Posted on 12/29/2006 10:07:41 PM PST by rawhide
Dec. 29, 2006 — In yet another moral blow to Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys called for the prosecutor to step down from the Duke lacrosse case.
The group, which represents district attorneys from across North Carolina, said in a statement that "it is in the interest of justice and the effective administration of criminal justice that Mr. Nifong immediately withdraw and recuse himself from the prosecution."
"It's extraordinarily unusual and it means a great deal," said Joshua Marquis, a district attorney in Clatsop County, Ore.
The district attorney group also called for the case to be reassigned and handed over to "another prosecutorial authority."
The statement was prompted by charges of ethics violations against Nifong filed Thursday by the North Carolina bar. Those allegations accuse Nifong of making inappropriate comments about the case in a series of press interviews early in the proceedings.
"As prosecutors, we do not try our cases in the media. We do not file charges frivolously," Marquis, who is active in the National District Attorneys Association, told ABC News.
"I do not know what the merit of the charges are, but Mr. Nifong has not brought respect to our profession," Marquis said. "Some of his actions have brought great disrepute on the profession of prosecution."
Under North Carolina state law, there is no rule requiring Nifong to recuse himself from the case, even though he has been charged with ethics violations. But Nifong's critics — including defense attorneys for the three indicted Duke lacrosse players — say Nifong should step down because the ethics charges create a glaring and unavoidable conflict of interest. A prosecutor, they argue, cannot make fair and independent decisions when he himself is in legal hot water.
"My opinion is that this crystallizes the conflict of interest," Thomas Metzloff, a member of the North Carolina bar and professor at Duke Law School, told ABC News.
No sooner than three months from now, Nifong will stand trial before a panel drawn from the bar's disciplinary hearing commission. If that panel finds Nifong guilty of misconduct, he would be subject to punishment ranging from private admonishment to disbarment.
LOL!
Bill Anderson's column is very good and very on point except for one thing. He knew all of this far before 2006.
The rape hoax possibly reminded him of what he knew. He wants the rape hoax to make more people understand what he previously knew. The state is very powerful and naturally often corrupted this power.
He knew this he wants more of us to understand it. Hopefully he is getting his wish. But one thing Anderson and the likes of Bernie on Gretta's panels have failed to point out is that Nifong broke one of the cardinal rules of prosecutors to get in this mess.
" What kind of dimwitted fools does Nifong believe us, and the potential jurors, to be? "
" Finally! I thought. Nifong has come to his senses.."
This must be an early April Fool's joke.
The very same Ruth Sheehan led the mob with torches and pitch .
Her March 27 column -" Teams' Silence Is Sickening " was a beaut.
" Members of the Duke men's lacrosse team:
You know.
We know you know....
Whatever happened in the bathroom at the stripper party gone terribly terribly bad,
you know who was involved.
Every one of you does.
And one of you needs to come forward and tell the police.
I can see the team going down this path,
justifying its silence.
And it makes me sick...
Because, of all the occupational hazards that must come with stripping,
one of them should not be rape.
But who was in that room is something the police need to know.
Now....
They shouldn't have to wait for 46 DNA samples to be returned.
Every member of the men's lacrosse team knows who was involved,
whether it was gang rape or not.
Until the team members come forward with that information, forfeiting games isn't enough.
Shut down the team."
Great article! This needs it's own thread!
Looks like "LooseChange" (aka Cash) is getting a haircut.
Nifong won the Chappaquiddick society's profile in cowdardice award:
http://www.chappaquiddick.org/
Great wanted poster. Should be posted throughout Durham. Apparently Bourlon is NOT getting a haircut. What exactly is that on his head?
On a different note, I think Judge Smith will see this case to its proper conclusion, regardless of what the Nifong does, says, doesn't say, etc...
Like the LAX poster that was put up everywhere.
You know there used to be a 'possum that lived in one of my trees. It's not there anymore. Hmmmm.....
Agreed, Judge Smith came in to this case later in the game, and did not immediately do anything with Nifong, but I also believe he is not going to let this fool get away with anything further, and may very well rule out the photo line-up, putting an end to this hoax.
Cool. I suggested that we Freep this poll and no one responded.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1757369/posts?page=49#49
Maybe more people were paying attention than I thought.
Yeah, I put it on a thread when I saw it too, but it was as I remember just before we moved to a new thread.
Still more than anything you and I did, I suspect Nifong won on his own merit based on the events of 15 December and after. Basically idiots like John Mark Karr etal were not in the news much during the key stretch run. On the other hand Nifong saved his cowardliest for late in December, as if he wanted to be sure he won this election too.
"Cool. I suggested that we Freep this poll and no one responded."
I Freeped it, and I'm happy to learn Nifong won.
So did I. It's the only time I would have ever voted for him.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,240559,00.html
Monday , January 01, 2007
By Susan Estrich
There are four victims of District Attorney Mike Nifong’s twisted tactics in the Duke Lacrosse case.
The first three, of course, are the young men who never would have been charged with anything had Nifong adhered to the standard practices in his own office. With luck, they will ultimately be exonerated, and be able to move on with their lives, albeit after having endured a chapter in hell.
The fourth victim is unlikely to be so lucky; she will not be exonerated at trial, and she will not be able to move on with her life. She will be destroyed by this case, and while she is partly to blame for that herself, the other part of the blame rests squarely on Mike Nifong’s shoulders.
The woman is a liar. That is the English translation of the latest round of maneuvers, in which the prosecution dismissed the rape charges because the woman could no longer say, as she once did, that she had intercourse with three men at the party. In other words, she lied when she said she did.
The challenge for defense attorneys, in dealing with a woman who can’t remember whether she had intercourse with three men on a day when she must have had it with two others (to judge from the DNA on her body and underwear), is not to hit so hard that you provoke sympathy.
If she can’t remember now, how come she was so sure then?
Actually, she wasn’t sure, she was just making it up, she will be an admitted liar of the worst sort the moment she opens her mouth. She lied about rape. Dropping the rape charge does not remove the statements she made claiming rape from the case. Rape shield laws do not protect her when other contemporaneous sexual acts might explain the physical evidence of sexual contact and of bruising.
- snip -
Yeah, I was just coming to post that link. The full court press on Nifong continues. I can not wait to see what comes down tommorrow that I think is the day of his swearing in.
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