"What's a grit?"
Posted on 01/18/2007 4:46:46 PM PST by SmithL
Durham, N.C. -- The state chapter of the NAACP on Thursday called on those involved with the Duke lacrosse sexual assault case — from defense attorneys to state bar officials — to stop talking publicly while the state attorney general's office begins its review.
"We sincerely believe that the high level of public scrutiny and controversy involved in this matter is unwarranted and threatens to pervert the truth-finding process," said the Rev. William Barber, president of the North Carolina chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
No parties involved in the case have indicated whether they plan to stop speaking publicly.
Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, under heavy criticism for his handling of the case, asked the attorney general's office this month to take over the prosecution — a decision Barber said his organization applauded.
Until turning the case over to state prosecutors, Nifong led the investigation into allegations that a 28-year-old black student at North Carolina Central University, hired to perform as a stripper, was raped and beaten by three white men at a March 13 party thrown by Duke's highly ranked lacrosse team.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Cash has some major balls to tell Cooper, "You need the black vote for any future political aspirations."
"We're in a hole and should stop digging."
14 - CM was dropped off by a friend in the front of 610 Buchanan just before midnight.
http://www.naacpncnetwork.org/Publicity/768
tawana brawley-need one say more??
One is here in Jersey and one in NY (LI) and the 3rd in DC.
That is pretty funny that Mangum's supporters can not even keep her stories straight.
http://z10.invisionfree.com/FODU_Open_Board/index.php?showtopic=1&view=findpost&p=11309181
From LIZ at FODU discussion board:
Tonight at the Wake Forest Game, Dr. and Mrs. Brodhead had a couple with them as guests. The woman I recognized-------Kim Curtis.
"What's a grit?"
Wow what a fool. Or maybe not maybe the Prof. Curtis' of the campus run Duke and he knows who he must keep on his side. We shall see if the alums and donors have anything to say about this or not.
NAACP lauds move to replace Nifong
mpotter#heraldsun.com : The Herald-Sun, bdopart#heraldsun.com, Jan 19, 2007 : 12:15 am ET
DURHAM -- Leaders of the state NAACP praised Attorney General Roy Cooper's decision to take over prosecution of the Duke lacrosse case and admonished defense attorneys for statements that could poison a jury pool.
At a downtown Durham news conference Thursday afternoon, the Rev. William Barber, N.C. NAACP president, said his organization is "mindful of the long history of sexual violence against women." The Duke case could potentially have a chilling effect on women, particularly African Americans, filing sexual violence complaints, he said.
Of paramount importance "is that we find out what the truth is and face it once all the facts are in," Barber said, and avoid an outcome "based on biased and political or public pressure from anyone."
The news conference marked the first time the organization has spoken out since District Attorney Mike Nifong removed himself from the case. Barber read from a statement outlining three main concerns the group has regarding the handling of the case, calling for "a thorough and fair examination of the evidence."
He also asked that defense attorneys "refrain from efforts to influence Durham citizens regarding the evidence which might be introduced at a trial." To that end, he urged the State Bar to use its power to limit "the publication of evidence" that could possibly influence a future jury.
Although Barber has not been in direct contact with Cooper, he said he had spoken with Cooper's staff regarding his concerns about the case and would be sending a note to Cooper to follow up.
Barber expressed satisfaction with a statement made by Cooper this weekend, in which Cooper pledged to "accept these cases with our eyes wide open to the evidence, but with blinders on to all other distractions."
Those distractions, according to NAACP counsel Al McSurely, came about when defense attorneys, acting in response to statements made by Nifong, began trying the case in the media, poisoning any potential pool of Durham jurors with biased information, he said.
Despite being the author of a list of 82 "Crimes and Torts committed by Duke Lacrosse Team Players" on the state NAACP's news Web site, McSurely said he and the organization he represents have always advocated for the fair treatment of "both sides. "
Barber verbally maintained the organization's commitment to monitoring the case. He said the goal of the organization's efforts was to ensure "allegations of criminal conduct be conducted in a fair, meticulous, comprehensive, aggressive and thorough manner."
"The NAACP was there when African American men were falsely accused of sexual violence," he said. "We've also been there when black women and white women made allegations that were dismissed."
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-810614.cfm
Brodhead not interested in Harvard post
Jan 18, 2007 : 11:44 pm ET Herald-Sun
DURHAM -- Duke President Richard Brodhead's name has cropped up in connection with Harvard's vacant president's job, but a Duke spokesman says Brodhead isn't interested.
"He's very happy at Duke and basically has no interest in the Harvard job," John Burness, Duke's senior vice president for public and government relations, said Thursday.
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-810601.cfm
Death sought for slayings suspect
By John Stevenson : The Herald-Sun, Jan 18, 2007 : 10:41 pm ET
DURHAM -- Making his first court appearance since stepping away last week from the Duke lacrosse case, District Attorney Mike Nifong reiterated Thursday that he intends to seek the death penalty against a suspect in what reportedly was the only quadruple homicide in Durham history.
