The State of North Carolina has dropped all charges against the Duke University lacrosse players.
*sigh*
It’s about time.
I imagine that Blog World will be awash in condemnations of Mike Nifong before too long, and he is well deserving of all those — and more.
The real tragedy of the Duke rape case is the fact that the lives of everyone involved have been smashed.
And smashed for no good reason.
The players, of course, have lost 13 months out of their lives and will face suspicion for the rest of history. Their reputations are right down the khazi. And I guarantee that their legal defence will be in the millions of dollars.
Duke University caught heat for not doing anything, then caught just as much hell for doing too much. The Media criticised them for defending the players until Duke did an about-face — and now the same Media is criticising Duke for not sticking up for the players.
The accuser had her private life yanked out and displayed for all the leering masses to examine and gossip over. Just as much as the players, the accuser will face suspicion for the rest of her life. And — just as much as the players — her reputation will forever be in the bog, too.
The coach did his best to deal with his players. He expressly warned the lacrosse team to behave themselves, yet got forced out of his position by Duke as part of the University Arse-Covering Campaign to Prove We’re Doing Something So The Media Will Get Off Our Backs.
Mike Nifong will not be discussed here, but it’s safe to say that Mikey’s career is toast.
Seems to me that the only folks who made out at the end of this sorry affair were the Media. Sniffing a story containing sex, sports, race, violence, bad boys, class structure and a Major Southern Elite University, the Media became bound, bent and determined to turn a simple sexual assault investigation into a referendum on perceived political, social and cultural issues — to the detriment of Justice and all involved.
Would Mike Nifong have pushed a shaky case as far as he did if the Media hadn’t encouraged him?
I don’t know.
I firmly believe, however, if the Media had left this one alone, Justice would have been served a lot sooner, and the damage to all would have been considerably less.
If the Media had let this one be tried in the Justice System, by the Justice system, rather than on TeeVee by blow-dried, plastic talking Barbie dolls who wouldn’t know a ‘chain of custody’ if they were beaten about the head and shoulder with one, the process would have been less traumatic to all.
A sad, sad commentary on Modern Media, and our society as a whole.
LawDog
13 thoughts on “Duke case”
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They should have dropped the case when the “several” male DNA stains in her underwear came back as not belonging to any of the players.
Nifong just had to prove he was right even though all the evidence went against his witch hunt.
“Nifong just had to prove he was right even though all the evidence went against his witch hunt.”
I heard Nifong also tried to hide that lack of DNA evidence.
FWIW, I thought the whole thing smacked of all the sociopolitical stuff LawDog described very early on. It made for a full three hours of not-so-news every evening, but very little else. I agree about the ruined reputations. I didn’t care for Duke U’s response either at any point. I recall part of that response was some sort of touchy feely counceling for students who were never involved… seemed pretty stupid to me for uninvolved people to have a problem. And I wouldn’t vote for Nifong for dog catcher.
mustanger98 on THR
My understanding is that Nifong was up for re-election and wanted to capitalize on this case before the media got wind of it… in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Nifong’s office tipped off the media so he could get more election coverage.
Chicken, egg, etc., though, of course.
btw I’m starting to think of you as a real-life Commander Vimes.
If our Lawdog is His Excellency the Duke, please tell me there isn’t a Corporal Nobbs around his neck of the woods…
Oh my! Don’t even get me started on this one. Those players never should have been charged. This whole horse and dog show was a total travesty of justice.
I hope they throw the book at that stripper for lying about what happened, and ruining some young mens lives.
Also, where are the “Revs.” Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton now? Why aren’t they being made to apologize a la Don Imus, Trent Lott, et al. Why isn’t the media now showing the racism a black woman has for white males(perceived as rich) now that the truth is coming out?
I told you not to get me started on it…Lol.
Another thing…Did that stripper actually get raped, but not by these guys, or was she just plain lying, and trying to destroy some rich, white boys lives out of hate??
Last I heard was that Nifong was going to get prosecuted for witholding evidence.
Good.
Just so the audiance knows, Nifong was not elected. He was appointed, with the promise he was not running for election. He was lying from the first day in office.
The stripper just wanted to get bought off, scam out of control.
Tell your Brother from another Mother to stay low, although I know he won’t.
Tom (retired military)
This is completely off topic, but when I saw it I thought you might get a kick (if you hadn’t already seen it) out of it, LawDog: http://www.wondermark.com/d/289.html
Yes, but he was elected with a majority of the black vote just a couple of weeks after he ruthlessly went after these boys. I’m probably getting the time line wrong..
So, he was appointed, then ran for election to a second term during the Duke fiasco, even though he’d promised not to? So it was not a re-election, just his first election? And he won it with the “help” of this case.
I hope those boys sue everyone into the ground for this.
I’d rather a Captain Carrot being around than a Nobby Nobbs, heh.
Janet Reno prosecuted several innocents for child abuse using coached testimony from very young witnesses, and parlayed this into Attorny General of the US. Perhaps Nifong had similar ambitions.
No, Mikey would NOT have pressed the case past his election, if he had been able to sweep it under the rug. Mikey used this case to prove to the majority black voters in Durham that he would go after those “rich white boys” that had assaulted that “poor black girl”, purely for his own personal political gain. He then found himself riding the tiger, with predictable results. He is now under investigation by the NC Bar Ass’n, and has lost his appeal to have the charges thrown out because the case didn’t actually go to trial. He deserves everything he gets.