It's Time for Justice: Drop the charges vs. Duke lacrosse players

The charges against the Duke lacrosse players should be dropped immediately, and the people demanding the dismissal the loudest and most forcefully should be the very people who have made a living allegedly fighting against racial injustice.

I've said this before, but it's worth saying again: Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton should be in Durham, N.C., today, promising civil disobedience until the charges are dropped and prosecutor Mike Nifong resigns.

Ed Bradley and "60 Minutes" should never be mistaken for Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court. Bradley is just a TV reporter and "60 Minutes" is just a TV show, but you couldn't help but be moved by the story they aired Sunday night about the Duke lacrosse rape allegations.

The three accused players gave their first interviews, and two of them claimed they had airtight, documented alibis. The accuser's one-night sidekick, Kim Roberts, seems to have settled on telling the truth rather than trying to spin the story for fame or money. She contradicted several of the statements the accuser gave to police.

Three men running for Durham DA
Updated: 10/24/2006 5:02 PM
By: Kenneth Moton (News 14 Carolina TV)

DURHAM -- All eyes are on a Durham County race that's never seen the type of coverage
it's getting now. That's because the race for district attorney has seen so many twists and turns,
voters are most likely wondering what's next?

There are three candidates for Durham district attorney. One is under a hailstorm of both praise
and criticism for his handling of a rape case, the other says he doesn't want the job and the third’s
name won't even appear on the ballot.

“I have never run for any office other than district attorney,” said Durham District Attorney
Mike Nifong. “I have had only client, only one interest, that client is Durham."

It's that night in March that has turned a usually low-key race into a high-profile media frenzy.
The alleged rape victim is an exotic dancer and her alleged attackers are three Duke University
lacrosse players.

A community is split and the DA is promising prosecution.

After winning the Democratic primary, it seemed District Attorney Nifong was a shoe-in until
those unhappy with his handling of the Duke lacrosse rape case got a challenger.

County Commissioner Lewis Cheek authorized a petition drive this summer to get his name
printed on November's ballot. He got his 1,000 signatures, but his supporters did not get what
they wanted.

One candidate is under a hailstorm of both praise and criticism for his handling of a rape case,
the other says he doesn't want the job and the third’s name won't even appear on the ballot.

“I would not leave, will not leave my law firm to be DA and put it in potential jeopardy,” Cheek said.

That is Cheek's main reason for not campaigning for district attorney. But recently the commissioner
spoke at a Republican event on Duke's campus saying Durham voters need to do what they think is right.

The third man running is attorney and Republican chair Steve Monks. He may have the least support.
He started a write-in campaign after he was unsuccessful at gathering enough signatures to get his
name on the ballot.

Monks says he's been going strong ever since. “We in Durham need a choice in November and that's
what I want to give Durham residents.”

Nifong turned down an interview request from News 14 Carolina because he says voters already have
a wealth of information available to them. In an e-mail, he wrote, “The citizens of Durham know more
about me than they have ever known about any district attorney, or candidate for district attorney, in
history. Moreover, my opposition in the general election consists of a blank line on the ballot
and a ‘player to be named later.’”

That blank line is Monks, and the player to be named later, Cheek, says he'll let the governor pick his
replacement if he's voted in.

Either way, Durham voters have a choice come November 7th about who they pick and the nation will be watching.

The deadline to register is up in Durham. The Board of Elections director says a lot of the new registrations are
coming from both Duke University and North Carolina Central University's campuses.

http://rdu.news14.com/content/headlines/?ArID=93114&SecID=2

Listen to this ass:

http://blogs.newsobserver.com/ruth/index.php?title=duke_students_urged_to_vote_for_the_spoi&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

Comment from: Cliff Brandt [Visitor]

10/24/06 at 22:15 Ruth,

As to my ever having been in the same room with Mike Nifong, I've never even seen the man in real life, but you can be sure that were I to find myself in the same room with him, I'd be out the door faster than you can say "utter illusion", which is just what Lewis Cheek's candidacy is relative to best protecting the interests of the defendants in this case.

You may want to take a look at my post at Durham-in-Wonderland (https://beta.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=32542246&postID=6867045971125239007) for my response to what's been passing as thought on the issues here generally.

That game's over; the people of Durham are waking up from their long slumber induced by the stupefying drumbeat of the Anybody But Nifong crowd who got the first part of the solution right "getting Nifong out of office" but seem to have somehow overlooked entirely the second, which is, of course, ensuring that whoever replaces Nifong will restore real fairness to this case. With thinking as poor as theirs has been to date, it's a wonder to me that anybody actually takes them seriously anymore.

Cliff

http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/hsletters/

Stripping not proper job

James Coleman, professor of law at Duke University, calls it racial insensitivity to call the alleged victim in the lacrosse indictments a "black girl near the bottom of society." This is blunt, but what is more incredulous than the press calling a murderer a gentleman or a woman who strips for a living a lady? Professor Coleman himself panders to a segment of so-called sexually liberated women in echoing the oft-heard distinctions differentiating the alleged victim from others as "apparently a talented student and mother" who (has no other choice), but "dances to support herself and her child." I believe a large majority of women of all races still think this is not a proper job for any woman, and especially a mother. The alleged victim was either never told, or did not take seriously, the age-old warning that if a woman puts herself in an atmosphere inviting sex, it will almost certainly guarantee advances, unwanted or otherwise. I think we can call that a fact.

