End In Sight On Duke Lacrosse Case

The ethics trial for Duram, NC District Attorney Mike Nifong is ending the "guilt phase" today. Nifong, in a desperate attempt to influence the "penalty phase", told reporters that regardless of the outcome of the trial, he will be resigning as District Attorney following the trial. He is hoping to avoid loosing his law license.

A brief re-cap of what led to these proceedings: About 2 years ago, an exotic dancer (stripper) said that she was gang-raped by three members of the Duke Lacrosse team during a party at which she and another entertainer (stripper) were performing. Now, the first thing that got me thinking that the players were innocent was when the DA requested DNA samples from all the players, although their attorneys told them they didn't have to give the samples, the whole team marched down to the DA's office and gave them voluntarily (things that make you go hmmmm). There were quite a few other things like when one of the accused had a solid alibi for not even being there (he was caught on an ATM camera at the time the rape took place), the accuser changing her story 5 times, the photo line-up that the suspects were picked out from only contained pictures of guys on the team, the alleged victim had previously accused 3 men of gang raping her, none of the DNA samples taken being a match ... and it goes on and on. Finally, it came out that DA Nifong had exculpatory evidence that he never released. He sat on the fact that the DNA of three other men (none of which were Duke players) was found during the rape kit. Meanwhile, he continued to prosecute the young men in the press and legally. The North Carolina Attorney General stepped in, and cleared the young men, but not before they and their parents were put through two years of hell. Not to mention the Lacrosse team forfeited the season (they were ranked #1 nationally) and the coach lost his job.

Why would a DA do this you might ask ... well, the young men were white and came from affluent families and the young woman was black. The DA was in a tight race to retain his position and he needed the support of the African American Community to get it done. Of course the Rev Al Sharpton and Rev Jesse Jackson came down to put pressure on him as well. So someone that is charged with seeing justice done ... did the opposite. And for that reason, Mike Nifong should loose his law license. It is totally unfair that prosecutors can not be held legally liable for what they do in office (unfortunately it is the law), because he needs to spend some time behind the bars that he tried to put these young men behind.

One last thing ... why the hell was the accuser in this case, Crystal Gail Mangum never charged with making a false report or anything else?

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