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Monday, June 18, 2007
The right one is punished
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If I’m the lawyer for the City of Durham, N.C., we pay. We write the checks to three members of the Duke University lacrosse team in sums that are at least sufficient to pay the millions of dollars in legal fees run up by their families. And while a civil suit is unlikely to produce much in financial compensation from the accuser, she, too, should be forced to defend herself publicly.
For rogue prosecutor Mike Nifong, justice came quickly on Saturday, when his license to practice law as yanked. On Friday, he tearfully resigned the District Attorney position he used the three Duke athletes to win. And more punishment may be around the corner. Nifong told the judge overseeing part of the original case that he knew of no information helpful to defense that he hadn’t turned over. At the time, he knew that the stripper’s underwear and body offered up DNA from several men, but none from the defendants. The judge may act on that deceit. And, of course, the lawyers for the three would certainly include Nifong in any civil suits to be filed.
Nifong incited the class and race prejudices of Duke faculty, Durham residents and commentators thorughout the country with comments that included a vow made at a campaign forum that he’d not allow the community to become known for “a bunch of lacrosse players from Duke raping a black girl.” To gain political office, he would have destroyed the lives and careers of three innocents. In the end, only one was destroyed. The right one.
