Rape charges dropped in Duke case - Yahoo! News
DURHAM, N.C. - Prosecutors dropped rape charges Friday against three Duke University lacrosse players accused of attacking a stripper at a team party, but the three still face kidnapping and sexual offense charges.
According to court papers filed Friday by District Attorney Mike Nifong, the accuser told a prosecution investigator on Thursday that she now does not know if she was penetrated during the alleged attack.
Nifong had previously said he could rely on the woman’s account because of a lack of DNA evidence against the players.
Why has he not dropped all charges?
My guess is he is doing everything he can to save face. He probably won’t be blasted loose from his position until a federal civil rights investigation begins. And I hope some authorities are correct in saying his prosecurtorial immunity against suits can be breached. He’ll probably never serve time in jail, but I’d love to see him bankrupted.
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I hope he’s raped …financially, of course.
I’ve long advocated that far from having “absolute immunity” unlike anyone else in our universe, prosecuters who can be proven beyond reasonable doubt to have violated their ethical and legal duties in weilding the awesome might of the state for their own benefit to pursue citizens they knew or reasonably should have known were not guilty, should be subject to the worst penalty their would-be victims could have been subjected to if they had been convicted—up to and including the death penalty. Qualified immunity is another matter—without that, it would be impossible to be a judge, prosecutor, or police officer for more than a month in our litigious society. I can’t imagine a scenario where an honest man would need ABSOLUTE immunity, however, or any other function for such an idea than offering shelter to the worst form of tyrants, of which the petty functionary variety epitomized by Nifong might be the most insidious
I think Nifong is making one last desperate attempt to finesse the case. The DNA evidence shot down his rape charge. But sexual assault has a much lower standard of proof and carries about the same potential penalty. So he may think he can keep that charge going with much fuzzier evidence.
As with so many of these arrogant fools caught in their lies, he probably doesn’t realize just how much trouble he’s already in, and what a bad idea it is to dig himself in deeper. He still thinks he can bluster through. I don’t think so. Too much national attention from too many respectable and credible critics. I hate to see those boys continuing to be hounded, but the silver lining may be that that have a better case down the road to sue him down to his underwear, if their lawyers can figure out a way to get past his immunity.