[Tom D.]

There is a hearing set for February 5 (if the case lives that long) where the defense is asking the judge to throw out the identification of the defendants because the process was so screwed up. If that motion is allowed (and I believe it should be) the case seems to me to go away: no DNA and no id by woman. This may be the easiest way out for the Court and for the prosecution and probably for the woman in question.

[JLS]

Certainly the hearing would be a time for the judge to make this all go away, but it would be a very very very poor time. Nifong's case is dead. There is no reason in the world to allow this to drag into another Duke term. Mangum is pregnant and due in early Feb, so Nifong could likely get a continuance on that hearing anyway.

Thus he is being squeezed to drop these charges now. Certainly he has every reason to do so now. Him dropping the charges gives the illusion that he is still in charge. The time frame of the first bar hearing is set so dragging things out further no longer helps him.

[Jezebelle]

There's still the possibility of in-court identification. The defense has a motion pending to prevent Mangum from making an in-court identification. That's a big part of the identification-quash process.