KRIS CHRISTENSEN
Durham
October 25, 2006

http://www.newsobserver.com/100/story/502604.html

Nifong in driver's seat, but many still undecided

Benjamin Niolet, Staff Writer

DURHAM - Mike Nifong has a double-digit lead heading into the November election for district attorney, according to a survey of likely Durham voters.

The poll, commissioned by The News & Observer and WRAL-TV, asked 600 likely voters in Durham County whom they would vote for in the district attorney's race. Of those polled, 46 percent said they would vote for Nifong. The incumbent's total far exceeded the 28 percent of respondents who said they would vote for county Commissioner Lewis Cheek. Two percent of those polled said they planned to vote for write-in candidate Steve Monks.

The poll, conducted between Oct. 16 and Oct. 19, found that 24 percent of those surveyed remained undecided, enough to change the outcome of the election, the most heated district attorney's race Durham has seen in years. The debate in a county that sees more than 50,000 new criminal cases every year has been almost entirely about charges leveled against three Duke University lacrosse players accused of raping an escort service dancer at a March party.

The poll, conducted by Research 2000 of Rockville, Md., has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Nifong, who has been highly criticized for his handling of the affair, has tried to emphasize his long career beyond the single case. He said Tuesday that the intense focus on the lacrosse case has come from a small but vocal group, many of whom will not be voting Nov. 7.

"The people that are likely to have that kind of strong feeling about the lacrosse case and who believe it is the only thing that is truly of importance are not likely to be Durham residents," Nifong said. "I think I really have never thought that a DA's race for the vast majority of the electorate would be a single issue."

Cheek is a Democratic stalwart who got his name on the November ballot through a petition drive. But he later announced that he would not serve if elected, because he cannot leave his private law practice.

If voters choose him, the governor would have to appoint someone to fill the job for two years. A group of Durham residents formed a political action committee to campaign for just that result.

Cheek's backers and Monks said they were particularly interested in the number of undecided voters.

"I think a good portion of those undecided voters are probably undecided between Monks and Cheek," said Beth Brewer, spokeswoman for the Committee to Recall Nifong-Vote Cheek.

Monks said Cheek's backers cannot win.

"These undecided people, they know who Lewis Cheek is. They're not undecided over whether they're going to vote for Lewis Cheek or not," Monks said. "They want to vote for someone who is going to serve. Their obvious frustration is, either it's Mike [Nifong] or is Monks a viable candidate?"

Jackie Brown, Nifong's former campaign manager and one of the four organizers who helped get Cheek on the ballot, said the poll results could help change the election.

"Hopefully, this poll will be a wake-up call to the undecideds. I think it will energize some of the folks who would otherwise stay at home -- otherwise they're going to have four more years of Mike Nifong."

The election comes at a time when voters appear to be unhappy with government on a state and national level. The poll found 66 percent of Durham's likely voters are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country, and 61 percent disapprove of the performance of the state legislature over the past two years.

Cedric Moses, 23, plans to vote. But he's not sure what to do in the district attorney's race.

"I'm just sitting back, waiting," said Moses, an electrician. "I just haven't decided yet."

He has heard people say that there's not a good choice among the three. For now, Moses said, that might be true.

"I'm just holding out to see who I trust the most," he said.

(Staff writers Michael Biesecker, Matt Dees and Jane Stancill contributed to this report.)

NIFONG - 46%

CHEEK - 28%

MONKS - 2%
Staff writer Benjamin Niolet can be reached at 919-956-2404 or bniolet@newsobserver.com.
Staff writers Michael Biesecker, Matt Dees and Jane Stancill contributed to this report.

http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/502603.html

DA election comments

- Elsie Russ, 75, retired

says she Will vote for Nifong.

"I don't think those boys done it. But just over that one case, I can't go against [Nifong].

"If somebody runs over one of our children or grandchildren, we'd want them put behind bars. He's the one to do it."

- Eugene Gordon, 33, Whole Foods employee

Says he's undecided but skeptical of the lacrosse defendants.

"If you got money, you can basically buy your way out of anything. Are you going to take a stand for [the accuser] or are you going to stand with the people who have money?"

- Johnny Bush, 65, systems analyst

He plans to vote for Cheek.

"I think Nifong shot himself in the foot in the beginning by releasing too much information."

- Kevin Prosen, 24, office job at Duke University

Prosen is not sure whom he supports, or that he will even vote in the district attorney race.

"I feel like part of the town will back Nifong because he was aggressive with the lacrosse case. ... Cheek is running basically as 'I'm not Nifong.' It's not a substantial race. It's joke politics."

- Carol Troutner, Chapel Hill

supports the concept of the the Orange county ballot measure.

"I like the idea of having everyone represented. People in other areas have different needs than we do."

- Rita Berman, Chapel Hill

"I'm voting for a seven-person board. It would be beneficial for residents to have better representation."

Duke Lacrosse

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