Nifong also reported that he had given defense lawyers 4,116 pages of documentation, plus a DVD and videotape, about the case in which Rodrick Vernard Duncan is accused of killing four men at a townhouse in the Breckenridge subdivision on Nov. 19, 2005. The site is off Hope Valley Road.
Thomas Maher, one of two attorneys representing Duncan, described the documentation as "massive" and said it would take him some time to go through it. -cut-
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-810574.cfm
Lawyer appointed to new judgeship
By John Stevenson : The Herald-Sun, Jan 18, 2007 : 10:41 pm ET
DURHAM -- Lawyer Drew Marsh was appointed Thursday to a newly created judgeship designed to help deal with wall-bursting, standing-room-only crowds that appear daily for criminal, traffic, juvenile and domestic cases in Durham.
The new district-level judgeship, Durham's seventh, was approved by the Legislature late last year. Funding went into effect Monday.
Among other things, the position will allow two sessions of a high-volume criminal court to be held simultaneously on some days, and child-support issues also will receive increased attention.
Thursday's appointment was made by Gov. Mike Easley.
The 48-year-old Marsh, a Durham native, said he was grateful for it. He long had expressed interest in becoming a judge and ran unsuccessfully for a bench seat in 2002.
Marsh is a 1975 Hillside High School graduate who received an undergraduate degree from Hampton Institute in Virginia -- now Hampton University -- in 1979 and a law degree from UNC three years later. -cut-
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-810572.cfm
Has anyone picked apart the NAACP claims, from the link in the replied-to post, just for giggles?
NAACP chief lauds Cooper
Barber says he appreciates AG's approach to Duke case
Anne Blythe, Staff Writer, N&O, Jan 19, 2007 03:06 AM
DURHAM - The leader of the state NAACP says he is heartened by State Attorney General Roy Cooper's promise to review Duke lacrosse case evidence "with blinders on" and to "go wherever the facts lead."
The Rev. William J. Barber, president of the state conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, summoned reporters Thursday after receiving numerous requests from the national media for comment on District Attorney Mike Nifong's decision last week to hand off the case to special prosecutors.
After applauding Cooper's pledge to approach the case with an unbiased eye, Barber added that special prosecutors "would not be turned aside by public opinion, by reports in the media where the judge or the courts have not spoken, that they would put blinders on."
On at least three occasions since an escort service dancer alleged that she was gang-raped at a Duke lacrosse team party in March, Barber has urged people not to rush to judgment of the accuser or the accused.
The organization has issued a 10-point statement, and Barber reiterated many of those sweeping points Thursday. They include:
* Denouncing any "code of silence" that would inhibit a gathering of the facts.
* Urging deep compassion for the accuser and concern for any attempts to demean or destroy her "rather than to seek and ascertain the truth."
* Urging a thorough investigation and serious consequences if the allegations are proved.
* Monitoring the legal process and ensuring that the investigation of the allegations is "fair, meticulous, comprehensive, aggressive and thorough."
* Insisting that there be no shortcuts to justice and demanding that the alleged perpetrators have rights to be protected.
Irving Joyner, a law professor at N.C. Central University, and Al McSurely, a Chapel Hill civil rights lawyer, have been monitoring the case for the NAACP.
Last year, after Nifong's early statements and the defense team's response, the NAACP urged the N.C. State Bar and the Durham judge overseeing the case at that time to call for a "quiet zone" to minimize the public release of evidence before court hearings.
"Nobody knows the totality of the facts," Barber said Thursday. "What the attorney general says is, 'We're going to start from ground zero.' "
McSurely, who attended the news conference, has criticized media coverage of the case. He asserted that defense attorneys were trying to sway public opinion in favor of the accused by using a two-pronged attack -- on the character of the accuser and Nifong.
McSurely said that he had not read all the documents filed in the case nor had he listened to testimony.
Defense attorneys have said their comments came in response to Nifong's early public condemnation of the lacrosse team and because of his insistence that a crime occurred.
"I do think there's a question that the ID might not be good on one or two of [the accused]," McSurely said.
http://www.newsobserver.com/145/story/533946.html
So, Rev, what are you going to do about rap music?
The NAACP is nothing but a racist organization aimed at shaking down whitey. They can't afford to be seen in whitey's eyes as backing a loser like Mangum so, rather than dropping their support for her because they don't want to be seen by blacks as not supporting her, they're trying to have it both ways - railroad the boys to maintain black street cred, but call for "fairness" to maintain white street cred. They only way they get that is for everybody to shut up about the case, which tells me the more talk there is the better it is for the boys.
The NAACP is much worse than the KKK ever was.
In fact, the NAACP reversed their historical position about constitutional rights for the accused when this case came along, and they are on record for it, too.
I think Peter King is the third member of the House to call for a civil rights investigation in this case. The more, the better. Maybe if enough pile on, Gutless Gonzales will catch on.
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