http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/hsletters/
Punish Nifong
Kudos to Ed Bradley and "60 Minutes" for exposing the injustice of the rape allegations against the Duke lacrosse players. Distinguished law professor James Coleman is correct: Nifong played the race card to get elected, among his myriad transgressions, and any possible conviction would likely be overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct. Here is the dilemma for those who are seeking justice in this case: the accuser seems to have vanished. Nifong can drag this out as long as he wants, barring judicial intercession, and when the time for the trial arrives, the accuser might stay in hiding and refuse to testify. Then Nifong might say, "The victim is too traumatized. Sorry, boys, no witness, no trial." The indicted lacrosse players are then left to twist in the wind with no opportunity to "prove their innocence." The short-term solution is for Durham voters to (1) elect Lewis Cheek and (2) have the movers and shakers in the Democratic Party confer with Governor Easley and persuade him to appoint a responsible and responsive district attorney and (3) locate the accuser and have her either swear to testify or, better yet, recant her false allegations. The long-term solution must be punitive toward a public servant who has failed so miserably to serve the public. As Professor Coleman points out: since this prosecutor used his power so recklessly to indict well-to-do white students, what's to prevent him from going after a poor, innocent black man if it should suit his political agenda?
GRAHAM MARLETTE
Durham
October 24, 2006
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Sorry saga is a story of excess
BOB LIPPER
TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Duke lacrosse's 15 minutes of fame has now stretched to about a half-hour or so, and it's safe to say that no one involved in this slimy episode is remotely close to getting a star on Hollywood Boulevard any time soon.
Well, with the possible exception of Ed Bradley, I suppose.
Bradley and his CBS crew gave Duke lacrosse the full "60 Minutes" treatment two Sundays ago - the latest spotlight to shine on a team that's remained in the news since last March. That's when an alcohol-fueled party thrown by the squad resulted in three players being charged with raping a stripper hired to perform at the event.
(Memo to parents of college-age students: You have permission here to stop reading this column and send your kids a letter that reminds them to eat their veggies and spells out acceptable norms of social behavior.)
The "60 Minutes" segment featured defense-friendly interviews with the three players (they denied the charges) as well as the second stripper lined up for the fateful evening (she refuted her partner's allegations - basically a 180 from her original statements of last year).
All told, the package contributed to a news-cycle steamroller that's tilted the field against Durham prosecutor Mike Nifong in a fashion more radical than any Michigan State-Northwestern football game.
Nifong, who declined to share taped footage with Bradley, once was portrayed as righteous (if somewhat yappy) people's barrister representing the meek underclass against privileged preppies. Now he's being sized up as duplicitous pol, and his case - no apparent DNA evidence, for one thing - has begun to look as thin as a membrane.
That's where matters stand. Nifong is up for election in two weeks and says he's up for taking the case to court next spring ("There's no doubt in my mind that she was raped and assaulted at this location," he told a TV interviewer months ago) - and until he does or doesn't, everything else is opinion, spin and speculation.
Point being, it was wobbly territory to jump to conclusions last spring, and - this case's seeming weaknesses notwithstanding - it's shaky to jump to conclusions now.
Nifong either has legitimate grounds for pressing forward or he doesn't - and if he knows he doesn't, he should end the pretense. The accuser's story (more than one version has been reported) either stands or collapses. The players either did a terrible wrong or were terribly wronged. Let it all play out.
For now, we know that a lot of things - the lacrosse team, the house party, the accuser, the DA, the media (yeah, us) - were out of control last spring. And that another school paid dearly for its investment in College Sports Inc. And - in this particular instance - for harboring a group of serial troublemakers whose exploits were well known in the community.
"When I talk to the presidents of other universities, you know you can't imagine - or maybe you can imagine - how many other university leaders have come up to me, knowing how this particular mess landed on my doorstep and how easily it could've landed on someone else's," Duke's president, Richard Brodhead told Bradley during the telecast.
True enough, given the prevailing climate on college campuses nowadays - but the fact is it landed at Duke and festers there still. As for the team, now reinstated after being shut down by Brodhead last March, it recently concluded fall workouts with a day of exhibitions in Rockville Center, N.Y. The New York Times and other metropolitan dailies covered the event.
They weren't there for the faceoffs.
Contact staff writer Bob Lipper at blipper@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6555.