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Ping. Ruth sees the light.

Duke Lacrosse Controversy

Sheehan:
Published: Jan 01, 2007 12:30 AM
Modified: Jan 01, 2007 02:33 AM

It's time to drop charges

Ruth Sheehan, Staff Writer
Every time I think the Duke lacrosse case cannot get any more excruciating to watch -- it does.

There was a moment of hope right before Christmas, when we got word that Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong was dropping charges.

Finally! I thought. Nifong has come to his senses and is putting us all out of our misery -- from the three men charged in the alleged sexual assault of a dancer at their stripper party to the alleged victim herself.

But as it turned out, Nifong dropped only one of the charges in the case -- rape -- leaving the sexual assault and kidnapping charges to stand. These are charges, like rape, that could put the men behind bars for life.

Nifong's explanation for dropping the rape charge only added to the excruciation factor: The accuser said she now cannot remember whether a penis was involved in the alleged attack.

I cringe just typing the words.

As the victim of a date rape more than 20 years ago myself, I can attest that there are some details you can train your mind to glance over.

Whether a penis was involved is a detail one is unlikely to forget.

What kind of dimwitted fools does Nifong believe us, and the potential jurors, to be?

I ask this, of course, from some experience.

I was one of the hopelessly naive who fell -- hard -- for Nifong's original depiction of the case.

In statements the State Bar now says violated ethics rules, Nifong described in detail the horrors of the alleged gang rape, including an attempted strangulation and racial insults.

Like others, I was outraged. And I wrote about it. I make no apology for that. It is not my job to wait for cases to be resolved and then walk through the aftermath and shoot the dead.

Then came the first pieces of contrary evidence.

I wrote that if this woman turned out to be lying, her identity should be revealed and she should be punished to the full extent of the law.

I still believe that -- no matter how messed up the woman is, no matter how far she has gotten in over her head, or for what reason.

Unfortunately, the law simply does not provide an adequate remedy for false charges.

Then again, neither does it provide a commensurate remedy for district attorneys who, among other things, have withheld evidence. (In the Duke case, it appears that Nifong may have withheld DNA evidence that would have undermined the rape charge. He dropped the charge after that came to light -- a coincidence, I'm sure.)

In the spring, I wrote that we may never know exactly what happened in the lacrosse players' house. That may be the only statement I can salvage from my earliest columns on this case.

But at this point, we know all we need to about Nifong's case.

I am no legal expert. But it doesn't take one to see that this case should long ago have been turned over to an independent prosecutor. In fact, it doesn't take a legal expert to see that the charges, at this point, should simply be dropped.

Not just the rape charge. All the charges.

Today is the first day of a new year.

Let this excruciating exercise in injustice end.
Ruth Sheehan can be reached at 829-4828 or rsheehan@newsobserver.com.

http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/527545.html