Reflections on the Duke case

The Duke lacrosse rape case--still called that for lack of another term, even though it's a misnomer since the students from the Duke lacrosse team were innocent and it's likely there was no rape--is one subject that makes my blood boil.

I'm not sorry to hear that the two of the accused who didn't graduate are not going back to Duke. The way that the University turned on its innocent students, it deserves to have it's name besmirched by this case--unlike the accused, whose names I have chosen to withhold here because even false accusations bring infamy. (I also withheld the name of my mother's friend in the anecdote below for that same reason--that was a little more difficult a decision, since he has passed away and there is--as far as I could tell--little other information about his case online.)

Why does the case make me so angry?

Partly, it's because I bought into the accusations early on. I bought the rhetoric about privileged college athletes thinking they could get away with anything. It happens sometimes, but it didn't happen in this case. I was duped into believing them guilty, and I echoed the condemnations of their non-cooperation--non-cooperation I now see as an appropriate reaction to an attempt to throw innocent men in jail for political expediency. When Attorney General Roy Cooper said, "A lot of people owe a lot of apologies to other people," I feel I'm one who owes an apology to the accused for not believing in their innocence from the word go. I feel I, in a small way, wronged people who didn't deserve it.

Partly, it's because it could happen to any guy. There is no evidence a rape even took place, and the accuser never had sex--consensual or otherwise--with the accused. It's scary to think that all a man needs to do is offend a crazy woman, and he may spend the next year stigmatized by the press and fighting for his freedom--if not the rest of his life.

Partly, it's because this is an egregious, obvious, and famous example of the sort of

prosecutorial corruption that I know really happens frequently. The case of Tulia, Texas comes to mind. So does the case a photographer who was a friend of my mother's; in that case, my mother's friend took nude pictures for a pediatric anatomy textbook--I'd add, with the consent of the children's parents and with the parents present for the photography. That did not stop the D.A. from prosecuting and sending her friend to prison for child pornography charges. (My mother's friend passed away a few years before she did--I'm vague on the details; I don't even remember if she told me when this happened; when I met her friend in 1988, he was living in New Orleans, but I don't know if that's where the prosecution took place or not.)

Those cases, as with the Duke case, make me wonder how many people are sitting in prison right now because they couldn't come up with video footage of themselves somewhere else at the time of the alleged crime, a friend of the accuser saying the accusation was a crock, and more than $1,000,000 for legal fees.

I'm glad that Crystal Gail Magnum has been named. She deserves it. In the words of A.G Cooper, "...in this case, the inconsistencies were so significant and so contrary to the evidence that we have no credible evidence that an attack occurred in that house that night." Apparently, now that details about Magnum's life are coming out, she seems even more unstable. There is a possibility she made a false rape accusation in the past, and it's known that she stole a taxi and fed in a high-speed chase while drunk in 2002.

I hope Nifong is disbarred. There is a possibility that it could happen today (Friday, April 13). I would further hope that every case touched--even if he just looked at the file--gets a new trial. Expensive? Consider it the bill Durham should pay for electing and reelecting this nimrod.

I would also hope that Nifong and Magnum both wind up in jail and penniless from the civil suits. Sadly, I'm not even sure it's possible--Nifong may be protected by prosecutorial immunity, and Cooper's statement implied that Magnum won't be prosecuted.

The Duke case promises to have two very different types of fallout--both chilling. It's not hard to imagine that somewhere out there, an unstable woman has heard about this case and will be inspired to take revenge on someone she hates through a false accusation. Nor is it hard to imagine that somewhere, there is a woman who'll really be raped--but because of little evidence and a dubious background, will be unable to find justice. I don't see how it's possible to prevent one of those things from happening without making the other more likely. About all that can be done is to come down hard on Nifong and Magnum for creating the problem, and for doing real and great harm to three innocent men.