Replies

"But the bar is going to hear what the bar wants to hear. And notwithstanding the evidence, it will not disbar him."

Wow; you really *are* cynical, in the full sense of the word, Mad-Margaret. :^) There is (and can be) no response to that bleak, grim view of the situation, as even hope itself has no place in such a world. I, however, have not given up hope, particularly since in North Carolina, the recommendation of the bar's disciplinary committee (the body in which Nifong has the most pull) as to punishment is only advisory and the Supreme Court exercises its own judgment.

"The media leopards still have spots. This case didn't turn out the way they'd hoped. The bloggers forced them to alter their coverage to a degree. But the media leopards are satisfied to have Nifong off the case. The charges will be dismissed. The justice system worked. Let the healing begin."

But couldn't the bloggers force the disciplinary committee to alter its view of the evidence, at least to a degree, as they did with the media? Isn't that even a possibility in your mind? And you don't really think dismissal of the charges alone would prove that the justice system "worked," do you? Shouldn't full and complete justice also include vindication of the ethical principles underlying the American system as a whole, in which "the prosecutor's role transcends that of an adversary, as he 'is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty . . . whose interest . . . in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done'"? United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667, 675 n.6 (1985) (quoting Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78, 88 (1935). And if not, can the healing ever truly begin?

Yes. A total cynic! As for hope, I hope you're right and I'm wrong.

Of course I don't think that dismissal of the charges would be enough. Not by a long shot. I was being sarcastic. And BTW, I detest the word "healing" -- especially when it comes from people who caused or continued the harm in the first place.

I don't think the bloggers will have much influence over the disciplinary committee because the committee doesn't see the bloggers as a threat. The media do. And with good reason, the bloggers have done a better job covering this case than the MSM have. The media had to alter their coverage. The professional journalists were being shown up by engineers and history professors.