrosse players, I’d tell him to go piss up a rope. And then I’d sue his ass off and sue the state for damages.
He has actually given three accounts for not revealing the DNA evidence. In open court on December 15, Nifong affirmed that he hadn’t even heard of this issue until two days before, when the defense filed its DNA motion. Also, he claims that his work on an ongoing quadruple homicide has (where an arrest didn’t occur till October 16) affected his efforts to conceal exculpatory DNA evidence in the lacrosse case. (Above from K. C. Johnson.)
Is he being sued? Sounds like the players have a case against either him or his employer or both.
Well, his employers are the voters of Durham, who elected him to a full term of office as DA in November (he had been appointed to the job after his predecessor resigned to take a judgeship).
I would love to see the ACLU intervene in this…seems (to me) some MAJOR" constitutional rights were violated;
-the right to a “speedy trial”
-the right to face one’s accuser
-and the right to access all relevant prosecutorial information.
Course, if we could just get Al Sharpton in on it…??
The latest news is that the N.C. Bar has filed ethics charges against D.A. Nifong, after an investigation that started two weeks after the party which was the scene of the alleged sexual assualt.
And now Nifong wants to bail on the case entirely. Cite.
Both Nifong and Crystal Mangum belong in jail.
Their behavior has severely damaged the lives of at least 48 people (all 47 lacrosse players and their coach), the families of those people, Duke University, and been an insult to the ‘justice system’ in this country.
If it were up to me, they’d sit in neighboring cells for a long time.
Others have pointed out the similarity here, but it seems hard to condemn Nifong while treating Bush kindly.
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_01_07-2007_01_13.shtml#1168710825
Nifong hung himself in his campaign. He made rather vivid promises (and rather unethical ones, too) that he would bring the “perps” to justice. Essentially, he played on the tensions between the community and the college. Well, push come to shove, the case is too high profile to drop quietly, so he’ll be gutted by the locals for his lies.
Most likely, he had no idea what he was doing himself, except trying to keep the game going one more day so he could delay the reckoning.
Here are one man’s thoughts on whether Nifong could be prosecuted.
http://www.lincolntribune.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5701