<p>Breathtaking column by Jemele Hill!! BRAVO!!! Could not have been said any better! :)</p>
<p>Thank you for posting that MOWC !</p>
<p>And on the flip side…</p>
<p>I was watching a program last night on which Malik Shabazz, leader of the New Black Panthers, was being interviewed. It truly wigged me out to listen to this <em>very</em> twisted man repeat over and over that he would <em>never</em> issue an apology to the LAX players and to continue to assert that the accuser was a “victim” at the hands of them and of society. All this while calling the interviewer a “prostitute.” Very telling. And disheartening.</p>
<p>~berurah</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/hsedits/56-838547.cfm[/url]”>http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/hsedits/56-838547.cfm</a></p>
<p>The Herald Sun calls for Nifong’s resignation.</p>
<p>There was an article in our local paper about the ‘‘apology’’ - but this statement really caught my eye…</p>
<p>… in what appeared to be a plea to the athletes not to take any further action - such as a lawsuit…</p>
<p>For some reason - I could not agree more about the jist of his apology - sad man that he is.</p>
<p>You know, the more I think about it, the more I’d love to see the man spend the rest of his natural life in jail, if someone can find a few crimes to charge him with. </p>
<p>Just remembering at the lawyers around the table at the press conference - did you count them? Yikes, how expensive that must have been - I keep hearing “$3 million” ringing in my ears, not to mention the unmeasurable emotional trauma, but, back to the economics of it, the loss of the three young men - their education, career development…I wonder how much money is the total cost…there’s $150,000 easy right off the bat, each of the young men spent a year NOT working, NOT in school, etc…plus how this might play out impactive to their careers over time.</p>
<p>What I do not understand is this - Nifong took control of the investigation, and therefore was in charge of obtaining as much evidence as possible to determine whether to bring and pursue charges. If you look at his appallogy (spelling intentional) even in the best light, he is saying that he was unable to do his job over the course of nine months and yet Roy Cooper’s team was able to definitively do it in three. So - why should he still be the DA even under the best case scenario for this words?</p>
<p>I don’t know how these things work down there, but I could envision the possibility of the State Bar folks and Nifong and his lawyer agreeing to a resolution of his ethics case along the lines of the following:</p>
<p>Resign your office; keep your law license (though possibly with some sort of suspension).</p>
<p>“Does she understand she has tanked not only her credibility, but that of other women, too? Does she understand the next time a woman comes forward with an allegation this serious, all of our minds will scroll back to this case, and we will be less inclined to believe her? Does she know women with legitimate sexual-assault complaints will look at this furor and decide silence is best?”</p>
<p>This is what I’m most concerned about going forward. The three young men are only the first victims of the accuser’s lies. This has the potential to hurt lots of other people, too. Actual rapists may end up going free in the future as a consequence of these lies.</p>
<p>Even if NC decides not to prosecute the accuser for making false statements, I hope that someone responsible is keeping an eye on her kids.</p>
<p>just to give ya’ll a chuckle (in the midst of this serious conversation)</p>
<p>Here is a link to Jon Stewart’s take on the lax story, it really skewers Nancy Grace. I don’t know if ya’ll remember, but she has been a real villain in this whole thing.</p>
<p>Anyway, ENJOY</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXizCq6ODTg[/url]”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXizCq6ODTg</a></p>
<p>ag54 , that is a hilarioius piece.</p>
<p>That is hilarious…it ended too soon LOL.</p>
<p>Oh, Lord - ag54 - I’m still wiping the tears from my eyes. That’s the hardest I’ve laughed in a long time! Just perfect.</p>
<p>ag54- Can’t wait for the sequel! ;)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.news14charlotte.com/content/local_news/?ArID=136680&SecID=2[/url]”>http://www.news14charlotte.com/content/local_news/?ArID=136680&SecID=2</a></p>
<p>“RALEIGH – A disciplinary committee rejected a request Friday to dismiss ethics charges against the former prosecutor in the Duke lacrosse case that accuse him of withholding critical DNA evidence from the defense.”</p>
<p>That must be a thankless job - defending Nifong. I cannot even imagine how it must feel to be his defense attorney. Maybe it’s like being a doctor, say, using all of one’s professional knowledge and skill and going the extra mile treating someone for lung cancer who has been a lifelong chainsmoker…</p>
<p>Well, the chain smoker only hurt himself. Nifong railroaded kids he knew to be innocent so he could win an election. And then continued to smear them. I feel sorry for chain smokers, but not Nifong.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Believe me, having represented, let’s see, a slew of dope dealers, a guy who participated in the gang-related murders of three teenage boys (who had made the mistake of asking the wrong people for help in scoring some marijuana, only to be stabbed repeatedly and left to bleed to death in a car at the end of an alley on a cold winter’s night), and a serial killer who, in one instance, befriended the mother of a little girl, took the girl away from her mother on Mother’s Day under the pretense that they were just going to buy a present, then left the girl’s dead body to rot in a vacant building, where it was finally discovered two weeks later, I - like most defense lawyers - would hardly consider representing Nifong a “thankless job.” Not even close.</p>
<p>You want to know what can be difficult about representing a lawyer? It doesn’t have anything to do with how they got themselves into trouble. It’s that they tend to want to question your strategic decisions. And they often don’t take direction well at all.</p>
<p>Yeah, but, epistrophy, at least your lot sounds intellectually interesting and even somewhat “exotic”, from a sociological perspective, and viewed through the lens of someone who will never be an actual lawyer, and who hopefully will never need to be about hiring one for anything other than contract stuff. Plus those types of cases - seems like something to hone your skills with. </p>
<p>Nifong, comparatively is just plain yucky. His legal matters aren’t even interesting, just stupid, boring, and yucky.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>On the contrary, I think that Nifong’s “legal matters” could be extremely interesting. </p>
<p>Consider: Phi Beta Kappa at UNC; three years in social work before going to law school; so dedicated to public service that, upon graduating from law school, he initially works for the DA’s office for free; several decades as a prosecutor widely respected for his professionalism and integrity.</p>
<p>And then all this.</p>
<p>No, I think that Nifong’s story raises a whole host of interesting questions.</p>