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.
I would propose that any prosecutor who conspires to conceal evidence (a la Nifong) should be subject to the same penalties as are applicable to the crime being charged. Similarly, other types of malfeasance should be punished in accordance with the severity of the alleged crime - perhaps at a lesser scale, though.
Just my $.02.
"Nifong stays to the end. A trial is his chance to save himself."
He's busy lining up an O.J. jury now.
I was involved in a criminal matter where a crusading deputy district attorney operating under misconstrued information was finally reined in by the system and the charge was dropped to the DA's great dismay. I spoke about the case in an ancient thread here once and only once, and I'm not interested in resurrecting the issue. I can tell you that I've never looked at a police officer, judge, or prosecutor the same way after that incident.
Until you've actually been in the position of being an innocent citizen being targeted by an over-zealous prosecutor and seen your name on a legal document that reads 'The State of [...] vs. [Your Name]' with the great seal of your state on top, you will never know what I'm talking about. In fact, I believe that the only thing that saved me was the sheer amount of other prosecutors and judges who looked at the case and finally determined there was no crime committed. If this had happened to me in a less populated area rather than a big Southern California metro area, I'd probably have been rifled through the system without much fanfare. In fact, the large bureacracy worked in my favor even though it was partially responsible for putting me in that position in the first place.
Conversely, look at Nifong's Durham NC: There appears to be no-one able to stop the mad king but himself. There's no oversight whatsoever, and only now is the state bar even talking about the idea he should recuse himself from the case. If this case hadn't had such a great degree of public attention on it, those boy's case would be over and done with, now wouldn't it?
Paranoid, weak, and fearful doesn't begin to describe the feeling an innocent person has when the full weight of the public prosecutor aims to come crushing down on them.
Swamp Fox can call Durham a metro area, but it wouldn't even qualify as a suburb where I grew up. I did not mean in my original post to suggest that every locality outside of an urban area is run by stereotypical 'Boss Hogg' types and their crooked public servants. I'm just saying that in cases that involve district attorneys where the accused is innocent, it can never hurt to have as many eyes as possible looking at the case. I don't think that a lot of people have that advantage outside of a major metro area. I have lived in NC for a short spell, by the way.
Also, in my case, it was nice to be able to return to the general anonymity of a metro area's large population base. I can only sympathize with the wrongly accused who have had to return to their close-knit communities after being found 'Not Guilty' or had their charges dropped. I do believe that when I finally flee the concrete jungle I live in, I'll head for a sleepy area without any fancy convoluted laws or fancy lawyers.
LOL, yes, or "It's done. Stick a fork in him."
There is no lower life form than someone who will ruin another's life for political gain.
What a little puke-head!
Hey, Shadee! If you want to know what's really deplorable, it's your freakin' stinkin' attitude! If I were you, I would be afraid that some prospective employer might rightly judge my (your) character! Maybe you should wear your "I'm a victim of the Duke LAX (non)rape scandal!" T-shirt to your interviews. I bet that would impress future bosses!
No kidding, they need to pic up their game for sure.
Thanks. I do hope to high heaven that he is sued and is found guilty of a felony.
which is exactly what josh marquis is. marquis' quotes regarding nifong are like the pot calling the kettle black. come visit Dried Salmon Matters blog & forum, to find what the citizens of this da's own community thinks of their tiny da.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.