Duke Lacrosse Case Charges to Be Dropped

[johnstown_johnn]

In America the POOR and the PRIVILEDGED have a right to justice. It makes no exceptions to class or wealth or lack of it.

If someone is denied justice for reasons of social status then justice is dead.

The three “priviledged” were denied their justice in the failure to bring forth excupalatory evidence. Well…at least that’s the way it was when I went to school.

 

[didymus]

In America the POOR and the PRIVILEDGED have a right to justice. It makes no exceptions to class or wealth or lack of it.

 

[beckers]

Now that Al Sharpton has gotten Imuus fired for racist remarks, how long before the same standard it applied to Sharpton’s remarks in this case?

Great article on the quotes of this case but I don’t think we are going to see an apologize

sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=wojciechowski_gene&id=2835342

Then:
“I feel pretty confident a rape occurred.”
– Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, March 15, 2006.

“The circumstances of the rape indicated a deep racial motivation for some of the things that were done.”
– Nifong, March 27, 2006.

NOW: "The result of our review and investigation shows clearly that there is insufficient evidence to proceed on any of the charges.

“… In this case, with the weight of the state behind him, the Durham district attorney pushed forward unchecked. There were many points in the case where caution would have served justice better than bravado. And in the rush to condemn, a community and a state lost the ability to see clearly. Regardless of the reasons this case was pushed forward, the result was wrong. Today, we need to learn from this and keep it from happening again to anybody.”
– North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, April 11, 2007.

“To the extent that I made judgments that ultimately proved to be incorrect, I apologize to the three students that were wrongly accused.”
*– Nifong, April 12, 2007
*

 

[beckers]

Great article on the quotes of this case but I don’t think we are going to see an apologize

sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=wojciechowski_gene&id=2835342

Then:
“I feel pretty confident a rape occurred.”
– Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, March 15, 2006.

“The circumstances of the rape indicated a deep racial motivation for some of the things that were done.”
– Nifong, March 27, 2006.

*NOW: "The result of our review and investigation shows clearly that there is insufficient evidence to proceed on any of the charges.

“… In this case, with the weight of the state behind him, the Durham district attorney pushed forward unchecked. There were many points in the case where caution would have served justice better than bravado. And in the rush to condemn, a community and a state lost the ability to see clearly. Regardless of the reasons this case was pushed forward, the result was wrong. Today, we need to learn from this and keep it from happening again to anybody.”
– North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, April 11, 2007.

“To the extent that I made judgments that ultimately proved to be incorrect, I apologize to the three students that were wrongly accused.”
– Nifong, April 12, 2007
*

 

[mary_bobo]

poor Greta, wonder what she is going to do for a life now.

Not to worry. She’s still got Anna Nicole’s baby’s custody. After that there is the case in TN where a wife is accused of shooting her pastor husband in the back. When that is over, something else will surely come up to occupy her 60 minutes of fame each night. And she is the top rated show in that time slot.

 

[Cygnus_X1]

Let him (or her) who has never engaged in underage drinking cast the first stone.

Hand me that stone!

 

[Cygnus_X1]

You could be right. There’s a certain amount of class envy between grad students and undergrads at Duke (one petty issue–the administration took several parking lots away from grad students and gave them to the undergrads, even though grad students do not live on West or East Campus and are far more likely to need parking on campus. I’m not claiming that this is a just basis for my bias, just giving it as one example of the way grad students often feel that the undergrads are pampered because they are the ones contributing large sums of money to the institution). My attitude is probably sinful, and it is unfair to the many wonderful undergrads I knew at Duke.

Edwin

Actually, my understanding is that the real source of envy is between the faculty (like the Group of 88, who’d be filing for unemployment if I were Duke president) and the students whom they consider “privileged.”

Excerpt from this Weekly Standard article, “Duke’s Tenured Vigilantes”:

Indeed, it was the Duke faculty that could be said to have cooked up the ambient language that came to clothe virtually all media descriptions of the assault case–that boilerplate about “race, gender, and class” (or maybe “race, gender, sexuality, and class”) and “privileged white males” that you could not read a news story about the assault case without encountering, whether in the New York Times, the Washington Post, or Newsweek for example. The journalists channeled the academics.

Although outsiders know Duke mostly as an expensive preppie enclave that fields Division I athletic teams, the university’s humanities and social sciences departments–literature, anthropology, and especially women’s studies and African-American studies–foster exactly the opposite kind of culture. Those departments (and especially Duke’s robustly “postmodern” English department, put in place by postmodernist celebrity Stanley Fish before his departure in 1998) are famous throughout academia as repositories of all that is trendy and hyper-politicized in today’s ivy halls: angry feminism, ethnic victimology, dense, jargon-laden analyses of capitalism and “patriarchy,” and “new historicism”–a kind of upgraded Marxism that analyzes art and literature in terms of efforts by powerful social elites to brainwash everybody else.

In short, this Group of 88 (who released this repugnant full-page ad piling on the prejudice) resents the very students they teach.

And more about these ivory-tower cowards from LaShawn Barber.

