Articles
Sexual Assault Charges in Duke Case Dropped
Last week, prosecutors dropped all criminal charges against three Duke University lacrosse players who were accused of sexually assaulting a stripper, claiming the young men were victims of a “tragic rush to accuse” by an overzealous district attorney.
North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper took over the Duke University case in January and found, through his own investigation, that there was no evidence to support the alleged victim’s claims, leading to the conclusion that no rape or sexual attack actually occurred.
Cooper said that eyewitness identification was unreliable, DNA evidence did not corroborate her story, and the woman contradicted herself.
“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.”
No Presumption of Innocence
The case caused angry debate over class, race, and the affluent status of the Duke athletes, as well as increased long-standing tension in the community between the large working-class African American population and the almost all white, privileged students at the private university.
At a public conference, the three athletes and their defense lawyers blamed the media and the community for discounting the presumption of innocence and immediately depicting them as thugs.
“We’re just as innocent today as we were back then. Nothing has changed. The facts don’t change,” said David Evans, one of the cleared defendants in the case.
A ‘Rogue Prosecutor’
The first prosecutor, Mike Nifong, voluntarily withdrew from the case after he was charged by the state bar for making inflammatory and misleading comments to the public about the three young men under suspicion. He was later charged with lying to the court and withholding important evidence from defense lawyers.
Cooper, who describes Nifong as a “rogue prosecutor,” proposed the passage of a bill that would give the North Carolina Supreme Court power to remove a D.A. when the call for justice demands it.
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