http://www.newsobserver.com/114/story/533943.html
N&O
Coman may be no prize
Barry Saunders
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.
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Pardon me, but isn't this the same Attorney General's Office that has overseen such judicial travesties as the Alan Gell case?
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"I'm very comfortable with Jim Coman," he [Cheshire] 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.
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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.
I don't have a good feeling about Coopr, Coman or Winstead. I will not be surprised if they go forward with some of the charges. I base that on their histories and attitudes toward evidence. They seem to be only slightly less fast and loose with the rules than Nifong is - okay, somewhat better perhaps, but the same thought patterns and attitudes are in play with the two new prosecutors as we saw in Nifong.
If these guys don't do the right thing while they have the chance, and instead cave into racial pressures, then we are lost. Justice is for God, but law is man's attempt to get as close to justice as he can. Deliberate avoidance of it is the antithesis of that attempt, and an evil work. This case is becoming the seminal battle between good and evil in NC.
Glad to see someoone at the N&O let Coman know that we bloghooligans know who he is and remember his past.