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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.

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.

That is what I am hoping he does. Stevens was clearly misled by Himan in his affidavits for the warrants he got. And the photo line up is clearly bogus and against all the rules they have for them in that state. I pray that Stevens shows some character and does the right thing here and starts ruling against Nifong.

agreed, it's definitely the time for dismissal. Conditons are right. National opinion is right. Prudent move by defense in timing of release of 1300 page discovery.

But, why do I have so many doubts? We'd have to see an entirely different Judge. Admittedly, a lot has happened since the last election.

BTW, I can't see that Repub - Monks causing any problems in Durham. He's not too TV friendly, and how many people make up their minds like that? He was looking down while they were asking him questions. He needs to call Kim's PR firm and get a personal Media trainer.