The Duke rape case continues to fall apart

From The Washington Post:

Prosecutors dropped rape charges yesterday against three Duke University lacrosse players accused of assaulting an exotic dancer at a team party, saying in court documents that although the accuser "initially believed" she had been raped, she can no longer testify with certainty about crucial aspects of the alleged assault.

The dismissal of the rape charges eliminates a serious accusation facing the players but leaves the trio facing kidnapping and sexual-offense counts, which carry significant prison terms.

With no DNA linking any members of the lacrosse team to the victim, defense lawyers said District Attorney Michael B. Nifong should go further and dismiss the case.
"End this suffering . . . end this case -- because there is no case to bring," said Wade Smith, an attorney for Collin Finnerty, one of the three Duke students charged.

Nifong should never have brought this case to begin with. From the beginning it was about nothing but politics. Nifong was trying to get reelected in an area which not only has a large Black population but is one of the most stridently left-liberal regions in the state.

The chance to demonstrate his progressive credentials by prosecuting a group of "rich White-boy" students at the elite university for raping a poor Black woman was just the thing he needed to put him over the top in the coming election.

Nifong seized the opportunity and ran with it. he went before the press and labeled the lacrosse players "racists" and "rapists" and assured the public that the DNA would conclusively prove their guilt. However the case began to unravel almost as soon as it was filed. The stripper's credibility was called into question by the other stripper who was with her when the supposed rape occurred.

One of the students who she positively identified as one of the rapists turned out to have not been at the party when the alleged rape took place, and to have eyewitness and photographic evidence to back him up.

The DNA test showed that although DNA from several men was on the stripper none of it belonged to any of the lacrosse players. It also came out that Nifong suppressed this information.

Then we found out that the photo lineup which led to the identification of the lacrosse players by the alleged victim was tainted. She was shown a PowerPoint presentation of the 46 members of the team with no photographs of other young men of similar age and appearance added. The lineup became a "multiple choice test with no wrong answers". It was impossible for the accuser to damage her credibility by picking someone who could not possibly have been at the party because she was never given the chance to do so.

Since a man cannot rape a woman without leaving some DNA evidence on her body (even if he wears a condom he will leave some DNA on his victim unless he showers and scrubs all the dead skin off his body, shaves all his head and body hair off and then wears a mask and gown like a surgeon in the operating room) the charge of rape became unsustainable. Rather than do the honorable thing and dismiss the all the charges Nifong has dug in his heels and only given as much ground as he absolutely had to.

The reason for his stubbornness is, I think, that the dynamics of the case have changed. Originally he had a case which was weak, but still had enough credibility to make him look good to the local press and population. He set the trial date for the Spring if 2007 in order to move it well past the election season so that when it fell apart and was dropped it would not harm him politically. After all months would have passed and other stories would be in the headlines and not many people would be paying attention.

He clearly did not count on the ability of talk radio and the Internet to turn his prosecutorial malfeasance into a major issue with long legs. Legs long enough to keep pace with him as each detail of his mishandling of the case emerged.

Nifong is in the position now of having no choice but to press forward and attempt to get some kind, any kind, of conviction. Because if he doesn't - if the case falls apart so badly that he has to dismiss all charges before it even goes to trial -he faces the realistic possibility of impeachment from office and disbarment.

If this happens it will not only mean disgrace and the ruin of his career, but both Durham county and Nifong individually will be subject to lawsuits from the falsely accused lacrosse players with will amount to tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars.

Mr. Nifong has painted himself into a corner from which there is no way out which does not leave him seriously damaged. However it is a position in which he did not have to be in. His own dishonesty and unscrupulous behavior in carrying out the duties of his office have landed him where he is and he deserves no sympathy.