I think Nifong was concerned with protecting the privacy of the "boyfriends" whose DNA was found on the accuser's person or clothing. Since some or all of the five men may have been members of a minority group, Nifong has to be concerned about their civil rights. The lacrosse players are white so they aren't covered by civil rights laws.
Back in 1998, an article about Sally Hemings' descendants mentioned one descendant whose Y chromosome had traits associated with men in West Africa rather than like Jefferson's DNA (it sounded like the wife of one of Sally's male descendants had a child by someone other than her husband)...the point is that it may be possible to determine the race of the men whose DNA was found on the accuser, but perhaps that requires fancier testing than has been done so far.
"I think Nifong was concerned with protecting the privacy of the "boyfriends" whose DNA was found on the accuser's person or clothing"
When Nifong spoke to the press on Friday afternoon, anyone hear him say he did not release the DNA because he did not want to dray the names through mud.
Not one member of the press called him on it.
What about the names of these three fine young white men from Duke. He sure didn't care to drag their names through mud. In fact, he made a concerted effort to ruin their names.