Nine months after a stripper leveled rape charges against three Duke University lacrosse players; eight months after long-time lacrosse coach Mike Pressler was fired and Duke’s lacrosse season was prematurely terminated; seven months after District Attorney Mike Nifong conspired with the crime lab DNA analyst to conceal the fact none of the DNA taken from the “victim” matched any of the accused Duke students, in order to press an inflammatory but false case for political gain; six months after Duke University refused to allow the two accused undergraduates, Colin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann, to return to classes at the school, the powers that be at Duke have decided to extend the presumption of innocence until proven guilty to Finnerty and Seligmann.
That’s mighty decent of them, don’t you think?
The problem is, the presumption of innocence is supposed to apply from the beginning. It doesn’t wait in the wings until the charges fall apart under a barrage of revelations of the prosecutor’s egregious misconduct.
The North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence is part of the Duke University School of Law. The professors and students who staff the NCCAI are right there in Durham, on the same campus as the Regents and Administrators who decided Finnerty and Seligmann were guilty as soon as the accusation was made. They could have dropped by the NCCAI offices to learn how innocent people are convicted of crimes they didn’t commit, or just looked at the NCCAI’s website at http://www.law.duke.edu/innocencecenter/ Perhaps they would have understood that they were making Duke part of the problem, on the one hand, while Duke worked to rectify exactly such problems, on the other hand.
Attorneys for Finnerty and Seligmann have said that Duke’s action in inviting them back speaks to the integrity and mission of the school, as well as to their clients’ (obvious) innocence. They give Duke far more respect and credit than it deserves.
Duke University has shown utter disregard for the rights afforded all of us under the U.S. Constitution. Duke University has set an example that is a stain on academia. Duke University should be ashamed.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Duke Lacrosse Rape Accuser Mentioned No Condoms Were Used
The stripper’s body was completely void of any sign of a sexual assault, the innocent boys were devoid of any scratches, bruising, or marks, and the alleged crime scene was completely devoid of DNA that would be expected in a violent gang rape.
It is impossible that a crime scene with three drunk men in a small enclosed room with a fighting and clawing woman being orally, virginally, and anally penetrated not leave any DNA evidence of urine, blood, vaginal fluid, sweat, fecal matter, scat smears, saliva, tears, or semen... especially if condoms were used. How would they take off the condoms during all this chaos without spilling, smearing, or touching the content inside or outside of the condom?
When investigators questioned the stripper after DNA tests on the semen from multiple men found inside her vagina and rectum didn’t match any of the Duke players on the entire lacrosse team, the stripper admitted to having had sex with at least three men around the time of the alleged rape including her boyfriend and two men who drove her to Duke.
The DA Mike Nifong didn’t talk to the prostitute about her wild claims of gang rape, in which she described in great detail, claiming no finders or any other objects were used to penetrate her, yet Nifong did conspire with the DNA lab owner to hide evidence that proves the three victims of this lie are innocent.
Post a Comment