 

[jman507]

I think I’ve heard a few comments around that, “I don’t feel sorry for them, this is just one instance for them. This has happened all the time to those who are black.” I have to pull back and think, are you really looking to better a situation, or is this a case where, you’d like that power, not to right any wrong, but to be just as bad as the other. I think any principle you have is only as good as when it benefits someone who you don’t particularly like, other wise to say you hold that principle is an example of poor integrity.

 

[didymus]

I think I’ve heard a few comments around that, “I don’t feel sorry for them, this is just one instance for them. This has happened all the time to those who are black.” I have to pull back and think, are you really looking to better a situation, or is this a case where, you’d like that power, not to right any wrong, but to be just as bad as the other. I think any principle you have is only as good as when it benefits someone who you don’t particularly like, other wise to say you hold that principle is an example of poor integrity.

I do feel sorry for these young men, nothing is going to give them a year of their lives back. I hope that Mr. Nifong loses his license to practise law, at least.

As for this happening all the time to minorities and the poor, that is absolutely true and though it’s no comfort to the defendants, this case can at least educate the public as to how prosecutors operate all the time. If they had been poor and represented by public defenders they would have had to accept a deal and they’d have been in prison long since.

I hope the media will also look at their own role in crucifying these students. I notice Nancy Grace called in sick the day the AG made his announcement.

 

[seekerz]

It’s not the first time the media has verbally lynched those accused in rape cases and sadly it won’t be the last.

The problem with reporting on these incidents is that everyone gets emotionally charged and the media buys into it to improve their ratings. In the end, it’s all about the bottom line - never mind the innocent victims.

It would help, if everyone just took a deep breath (and probably switched off the TV) the next time a “sensational” accusation took place and just waited for the facts to come out as they usually do, eventually.

The media knows which buttons to press to get viewers; isn’t it time we learned which buttons on our remotes to press too?

 

[johnstown_johnn]

It’s not the first time the media has verbally lynched those accused in rape cases and sadly it won’t be the last.

The problem with reporting on these incidents is that everyone gets emotionally charged and the media buys into it to improve their ratings. In the end, it’s all about the bottom line - never mind the innocent victims.

It would help, if everyone just took a deep breath (and probably switched off the TV) the next time a “sensational” accusation took place and just waited for the facts to come out as they usually do, eventually.

The media knows which buttons to press to get viewers; isn’t it time we learned which buttons on our remotes to press too?

The prosecutor, Nifong, the media, the Duke professors that took out a full page ad condemning the young men, Jesse Jackson’s grandstanding by donating a scolarship to the accuser…all of this was A PUBLIC LYNCHING. This never should happen in America. The families have a right to seek recompense for the injustice dealt to all concerned. I predict they will be awarded with handsome monetary satisfaction.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

Don’t hold your breath waiting for an apology from the media. [from ABC News]

DON’T FEEL TOO SORRY FOR THE DUKIES

But perhaps the outpouring of sympathy for Reade Seligman, Collin Finnerty and David Evans is just a bit misplaced. They got special treatment in the justice system–both negative and positive. The conduct of the lacrosse team of which they were members was not admirable on the night of the incident, to say the least. And there are so many other victims of prosecutorial misconduct in this country who never get the high-priced legal representation and the high-profile, high-minded vindication that it strikes me as just a bit unseemly to heap praise and sympathy on these particular men.

 

[johnstown_johnn]

Don’t hold your breath waiting for an apology from the media. [from ABC News]

DON’T FEEL TOO SORRY FOR THE DUKIES

Watching a striptease dancer is certainly not equivalent to rape…or is it?

Being falsely accused of a crime that could carry 25 years in prison, minimum. Could you or I imagine being falsely accused for rape and being jeopardized of losing your or my freedom for that length of time? It would be a nightmare would it not? Your life would be over and every day would be hellish.

Media apologize? Who cares–just sue them for slander and libel. That would be more satisfying.

Sorry, by seeing what these young men went through and seeing how they were railroaded by the DA and the town of Durham evokes my sympathy and some anger too.

So because they are “priviledged” they should be denied justice? Is this how t6he culture war metes out justice?

 

[Al_Masetti]

One of the Ten Commandments prohibits Bearing False Witness.

This is a fundamental wrong.

However, there seems to be some “feeling” that anything must be true “if someone says it.”

So, therefore, it is quite alright to make the most heinous false accusations against someone.

Not only that, but the more heinous that those false accusations are, the more serious that they must be considered… because of the seriousness of the accusations.

It seems to me that it needs to be explained that the more serious the false accusations, the more serious the charges should be against the false accusers. In this case, it would apply to people who should know better, such as Mr. Nifong and some of the out-of-towners who chimed in.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

. . .Media apologize? Who cares–just sue them for slander and libel. That would be more satisfying.

. . .?

If you are a public figure, and by definition anyone mentioned by the media becomes a public figure, it is almost impossible to get a judgement against the media. That they thought it might be true is an adequate defense. Maybe we need a little less freedom of the press.

 

[johnstown_johnn]

If you are a public figure, and by definition anyone mentioned by the media becomes a public figure, it is almost impossible to get a judgement against the media. That they thought it might be true is an adequate defense. Maybe we need a little less freedom of the press.

