[pepperhead]

I hope it ends Thursday when Reid Seligmann goes back in front of Judge Stevens. But I fear he is going to do the easy thing and just pass the buck on to the trial judge. I don't think Nifong has anything. If he did, he was suppose to turn it over to the defense.

[JLS]

I hope it ends Thursday

I hope so too.

I said on the CourtTV site that some of the conditions for it ending on Thursday are in place.

1. It is the first setting for Evans and Finnerty and the second setting for Seligmann, but the judge is not requiring any of them to be in court. Not having them there when this is ended would be smart and prudent for safety sake.

2. There are motions before the judge that are really his call on whether he was sandbagged to order the DNA/photos used for some of the lineups. He could throw out the IDs and not let her ID in court and end the case that way.

3. It is summer so a minimal number of Duke students are around to be targets of race baiters the day or evenning this is dropped.

If this is going to happen, look for a big show of force in the courtroom and in the courthouse on Thursday. Either the judge himself could dismiss the case or he could throw out the ID and Nifong can act surprised and then annouce right after the hearing that he still believes Mangum but he has to drop the case. Thursday is a good day not to have a riot, the defendant are out of town, most other students are out of town. No one has yet filed against Nifong for the general election, so possibly this move could head that off.

This is an excellent opportunity to drop this case. The conditions are right. They might be marginally better at a hearing in July, but then maybe not if he can preempt someone running against him in the general election.