What, exactly, am I in error about?
As for Nifong's prosecutorial history, he probably has done something like this before, only less egregiously and less obviously, and, on the other side of the coin, has probably also demonstrated laziness and sloppiness in other prosecutions.
I read here somewhere in the last two days that he did this in 1994, and even used the same line to the defense team, referring to them as "poultry" and that they were chickens to face him in court. The guy can't even come up with anything original!