Posted on 05/15/2006 7:14:12 AM PDT by pissant
DURHAM - A Durham grand jury is scheduled to meet today, and the session could mean new charges in the investigation of a reported rape at a Duke lacrosse team party.
Two of the team's players were indicted in April on charges of first degree rape, first degree sex offense and first degree kidnapping. They are accused of assaulting an escort service dancer in a bathroom of a house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. Their lawyers say the men are innocent, and lawyers representing dozens of team members say that no sex or assault occurred at the March 13 party.
But the woman says she was attacked by three men, and Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong said he has been working on bringing charges against a third person.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN TODAY? If Nifong decides to submit the case, police investigators and possibly other witnesses will try to convince grand jurors in a secret session that the state has probable cause to bring a case forward. Grand jurors will hear only the prosecution's side of the case. The standard required for a true bill of indictment is far lower than the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard required for a conviction.
IF INDICTMENTS ARE ISSUED, WHEN WILL THEY BECOME PUBLIC? On April 17, a judge ordered the indictments in the lacrosse case sealed. The names of the players who were indicted were not released until 5 a.m. the next day when the players surrendered at the Durham County jail. If Nifong again requests that the indictments be sealed, the law allows a judge to keep them secret until the person is arrested or appears in court.
WHEN WILL ALL THE EVIDENCE BE REVEALED? State law requires prosecutors to turn over all of their case files to defense lawyers, but nothing requires the evidence to be turned over to the public. In open court hearings, lawyers often discuss some of the evidence, but the state's case may not be revealed until trial. No trial dates have been set. When a report on the DNA testing is complete, Nifong is required by law to turn it over to all 46 members of the lacrosse team who submitted DNA samples.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? The cases against Reade William Seligmann, 20, of Essex Fells, N.J., and Collin Finnerty, 19, of Garden City, N.Y., are moving forward. Finnerty has a court date in June. Seligmann is scheduled to appear in court Thursday. His attorney, Kirk Osborn, has filed a series of motions challenging Nifong's handling of the case and asking a judge to bar the prosecutor from further involvement.
I'm listening to the link howlin posted up thread.
Cheshire: I hope he doesn't ruin any more player's lives.
Yes, I believe we have enough evidence to prove their innocence. There will be no plea bargain in this case. I've said from the beginning, we can discuss under age drinking, noise violations, but as to a sexual assault - it didn't happen.
I won't go into what did happen that night.
The only discovery we have, things we're entitled to by statute is all we have. We don't have their own statements. Toxicology report. Rape kit. We're entitled to it but the yhaven't been given to us.
They've had noise violations before and underage drinking, so everyone left. I assume they weren't silent, sir.
Q: It's like war between the prosecutors and defense.
Cheshire: We called over and tried to talk to him and he's refused to look at evidence. When there's osmeone who won't act professionally, I don't know how else you do things when you have someone's life on the line.
He's within his rights not to give discovery until it has to be statutorily turned over. Seligmann has to be in court Thursdy so we'll expect evidence then.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1632580/posts
Also new thread above..
The talking heads have stopped for the moment- back to stupid stuff..
Because he stood up to that woman.
It's over!
radio link went dead
Holy cow, this lawyer is prepared to play hardball, allright. Good for him! It's time somebody has the guts to confront these pigs like that reporter who are trying to gin up a class and race war in Durham. And if a few white people's lives get destroyed, no matter.
From everything we're learning, New Orleans politics must be pristine compared to Durham's.
Thanks for asking that question, Peach. I'm seeing comments posted that I didn't hear. LOL Thought I was losing it. LOL Where is the full presser being carried ? Is it local ?
Just, WOW!
pattyjo
Local - Durham I guess.
I hope Nifong's kids and his neighbors are watching this. Maybe one of them could get through to him.
TV link dead too.
Ok. But I think SirJohnBarleycorn has described on April 14, 2006 exactly what is going on, best
SirJohn brought up, the trials of the Scottsboro Boys. --snip:
"No crime in American history-- let alone a crime that never occurred-- produced as many trials, convictions, reversals, and retrials as did an alleged gang rape of two white girls by nine black teenagers on a Southern Railroad freight run on March 25, 1931. Over the course of the two decades that followed, the struggle for justice of the "Scottsboro Boys," as the black teens were called, made celebrities out of anonymities, launched and ended careers, wasted lives, produced heroes, opened southern juries to blacks, exacerbated sectional strife, and divided America's political left.
The story of the Scottsboro Boys is one of the most shameful examples of injustice in our nation's history. It makes clear that in the Deep South of the 1930's, jurors were not willing to accord a black charged with raping a white woman the usual presumption of innocence. In fact, one may argue that the presumption seemed reversed: a black was presumed guilty unless he could establish his innocence beyond a reasonable doubt. The cases show that to jurors, black lives didn't count for much. The jurors that in April, 1933 had just voted to sentence Haywood Patterson to death were seen laughing as they emerged from the juryroom. Hannah Arendt wrote of "the banality of evil." Evil rarely comes in the form of monsters, but rather in the form of relatively normal people who, for reasons of careers, ideology, or a desire for society's approval, are indifferent to the human consequences of their actions. Because of indifferent jurors and career-motivated prosecutors, the self-serving and groundless accusations of a single woman were allowed to change forever the lives of nine black teenagers who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is easy, especially for a Minnesota native like myself, to look at the story of the Scottsboro Boys and to condemn a whole region of the country. That, however, is unfair. There were good people of the South--courageous newspaper editors, attorneys, ministers, and others-- who fought for justice for the Scottsboro Boys. One southerner's actions stand out above all others. The decision of Judge James Horton to set aside the conviction of Haywood Patterson, despite the dire consequences that decision would have for his own career, was heroism, pure and simple --end snips.
What going on today is the trial of 3 white boys. David Evans declared his innocence and his faith in a system that would prove him right. Joe Cheshire is fighting for justice.
And I just heard an "activist" all but demand these boys be hung by the neck.
Dang.
Wouldn't you love to be part of the "milling around" crowd after THAT performance? Bet it's intense.
Thanks Peach. Excellent job -- I was watching as you were typing. Don't think you missed a thing!!
This should be interesting...Shep comes up in a few mins and is going to cover this...wonder what HIS slant will be?
Amen!
I think the only thing liable to get through to Nifong is disbarment.
I can see where they were coming from though: "If I just tell him this one thing, surely they will see we're not guilty."
I am afraid your right.
He thinks they're guilty.
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