Posted on 01/19/2007 8:45:09 AM PST by freespirited
Chill, homes. Before y'all start the victory dance over the fact that Mike Nifong is no longer prosecuting the Duke lacrosse sexual assault case, it's important to look at who is prosecuting it.
Supporters of the Duke Three seemed on the verge of doing a celebratory Electric Slide in front of Duke Chapel upon hearing that Attorney General Roy Cooper had picked James Coman and Mary Winstead to take over the case.
Pardon me, but isn't this the same Attorney General's Office that has overseen such judicial travesties as the Alan Gell case?
In the Gell case, Coman was brought in as a special prosecutor and gamely argued the same case in 2004 as David Hoke and Debra Graves had at the initial murder trial in 1998. When Coman had to try the case by the rules, a constraint Hoke and Graves ignored, Gell went free.
Had N&O reporter Joseph Neff not investigated the case, Gell would probably be ordering up some Nabs and a Coca-Cola -- or whatever low-brow repast inmates typically choose for a last meal at Central Prison -- and preparing to take the state-sponsored dirt nap. As it was, he spent nine years in prison.
I asked Joseph B. Cheshire V, Gell's attorney in the 2004 retrial who now represents Dukie Dave Evans, how he feels about facing Coman again.
"I'm very comfortable with Jim Coman," he said. "I've tried many cases with him. He's tough and he's gruff, and I don't always agree with him, but he's always been professional. ... The Gell case and this one are different. In that one, he was confronted with the fact that [evidence of innocence] was withheld by the previous DA."
Eliciting sympathy for Nifong ranks in difficulty up there with trying to raise money -- at Fort Bragg -- for Osama bin Laden.
Sure, it appears likely that he has committed enough misdeeds in the lacrosse case -- possibly withholding evidence, making prejudicial statements -- to justify punishment.
You've got to feel, though, that he might have to pay for the sins of other misbehavin', underpunished prosecutors.
For instance, after it was determined that prosecutors Hoke and Graves had withheld evidence that Gell was innocent -- they knew the dude was in jail at the time of the murder -- the State Bar meted out a reprimand. Ouch.
Then, when former Union County District Attorney Ken Honeycutt and former assistant Scott Brewer were charged by the Bar with such serious judicial no-no's as lying to a judge, the Bar's disciplinary committee tossed the charges because -- get this -- the statute of limitations had expired and because of a record-keeping error. Yikes.
The Bar has charged Nifong with misconduct, an unprecedented charge that is almost laughable when you consider how the bar typically handles misbehavin' prosecutors.
While you might be tempted to give Coman a pass for being a good soldier and arguing a dog of a case regarding Gell, he deserves no slack for what he did when Hoke and Graves were hauled before the State Bar's disciplinary committee: Coman argued that they'd done nothing wrong and that he would have withheld the evidence, too.
Knowing that Coman is loyal to his colleagues is admirable; knowing that he is loyal to the law would be even more so.
Yep. But it's good for it to be out there. We've seen how unfamiliar some are with just the basic facts of this case. So I don't mind the repetition if it helps the boys. Gotta keep it out there like a Z28 up on blocks in the front yard for everybody to see.
It would probably be their easiest "out".
I hope so too.
I hope it gets a lot warmer for Howlin too.
I am soooooo jealous!!!
I'm certainly not wishing it on anyone, but the cold facts are that she is a ticking time bomb.
Well, since he lost the Gell case, maybe he'll think twice, but I doubt it. I'm not confident about this pair at all.
The difference is that this time the prosecutor's misconduct was discovered BEFORE conviction.
The scary part is that Coman stated in the bar action that he'd have withheld that same evidence, which is unlawful under NC law - not exactly a confidence-builder for his management for this case.
Winstead is a white apologist, I believe. I wish we had some information as to the quality of the relationship she had with Nifong when she worked in the Durham DA's office.
EXACTLY right.
In front of a black Durham jury? She'd be a heroine in their eyes.
