The Duke Lacrosse Case: NEVERMIND

Crystal Gail Mangum (Photo/Drudge)

I am so glad that Drudge slapped this photo on his site. For over a year, we've seen the faces of the alleged rapists. Now, it's time to see the face of the accuser.

I want Al Sharpton to get Mike Nifong and Crystal Gail Mangum to come on his radio program. I want Sharpton to browbeat Nifong and Mangum, insist that they issue apologies. After he does, I want Sharpton to insist that apologies aren't enough.

I want Jesse Jackson to stage a protest.

I want Matt Lauer to grill Nifong and Mangum on the Today show.

I want Julian Bond to demand that Nifong never practice law again and that charges be brought against Mangum.

Yesterday, from ABC News:

The office of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper will announce that he is dismissing all charges against three Duke Lacrosse players, ABC News has learned from sources close to the case.

The three players, Reade Seligmann, David Evans and Collin Finnerty, were facing charges of first degree kidnapping and first degree forcible sexual offense. The charges stem from an off-campus party on the night of March 13, 2006.

...Special prosecutors from the Attorney General's office took over the case after Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong recused himself in January, citing charges of unethical conduct filed against him by the North Carolina Bar. Since then, Jim Coman and Mary Winstead have examined the case from scratch, interviewing key witnesses and working through reams of evidence.

The reasons that will be cited for the dismissal are not yet known, though the case has been riddled with criticism and colored by controversy since its early months.

...On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General confirmed to ABC News that his office had completed its investigation into the Duke lacrosse case. A press conference on the outcome of their inquiry is widely expected sometime this week, though members of that office have not yet revealed a date and time.

The press conference was this afternoon.

Read details.

Do you think that Reade Seligmann, David Evans, and Collin Finnerty deserve an apology?

I do.

A lot of people need to apologize to them and their families.

Mike Nifong, Duke University, the "88" Duke University professors, and all the race-baiting idiots that convicted these young men and declared them guilty before their cases went to trial should apologize.

Oh, yes. And Crystal Gail Mangum, the woman who accused them of RAPE. She should apologize.

Think of what Seligmann, Evans, and Finnerty have been through.

Think of how Nifong exploited them, dragging their good names through the mud, for personal political gain.

Think of how Mangum lied.

It's truly sickening.

Let's get some perspective.

The nation has obsessed over the Imus thing and the horror that the Rutgers team endured. The outrage over Imus' remarks has reached a boiling point.

What about the horror that the Duke lacrosse team endured?

Will similar media attention be given to the Duke case and the travesty of justice?

Nifong didn't just blurt out a racial slur. He made a conscious calculation to bring rape charges against Seligmann, Evans, and Finnerty. RAPE!

And Mangum chose to lie and cry "RAPE." Thankfully, she's not a good liar.

Now what?

I don't think "sorry" is going to cut it.

An apology is inadequate in this case.

This makes the magnitude of the Imus uproar seem a bit silly, particularly since Imus has been spewing garbage with impunity FOR YEARS and he's been propped up by lib media personalities and lib politicians FOR YEARS.

If you're looking for something to be outraged about, get outraged over the abuse of the legal system by a prosecutor run amok, a woman with a warped conscience, and the exploitation of innocent citizens.
_____________________________

VINDICATED

"There were many points in the case where caution would have served justice better than bravado," North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said in a blistering assessment of Durham County District Mike Nifong's handling of the case.

North Carolina's top prosecutor dropped all charges Wednesday against the three former Duke lacrosse players accused of sexually assaulting a stripper at a party, saying the athletes were innocent victims of a "tragic rush to accuse" by an overreaching district attorney.

"There were many points in the case where caution would have served justice better than bravado," North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said in a damning assessment of Durham County District Mike Nifong's handling of the sensational, racially charged case. "In the rush to condemn, a community and a state lost the ability to see clearly."

Cooper, who took over the case in January after Nifong was charged with ethics violations that could get him disbarred, said his own investigation "led us to the conclusion that no attack occurred."

"I think a lot of people owe a lot of apologies to a lot of people," Cooper said in a news conference held before dozens of reporters in the press room at the arena where Raleigh's NHL team plays.

This kills me:

At an often-bitter, I-told-you-so news conference with the three young men and their families, defense attorney Joe Cheshire accused the media of portraying the athletes as criminals, and said: "We're angry, very angry. But we're very relieved."

OF COURSE THEY'RE BITTER AND ANGRY.

WHO WOULDN'T BE?

It's pretty slimy of the reporter, Aaron Beard, to take that jab at the victims.

I guess Beard can't handle the fact that "I-told-you-so" remarks were in order. He apparently has problems with the realities of false accusations of RAPE and prosecutorial abuse.