This is how bad it is:
DNA testing cleared the entire Duke lacrosse team of any contact with their accuser, two weeks before Nifong made his first arrests.
That is, the accuser said she was raped by 20 white men in a tiny bathroom (later changed to 5, or 2, or finally, 3 men); yet tests from two labs showed not a single cell, hair, or skin fragment from any team member—
although she claimed she had put up a half-hour struggle, with biting, kicking, and scratching; and that she had been hoisted in mid-air for part of the time.
DNA from around a dozen other men WAS found on her—but not from any Duke students.
Did that matter as evidence? NO. Because the prosecutor didn’t want it to.
Nifong said he would try the case “the old fashioned way”,
the way they did it before DNA tests became available.
And from then on there was every kind of pressure—and threat—to try and force the players to “cooperate” for a plea deal.
I understand all of that, but one very big difference between that case and the one here is that the Duke case involved an actual, living accuser. The circumstances are different in a case like that because a prosecutor (and a defense attorney) has more than just forensic evidence and third-party testimony to make their case.