Rutgers and the Duke rape hoax

John Smallwood:

"A TRAGIC RUSH to accuse" by an overreaching district attorney.
That was the excuse that North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper gave for the 395-day nightmare that David Evans, Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty have gone through.

In announcing yesterday that all charges had been dropped against the three former Duke lacrosse players, who had been accused of sexually assaulting an exotic dancer, Cooper blasted Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, whose mishandling of the case has landed him in front of an ethics board.

Frankly, Nifong, who has been accused of withholding evidence and lying to the court and bar investigators, shouldn't only be disbarred if this is true; he should face criminal charges.

And Crystal Gail Mangum, the woman who is still being referred to as "the accuser" because of many media agencies' policy of not naming victims in sexual-assault cases, isn't a victim at all

She lied.

For reasons known only to her, Mangum accused three innocent young men of a heinous crime.

I guess Cooper has a good reason for announcing that the state won't file charges against Mangum, but I'm not sure I see them.

Radio personality Don Imus is rightfully being blasted for his despicable on-air comment of calling the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos."

As personally damaging as that was to the Rutgers players and their families, it is a tempest in a teapot compared to what happened to the Duke players.

These kids had their lives put on the line. They were facing serious jail time. They were branded as rapists. Their families have reportedly run up millions of dollars in legal fees.

All because Nifong, whom Cooper described as a "rogue prosecutor," decided to play hanky-panky with the greatest legal system in the world.

Our system is not flawless, but it is good. Unfortunately it is only as good as the people operating it.

If Nifong abused it in the manner described, he committed a crime against all of us.

He deliberately undermined the confidence we must have to trust our system of justice.

If the people who are charged with upholding our system are allowed to manipulate the rules without penalty, we have no true justice system.

"There were many points in the case where caution would have served justice better than bravado," Cooper said. "In the rush to condemn, a community and a state lost the ability to see clearly."

Duke injustice fails to provoke anger Imus did

Duke Case v. "Nappy-headed Hos" Remark

Hypocrisy on Imus AND the Duke Lacrosse Hoax

The Duke Lacrosse Case: NEVERMIND

Crystal Gail Mangum: Profile of the Duke Rape Accuser

LET THE LIAR BE NAMED & SHAMED

Media Takes Hit in Duke Lacrosse Case, Too

Duke Rape Case Hoax: Press Conference To Announce "Case Dropped"

Duke: The Final Curtain Begins to Close

Duke Lacrosse Hoax Is Finally Over

I'm so, so sorry I said that, and also that you're a huge whiner…

Imus Or Rap? The Culture of "Bitches, Hos, and Niggas"

No Apology From Jesse Jackson Either

Imus fights back, Sharpton still swinging

With Imus’s Dishonest Apologies to the Dishonest

The Truth About Who Suffers

Blair Grows a Pair