Railroaded
All charges against the three indicted Duke players have been dropped, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper announced today at a press conference.
A team of attorneys for the newly exonerated players held a press conference shortly after the attorney general announced that the case was officially over. The families of the three young men were on hand, as were members of the Duke lacrosse team and their supporters. All three players have maintained their innocence since the allegations emerged last year.
Evans, who has already graduated from Duke and vowed shortly after his indictment to disprove the accuser’s “fantastic lies,” spoke was the first of the three to speak.
“It’s been 395 days since this nightmare began and finally, today it’s come to a closure,” Evans said. “Nothing has changed, the facts don’t change and we have never wavered in our stories.”
Under special prosecutors Jim Coman and Mary Winstead, the state examined the evidence from scratch, interviewing key witnesses in an explosive case that combined sensitive issues of race and class.
“The result is that these cases are over and no more criminal proceedings will occur,” Cooper said, calling the original prosecution a “rush to judgment” and describing Nifong as driven by “bravado.”
“We have no credible evidence that an attack occurred in that house on that night,” he said.
Interesting overview of the accuser’s life here. This was not the first time she accused men of group rape only to have the charges dropped.
Rats, that link isn’t working. The key:
Located on the southern edge of Lake Michigan, Benton Harbor is one of the poorest communities in the state. It’s average unemployment rate last year [2003] was 25 percent. Though appliance maker Whirlpool is headquartered here, it sits on the outskirts of town. Most of the other manufacturing jobs that attracted blacks to the area from the South in the past century have long since left.
The town of 11,000 is 92 percent black. Federal figures show that the average income is $17,000 a year.
By contrast, St. Joseph (population 8,800) is 90 percent white. Bustling with clothiers and cafes, its average unemployment rate last year was below 2 percent. Indeed, most of Berrien County is white, conservative, and affluent.
For the most part the DA (Nifong) is protected under NC law. There are provisions under extenuating circumstances in which he can be sued. Since they need money to pay for their lawyers I am sure they will go after the county/state, as for Nifong, he may not be a lawyer in NC much longer.
Keep in mind JJ (Jesse Jackson) said he would get the accuser a scholarship even if the accusations turned out not to be true.
Now I think JJ and ASs (Al Sharpton) should be fired from their radio shows which will be hard if they are not really employed. JJ should resign from the Rainbow Coalition. Finally after hell freezes over (from an earlier comment) ASs needs to get his nappy hair fixed.
Oh by the way, her name is Crystal Gayle Mangum. No relation to the singer.
Benton Harbor? Great place very pretty up in that area
The nappy-headed-hos got around some honkys with dough. They say their out, and took it. They lost. No rape, just a grab for money. If they have heads, and their hair is nappy, and they’re selling out for money — doesn’t that make them hos, according to Grand Master Snoop?
#23, Fish Breath
Once again in your haste to show what you don’t know, a prosecutor is NOT civilly liable for damages for something done in the course of his / her duties, no matter how heinous. Prosecutor misconduct only qualifies for a new trial, possible censure from a Judge, and possible review of their law license. Or perhaps you know of one that has been successfully sued.
Nifong is currently under investigation by the South Carolina Bar Association. They have the power, as a self regulating profession, to disbar him. I hope they do. Being disbarred is not the same as being sued or liable for damages.
But the County, City Police, County Police, or Court in Durham are not liable for anything.
As much as it sucks, this is how the much vaunted American Justice System is supposed to work.