They were acquitted in the state court because a politically motivated prosecutor over reached on the charges -- attempted homicide -- instead of bringing charges for the actual crime -- aggravated assault. The DA could not prove attempted homicide which would have had a 20 year sentence and the jury rightly acquitted. The Feds stepped in afterward with a Civil Rights charge and won conviction. If the state had not over reached and convicted them of aggravated assault, they would have spent more time in the slammer than what they did.
Your reply is a complete non sequitur. How the state court charged or over charged the cops in the Rodney King case is completely beside the point being made that you were replying to. The feds would have charged them whether the state won or lost. They said so at the time. NC has no criminal civil rights violation statutes (and, therefore, no penalties), so there isn't going to be a state prosecution against Nifong for civil rights violations. He hasn't been charged with any criminal violations and he's no longer on the Duke case, so there is no comparison to the prosecutions of the cops in the Rodney King case and, therefore, absolutely no reason to wait to investigate his malfeasant scheme aimed at the civil rights of these boys. The civil rights violations against these boys began prior to their indictments, so they've already suffered harm from those violations.