The North Carolina state Attorney General has dropped all charges against three Duke University students falsely accused of first-degree kidnapping and first-degree sexual assualt. Despite a lack of evidence, despite DNA tests that showed none of the accused had had sexual relations with the alleged victim, and despite the alleged victim's continually-changing story, Durham County District Attorney Michael Nifong pursued the young men relentlessly, making outrageous and improper statements to the media which recklessly robbed them of the rest of their lives. He is now facing ethics charges which could lead to his disbarment at a trial in June. It is no less than he deserves, and far less a punishment than he has earned.
But beyond punishing Mr Nifong's gross abuse of power, censure must also be heaped upon the media and upon the members of the civil rights community who immediately assumed the young men were guilty because they were white and well-to-do and their victim was black and disadvantaged. The men were tried and convicted in the press and on the street with utter disregard for the rules of evidence and of common decency.
These men were innocent! Where now are the Al Sharptons and the Jesse Jacksons and the print, television, and radio reporters who happily used the story to gain publicity and sell advertising? I have yet to hear any apologies from any of them. Mr Sharpton has moved on to take advantage of a new opportunity to get his face in the news, lecturing us about the racist comments of Don Imus. He's much too busy to waste any time lamenting his role in the railroading of three innocent men.
But beyond punishing Mr Nifong's gross abuse of power, censure must also be heaped upon the media and upon the members of the civil rights community who immediately assumed the young men were guilty because they were white and well-to-do and their victim was black and disadvantaged. The men were tried and convicted in the press and on the street with utter disregard for the rules of evidence and of common decency.
These men were innocent! Where now are the Al Sharptons and the Jesse Jacksons and the print, television, and radio reporters who happily used the story to gain publicity and sell advertising? I have yet to hear any apologies from any of them. Mr Sharpton has moved on to take advantage of a new opportunity to get his face in the news, lecturing us about the racist comments of Don Imus. He's much too busy to waste any time lamenting his role in the railroading of three innocent men.
If you respect the rule of law, if you believe someone is innocent until proven guilty, and if you believe in honesty, integrity, and fairness in the legal system, you have to be disgusted. If you had any lingering shreds of respect for the so-called leaders of the civil rights movement, you should shed them now. A hideous miscarriage of justice has been abetted by a grandstanding district attorney, spotlight-hungry civil rights leaders, and a media more intent on selling papers and air time than on discovering the truth. Franz Kafka couldn't have written this terrible and terrifying story any better.
In most ways, the American system of justice is the envy of the world. Trial by a jury of our peers, laws of evidence, and the presumption of innocence are very rare in the rest of the world.
They are also, evidently, rare in Durham County, North Carolina.
Have a good day. And remember that this could just as easily happen to you.
More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
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