LOL! :>
The eyes of the nation will be on THIS case. Would they even dare to be lenient on Nifong?
Would a jury be drawn only from the city of Durham or from a wider area (i.e. an entire county)?
Either way, the jury would probably be at most half black.
I still don't see this case going to trial. The eyes of the world are on Coman and Winsted. They don't want to be responsible for triggering a DOJ investigation or a new law in the state allowing criminal charges to be filed against prosecutors for misconduct. There are already efforts at the latter and the DAs are hopping mad at Nifong for making them vulnerable. The only way to stop that speeding train is to drop these charges.
The good news is they are not investigating Nifong. Now they may sit on evidence of guilt on Nifong's part they find in their investigation. But their assignment is to prosecute NC v. Evans, Finnerty and Seligmann.
Hopefully they will act in good faith as prosecutors and examine the matter and conclude there was no crime what so ever committed against Mangum at the party. I really do suspect that the AG picked his own justice obstruction rationalizer and tape eraser because both of them need the aura of justice seeking that will attach to them when they drop this case.
But clearly, I could be wrong. The article to start this thread is a good reminder of that. Odd though that the N&O are on this one guy in particular? I wonder what he did to someone there?
"Ah, yeah. Perhaps their investigative reporters got around to reading FR."
I can't get "into" an article that begins with, "Chill, Homes."
I don't know if dropping the charges will stave off the reform the DAs and their NC ilk wish to avoid. The thinking may be that pressing ahead and maybe getting a conviction on one of them for something is better than in essence admitting there was no case to begin with by dropping all charges. Such an admission would be even MORE reason to legislate reform.
They seem pretty brazen to me. If they don't think that throwing him to the wolves will satisfy, then they may not bother. I haven't seen broad inclinations to close ranks anymore, but that can change, depending on how the case goes.
The NC legal community has been such an ethical disappointment that the bar has been lowered to just about the ground. I have no expectations of them doing the right thing. Any state's legal community that would allow the system they have to exist is bankrupt, in my opinion.
Since I no longer have any expectations of any NC authorities, I've focused on the feds, and Gonzales has been another huge disappointment in this case, and other matters as well. Maybe he and his office will change their minds and decide to do the right thing, but I'm no longer hopeful. There was no valid reason for them to not proceed now with a civil rights investigation.
I am hoping that Gonzales and the DOJ are waiting to see if NC does the right thing. There are certainly grounds for deprivation of civil rights. I'm no lawyer, but it doesn't take one to see the monstrous treatment these young men have received.
I think if the are logical they will do one of two things:
1. Drop the charges and throw Nifong to the wolves hoping to head off reforms.
2. Or it they are trying to protect Nifong drop the charges hoping furor about this case will die down and they can give Nifong a repremand.
Of course Nifong was not about to understand that the key to saving his butt was dropping these charges so maybe this gang will not be able to either. But whatever N.C. wants to do, reform, continue the old way, etc, they lost this one and they need to get this case over asap.
And if you are a Dim AG hoping to protect the party, the longest time between elections is 24 months and right now the next one is 21 to 22 months away. You are not going to win this case the sooner it is gone the more time their will be between the end of it and the next time you will need to get black voters to the poll. The later you wait, the closer you are coming to the next election.
I tend to agree; hope I am right; and also hope that somewhere along the line Nifong did something to one or both of them that will make it easy for them to go for door #1.
I hope they go through door number 1 too, but their sacrafice of Nifong to the wolves fails and there is also a serious reform in NC giving the AG power to remove a case from a DA for cause, to prosecute a criminal DA and removing the power of the DA to schedule which case goes before what judge.
There is an interesting article on the Gang of 88 in the Weekly Standard entitled "Duke's Tenured Vigilantes." It is at this link:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/190uejex.asp?pg=1
It starts with a summary of the case that has some small errors in it, in my view. But the meat of the article is the on the second page where she take apart the Gang of 88 and member of the press quote by quote and metanarrative by metanarrative.
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