North Carolina is a full discovery state. That means a prosecutor must turn over all evidence to the defense. Nifong did not turn over exculpatory DNA evidence to the defense, and here’s the key point, lied about it to a judge.
It was already known that the DNA of the accused was not found on the accuser. That, in itself, should have been enough to get the case thrown out months ago. However it was not. Nifong was hell bent on getting a conviction and the passive (to understate it) Durham judiciary was letting him play that game.
The exculpatory evidence that was hidden was that the accuser had on her the DNA of up to 5 OTHER men, none of which matched the accused. This was after she had said that she hadn’t had sex in a week.
Nifong having been caught in a lie, and charges against him filed by the state bar, he had to recuse himself. The NC Attorney General appointed honest prosecutors who looked at the evidence and the NC AG declared that the accused were completely innocent because there was never any evidence that a crime had been committed.
Prior to being convicted of lying to the judge, Nifong had already been disbarred and lost his job as DA.
How many think that Judge Stephens withdrew from the case, because he was afraid of getting removed from the bench for allowing Nifong to continue?