More from C. Michaels at abc11 forum: Posted: 8/23/06 6:41 AM
"I said given that Nifong has yet to release anything incriminating by way of evidence, there might not be a trial. And indeed, if he has nothing to mount a credible prosecution with, then there shouldn't be one.
Since I said that, Prof. Irving Joyner of NCCU School of Law and I have spoken. He points out that after the case management phase, the defense will file various motions seeking to kick out whatever evidence they don't want to come up in trial. If judge Smith grants their motions and the state realizes that its case is gutted, then Nifong can choose right there to drop the case. Thus, no trial.
Joyner adds that in the unlikelihood of that happening and a trial proceeds next year, the state will put on its case-in-chief, and then afterwards the defense will make motion to dismiss based on the prosecution's failure to prove its case. That's fairly routine. But if Judge Smith grants that motion (and it would have to be for all three defendants), then the trial is truly over.
So those are the scenarios, according to Prof. Joyner, where a trial is at risk in this case.
Make no mistake, I want a trial, but based on Nifong's apparent lack of incriminating evidence so far, I'm wondering if a jury will ever get to deliver a verdict. If he has absolutely nothing concrete to go forward with that I know of, then he's wasting time, in my opinion. That's why I've written now two tough pieces (the second coming out this week), asking "Where's the beef?" "
http://forums.go.com/abclocal/WTVD/thread?threadID=127385
Any inkling on when W. Osborn will hold his first hearing?
Where I come from, that's called "crawfishin"
Cash wants a trial? No matter that there's no evidence against these boys? A trial is "at risk" if the defense files routine dismissal or suppression of evidence motions?
So the concern is that the trial itself is in jeopardy, not these boys' lives. Again, there is no discussion from Cash as to the potentially heinous miscarriage of justice here and the "risk" to these boys' lives, only to the possibility that, boo-hoo, they may not get their white-boy lynching.
Despicable.
Some may think it's helpful or telling or whatever that a black writer, Cash Michael, is not supporting Nifong or at least has little or no confidence in Nifong's case, but the notion that Cash has seen the light and wants justice is just absurd. He's more worried that blacks were fooled into voting for Nifong than than he is worried about sending three promising young men to prison for twenty years over a crime that never occurred.