Justice Served?

I never had a chance to weigh in on the Duke Lacrosse scandal, and with yesterday’s development in the case - all remaining charges of kidnapping and sexual assault against the three players were dropped by North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper – felt like now would be as good a time as any. As a former resident of Durham, NC from 2001-2006 and student at North Carolina Central University (the school attended by the accuser), this event literally unfolded in my backyard and I have been following it closely over the last year.

http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/563248.html

Let me first say that I am not a legal expert and do not have any law background other than the fact that my mom is a legal secretary, my sister once worked as a lawyer, I once dated a lawyer and I was an "Assistant Legal Assistant" at my mom's firm one summer back in college. OK, so maybe I do have some legal background. Despite my just realized abundance of legal acumen, I am not going to bore you with the minutiae of the case. Rather, I wanted to give an overview of the events and look at how fascinating the case is as a reflection of issues of race, class and the workings of the legal system in this country.

Dave Evans, 24, Reade Seligmann, 21, and Collin Finnerty, 20, all members of the lacrosse team and all white, were initially accused of raping Crystal Gail Mangum, an African American escort service dancer, at an off-campus party in Durham on March 13, 2006. The Durham District Attorney, Mike Nifong (who was up for re-election at the time), came out swinging and insisted that a racially-motivated gang rape had occurred. The black community in Durham was up in arms and Nifong's words only served to stoke the fire. Many faculty and students at Duke spoke out in comdemnation of the three accused players, with students even putting up "Wanted" posters with their pictures and comparing them to Hitler.

Without getting into too much detail, it would be safe to say that Nifong's case had more holes in it than a paper target at an NRA rally. First, the DNA tests came back negative for all the players. Second, the accuser's story seemed to change each time she told it and could not be corroborated by anybody else at the party including a fellow dancer there with her. It was also suggested that perhaps Nifong was not as forthcoming with evidence for the players' defense teams as he could have been.

http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/563242.html

In an unprecedented action, the North Carolina State Bar removed Nifong from the case when it filed ethical and professional misconduct charges against him in December. Nifong ceded control of the case to Cooper's office in January. Basically this was the equivalent of Nifong saying "My bad, Duke lacrosse players. Sorry about the whole "making your life a living hell and dragging your name through the mud for a year" thing. No hard feelings, OK?" The Attorney General's office launched an investigation and found that there was no merit to Nifong's case and that the remaining charges against the players be dismissed immediately.

Having lived in Durham, I can say that racial tensions do indeed run high in the city. For example, Board of Education meetings were notorious for devolving into shouting matches between black residents and white members of the Board over issues of racism in their decision making. Also, there is definitely a latent hostility that exists between Duke University - perceived as a privileged, rich, white institution - and the poorer black communities in Durham that surround the campus.

Listening to radio coverage on NPR today a student at Central, a historically black university, expressed her disappointment with Wednesday's decision. To paraphrase, she said "I wonder if it had been three black players accused of raping a white girl if the outcome would have been the same." Though one cannot excuse the ugly racial slurs that were reportedly used towards the dancers at the party, it is one thing to utter some hateful words and entirely another to rape someone. Maybe the players are guilty of being boorish jerks, but it appears from an evidence standpoint that they were not guilty of rape.

That being said, one can't help but wonder if there is a nugget of truth in what the student said. If the roles were reversed and the players were black and the accuser white, would the result have been the same? Clearly, legal history has shown that the American justice system is not colorblind nor blind to the influence of wealth and power (see the O.J. Simpson trial for an example of each). Unlike the Simpson case this one will never actually go to trial. However, with the possibility of civil suits being filed by the players against Nifong this story is far from over.