Libel is a crime committed primarily by the media. Media outlets have been sued numerous times and most times the suits are settled out of court. To use “…they thought it might be true…” shield requires documentary evidence that the media had to investigate before they can print/report a scandal.

The Inquirer has been sued so many times and settled the suits out of court with huge settlement costs. It’s a wonder they are still in business. The threat of a libel suit hangs over the media as a reminder that character assassination does not have an open season for the press. No carte blanche…even for the media.

 

[jc-servant]

The prosecutor, Nifong, the media, the Duke professors that took out a full page ad condemning the young men, Jesse Jackson’s grandstanding by donating a scolarship to the accuser…all of this was A PUBLIC LYNCHING. This never should happen in America. The families have a right to seek recompense for the injustice dealt to all concerned. I predict they will be awarded with handsome monetary satisfaction.

Apparently you have never seen photos of an actual lynching or you would not be tossing the term around so freely. In an actual lynching people are physically tortured and almost always killed. I would suggest that you rent the movie “Rosewood” if you want to learn about real lynchings in this country. These young men may have lost time, money and reputation, but they did not even get physically roughed up in the county jail. They were not kept in jail for over a year awaiting trial as can happen to those who cannot make bail. Not a lynching in any sense of the word.

The Duke students were not wrongly convicted as many people are in this country every year. They did not lose their entire youth serving prison time after being wrongfully convicted or end up on death row. Although they have been harmed, the attention will die down eventually and they will likely still graduate from college, get good jobs and have a real life. They will not even have criminal records due to the lack of a conviction. Who among us would actually remember their names or faces if they came to us for a job after graduation?

We just had several men released from prison in Texas after being exonerated by DNA evidence. They lost many years of their lives in prison. Our justice system has been broken for quite a long time for those without money and power. If not for a non-profit group looking into it, these men could have died in prison after committing no crime.

I have no doubt the Duke students will manage to get sufficient recompense to restore them while other “regular” folks who have actually served prison time while innocent get a pittance from the government and have no one to sue. I doubt that most of us get as worked up for the many people who are wrongfully convicted or take any steps to keep the justice system working properly. How many of us have tried to avoid jury duty, let alone sat in on a trial or followed up on a case that may have seemed badly handled?

 

[johnstown_johnn]

The word “Lynching” is a metaphor and is commonly used in writing for all sorts of wrongful spontaneous and hurtful deeds done by one to another. “Lynching” is not a restricted word to be used only by a mob meting out vigilante justice.

Lynching in today’s lexicon and is applicable to egregious behaviors…it does not necessarily have an exclusive definition…not in today’s literary understanding of language and hyberbole.

Fortunately, the youths were not wrongfully convicted but the wheels were in motion to do just that; they were wronfully INDICTED. Indictment is the formal move to convict. And this never should have happened.

Let us have a broader exchange about subjects without getting stuck on the semantics rather than the points in question.

 

[jman507]

I have no doubt the Duke students will manage to get sufficient recompense to restore them while other “regular” folks who have actually served prison time while innocent get a pittance from the government and have no one to sue. I doubt that most of us get as worked up for the many people who are wrongfully convicted or take any steps to keep the justice system working properly. How many of us have tried to avoid jury duty, let alone sat in on a trial or followed up on a case that may have seemed badly handled?

You know, I think there is a recent interview, and one of the accused is wanting to go into law as a defence lawyer trying to defend those wrongly accused and/or convicted. Although, it might be a bit hard to discern which cases to take on.

 

[Lance]

Apparently you have never seen photos of an actual lynching or you would not be tossing the term around so freely. In an actual lynching people are physically tortured and almost always killed. I would suggest that you rent the movie “Rosewood” if you want to learn about real lynchings in this country. These young men may have lost time, money and reputation, but they did not even get physically roughed up in the county jail. They were not kept in jail for over a year awaiting trial as can happen to those who cannot make bail. Not a lynching in any sense of the word.

The Duke students were not wrongly convicted as many people are in this country every year. They did not lose their entire youth serving prison time after being wrongfully convicted or end up on death row. Although they have been harmed, the attention will die down eventually and they will likely still graduate from college, get good jobs and have a real life. They will not even have criminal records due to the lack of a conviction. Who among us would actually remember their names or faces if they came to us for a job after graduation?

We just had several men released from prison in Texas after being exonerated by DNA evidence. They lost many years of their lives in prison. Our justice system has been broken for quite a long time for those without money and power. If not for a non-profit group looking into it, these men could have died in prison after committing no crime.

I have no doubt the Duke students will manage to get sufficient recompense to restore them while other “regular” folks who have actually served prison time while innocent get a pittance from the government and have no one to sue. I doubt that most of us get as worked up for the many people who are wrongfully convicted or take any steps to keep the justice system working properly. How many of us have tried to avoid jury duty, let alone sat in on a trial or followed up on a case that may have seemed badly handled?

You seem to be saying that because what you feel are greater miscarriages of justice we should not show sympathy for these young men. No very Christian of you IMO. I don’t know about Texas but in Illinois it is not uncommon for people who have been wrongly imprisoned to be given large monetary stttlements by the state.