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Well, you seem to be telling me that there might be something positive coming from this DA - after November 7th.

Maybe he will drop the case after the election; after he has gotten all he can get out of it - his election victory.

At least that will be positive for the defendents.

If he does that, the defendents should start a public speaking and fundraising tour for a suit against the DA for wrongful prosecution. It does not matter that he did not take it all the way to court.

They should be able to show (from the real evidence) that he (1)has for some time not had enough evidence to prosecute the case and (2)that he delayed that admission for his own political gain and (3)his false attempt to prosecute them amounted to slander by a public official.

That would be the rational thing. But this guy's not rational. Local assessment is that he has too much invested in the case to drop it at this point, even if he does win the election. He can't admit that it was a false prosecution or that would just give ammo to those who want him disbarred.

Count on him driving this all the way to the jury. And given the possible jury pool he just might get a conviction. He's basically looking for a reverse OJ where the jury will vote their dislike of the defendants and ignore the (lack of) evidence in the case. The judges are also locally elected and reining in the DA, which the Judge could do, would be career suicide and maybe even literal suicide. If these guys "get off" there is likely to be a "Rodney King" response from the locals who have been absolutely convinced that they are guilty and won't be satisfied with anything other than a long prison term. So even the people who want to do the right thing are scared to do it.

Nifong's violated so many guidelines that any guilty verdict is almost certain to be overturned on appeal. But at that point he can claim to the electorate that he did his best and the conviction was thrown out on a "technicality".