DAs Call for Prosecutor in Duke Lacrosse Case to Step Down

ABC News ^ | December 30, 2006 | LARA SETRAKIAN

[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.

[thegreatmalcolmx]

Excellent analysis. The old Raleigh shuffle. Will be interesting to see if Duke bails out Broadhead? I hope not. He should be frog-marched back to Princeton.

[sodpoodle]

With all due respect Glades, you attributed a lot of motives for my posting.

I found the DA conference site, did some digging, found Nifong's entry for NC Durham DA and posted it as information, without opinion.

My opinion is, Nifong is a jerk. An opinion based on what I have read on FR, in news reports etc.,

Happy New Year!

[GladesGuru]

Dear Shamieka Reinhart,

It is the shameless pandering to superiors and blatant disregard of reality in favor of short term racially based political gain that has made life difficult for America's minorities.

Such egregious asininity as you have displayed all too publicly is a common reason all too many wonder if a minority professional received their professional education/qualification because of race or because of ability.

My closest friend has often mentioned just this point.

PS He is an American black whose intelligence and impeccable
behavior/ethics have earned my respect ever since
college.

Please spare me any racism based replies. Thank you.

[Enterprise]

"On a recent visit with Nifong, I looked in his eyes and saw the one true characteristic that anyone should want in their district attorney, honesty."

Snake charmers run the Democrat party Shamieka.

[tioga]

-is there a suicide watch on Nifong yet? This is another heavy blow.

[sodpoodle]

More Raleigh/Durham rawhide!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1760283/posts?page=1

[SC Swamp Fox]

I'm not sure what your point is. Durham is urban.

[SC Swamp Fox]

It's sad commentary on our society that all sports teams and fraternities can't afford to employ reliable and safe whores like the Kennedy family does.

[DvdMom]

I read also that the nc da's earlier in the case around Sept wanted to help Nifong set up a mock jury , give Nifong another da to help him etc....

When Nifong turned the help down offered by the other da's , I think it made the other da's VERY WARY of the lieing skumbag

Nifong is a pyschopath & a judge will have to kick the moron off the case . Nifong will be in his bunker & not give up .

[sodpoodle]

Lillington is the county seat of Hartnett County, not Durham County.

Not Nifong's jurisdiction

[jiggyboy]

Go ahead and call me racist, but I have NEVER heard anything from or about any black woman with a three-syllable name that ends in "ika" or "iqua" that is worth anything.

[Ready4Freddy]

CFC, in this situation 'moral blow' is the correct charaterization. The Conference of DAs has no enforcement powers (unlike the NC State Bar).

That being said, it is a highly significant symbolic statement, probably unprecedented in NC.

A "moral" blow? Is that supposed to be something like a "moral victory", as in "maybe he didn't win, but his cause and his intentions were good!"? I guess I should at least be grateful that the "journalist" put her bias out there in the first sentence, thereby sparing me any need to read further.

[sissyjane]

Good morning. Thanks for the ping.

[Ready4Freddy]

He apparently didn't even do that - I believe the press release by the Conference stated tht he never responded to them. A quibble to your post, perhaps, but a meaningful one I think.

When Nifong turned the help down offered by the other da's...

[sissyjane]

Very good points. Thanks for the explanation.

[Ready4Freddy]

My apologies, the exact quote is "That assistance has not been accepted to date.".

[JLS]

Your timing is off.

You understanding is off. The way this works in NC has been discussed ad naseum around here.

There is nothing that required the NC Bar to file its complaint NOW and if for their own reasons they were filing now, they did not need to file publically.

Similarly nothing required the NC DAs to make any move now. And they too could have as they apparently did in the fall act in private.

So while this all may be a coincidenece, it sure looks like a squeeze play is on against Nifong. Why might a squeeze play be one against Nifong? Occum's razor says that Nifong's behavior is viewed as becoming too costly to the DAs and maybe attorneys in general. Why is this case too costly in their minds? The hearing of the 15th made NC look even worse with Nifong caught in open court testimony conspiring to hire exculpatory evidence.

Now maybe my conjecture about why this is happenning now is wrong. Maybe the squeeze play is happenning now because the NC Bar and the NC DAs gave the voters of Durham a chance to cure this problem and the voters of Durham failed. Maybe it is just all a coincidence. But the "timing" is not the issue. There is no timing that required these things to come out now. In fact the NC bar previously said it would not investigate Nifong until after the case in question was over.

[JLS]

Exactly, both the NC bar and the NC DAs see a potential for Nifong to harm their own interests. Thus they are bringing pressure on him with these public acts. I would think the cat is too far out of the bag and that NC DAs will be reigned in some after this?

The reason I think that is that I would think that the private schools of NC, Duke, Wake, Davidson, Elon etc would all testify this is harming out of state recruitment of students and that the association of tourism businesses would also like their customers and potential customers reassured that some nut DA can not railroad them unchecked when they come to NC to visit the outer banks, the mountains, Pinehurst etc. But clearly we have read the NC legislature failed to act to take scheduling away from DA and establish a truly independent judiciary previously? SO maybe they will twiddle their thumbs this time too.

[sodpoodle]

Good day sissyjane - and thanks for understanding the comments.

After a few snarky responses, I thought perhaps I had missed some adverbs, pronouns or qualifiers.

Happy New Year!

sp

[sissyjane]

...and a happy day after execution day to you!!