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Speaking of which- I hope THIS gets some circulation-...from FRED on the Duke LAX situation...in January:

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YmZlOWUwOWQyNzFhN2E2MGNmNmY3MDJmNGM0NjU5Yjk=

You know, I not only play a prosecutor on TV, I used to actually be one. So when I see something like the farce that’s playing out in North Carolina it makes my blood boil.

Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong, who brought the Duke Lacrosse players rape case, has violated just about every rule in the prosecutor’s book. He sat on evidence that indicated the defendant’s innocence. The alleged victim’s statements were inconsistent and he had never even talked to her when he brought the rape charges, which he has now had to dismiss. The attorney for one of the Duke students tried to show Nifong physical evidence which would have demonstrated that the student was not even present when the alleged incident took place but Nifong refused to meet with him. The whole the time he was making public statements alleging the defendant’s guilt.

Now Nifong’s case is crumbling and the North Carolina Bar Association, as well as the North Carolina DA’s Association, is on his case. He’s facing much-deserved calls for his resignation. Maybe this will remind us just how important and powerful these prosecutor’s jobs are. People’s freedom, reputations, and very lives are in their hands. And, as one wag so aptly put it: A prosecutor could, indeed, get a ham sandwich indicted if he wanted to. My experience is that the large majority of them are dedicated public servants But when one of them gives in to self interest and public pressure no greater injustice can be imagined.

In the North Carolina case, 88 Duke professors (civil libertarians, I’m sure), praised the DA and many in the black community pressured him as he rushed to judgment against these accused students in the midst of his reelection campaign. And for the media the story had everything — sex, rich vs. poor, the racial element — everything but proof of guilt. These accused young men are forever tarnished, but at least they can afford to defend themselves. What about the less fortunate who cannot? There is a lot at stake when we go to the polls to vote for a local prosecutor. We should never forget that. They, like judges they sometime have to stand against the howling mob, not become a part of it.

Fred Thompson- 12 January, 2007