Early on, I had the theory that Nifong & Co. had co-ordinated with the Rape Nazis and the Black Panther crowd to gin up the media into lynch mode.
My thinking now is that Nifong & Co. may have tried to keep it all low key, get a guilty plea and go on with their operation of the Courthouse Crowd. But the thing blew up, they lost control and now it's about to bury Nifong along with all the Courhouse Crowd. All Nifong's bluster early on may have been an attempt to scare the defense back into a defensive position instead of offense...
Keeping it low-key would not have served his (Nifong's) political needs at the time.