60 Minutes: Innocent Duke Lacrosse Players

INNOCENT.
That's what North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said of Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligmann, and David Evans. They were falsely accused of gang-raping stripper Crystal Gail Mangum. They were mercilessly abused by prosecutor Mike Nifong.

On tonight's 60 Minutes, Lesley Stahl interviewed Cooper.

She also interviewed Finnerty, Seligmann, and Evans. She questioned them one on one. It wasn't a panel. They didn't appear in the interview together.

The three young men discussed what they've experienced since being accused of rape over a year ago. They talked about the intense anxiety. They talked about what it was like to have protesters outside their homes. They talked about their fears of being convicted, their helplessness, their hopelessness.

They went through hell. So did their families.

"To hear people saying, 'You’re a dead man walking,' and you can’t turn around and protect yourself. The anxiety of this entire case was there every day. The chest – you know, you feel it in your chest. You feel your heart beating. You're always breathing heavy. It's just constant. And that's why it's so emotionally draining. Because you're always on the lookout. You're always, you know, waiting to see what's going to happen," Seligmann tells Stahl.

"To have people banging pots in front of your house … carrying signs that say, 'Castrate,' 'Real men tell the truth.' 'Sunday morning, time to confess' and going out there and saying all these things before any piece of evidence had been presented is just mind-boggling," Evans adds.

Stahl interviewed the parents of the accused back in January.

At the time, none of the parents expressed anger toward Mangum, though they certainly have good reason to be critical of her. She lied. She lied early. She lied often.

Rae Evans said, "When I'm trying to get over the rage I am thinking about, so deeply, this young woman who has been abused by men all her life. And nobody has abused her more than Mike Nifong."

There's no question that Nifong intentionally put a lot of innocent people through hell.

Cooper called Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong a "rouge prosecutor."

In my opinion, that's being kind. He's not only a disgrace as a prosecutor; he's a disgrace as a human being. He knew what he was doing. He made a choice to exploit the alleged rape case for his personal political gain.

The three Duke lacrosse players said that on a number of different occasions they had believed the case against them would be dropped. They all thought it would be over in a matter of days. In spite of irrefutable evidence, Mike Nifong went forward.

When Stahl interviewed Cooper, he went through the many, many inconsistencies in Mangum's various accounts. He detailed how implausible her stories were.

Stahl said she felt Cooper had a real sense of sadness over the way the case was handled.

He said it was disappointing and outrageous that it was not stopped sooner.

Like Stahl, I felt that same sense of sadness on his part, too. Cooper wasn't gloating. He didn't seem bitter. He seemed troubled that such a disgusting injustice was done.

During the segment, tape was shown of Nifong, inciting crowds to lynch Finnerty, Seligmann, and Evans. The extent of his abusiveness really was astonishing.

In addition to the tape of Nifong, clips of the accuser, Crystal Gail Mangum, were shown.

At least twice, a still photo identifying her was briefly seen on the screen.

A small snip of what looked like police video was shown as well. Mangum also was heard speaking on the tape.

There was a photo of her getting into a car, a photo that shot holes in one version of one of her many accounts of what happened that night.

There was also a photo of her that was taken moments after the attack. She was smiling.

I think it was completely appropriate for 60 Minutes to show her. In my opinion, she's lucky that she won't be punished for what she did.

Stahl asked the young men, "What are your thoughts about her?"

All three said that it was OK with them that Cooper didn't plan to pursue charges against Mangum.

I hope that they are lauded with as much praise for being forgiving as the Rutgers women's basketball team received in reaction to Don Imus' racist, sexist remark.

Will people comment on how courageous and classy they are?

Probably not.

Will Finnerty, Seligmann, and Evans appear on Oprah and be held up as brave, remarkable human beings?

Don't hold your breath.

When asked about Nifong, the players weren't willing to cut him the slack that they were offering Mangum. They believe that he should face the music for knowingly exploiting them.

Finnerty said Nifong's apology was too little, too late.

Stahl asked Finnerty what he would say to Nifong if he could look him in the eye and talk to him.

Finnerty said he would say, "Why? Why?"

I got the feeling that he was still sort of in shock, a state of disbelief about what he'd been through.

I suppose he was operating under the notion that life is fair and just, and that a person in Nifong's position would behave appropriately.

The others also expressed how surreal the last year had been.

Evans said that he appreciated Cooper using the word "innocent," but he noted that it won't change anything.

"Innocent might be a part of that, but that's just an adjective….When I die, they'll say, ‘One of the three Duke lacrosse rape suspects died today. He led a life and did this, but he was one of the three Duke lacrosse rape suspects,’"

I hope Nifong pays dearly for what he's done. It's about justice being served. No prosecutor should be allowed to do what he did with impunity.

In a perfect world, every single person who disparaged the players, sent them death threats, and rushed to judgment would apologize to them.

Obviously, it's far from a perfect world.