Duke Professors Free to Smear

While it appears the Duke rape case has unraveled and the unctuous Mike Nifong is headed for disbarment, those who sit in their lofty ivory towers are still free to smear with impunity.

John Podhoretz reminds us that academic freedom means there really never is any price to pay when you slander people.

Yet some of the most disgraceful actors in this case will go unpunished.

I'm referring to a huge cohort of the professors at the top-flight university attended by the three unjustly accused men.

Some 88 of them - more than 10 percent of the entire Duke professoriat - engaged in a shocking rush to judgment in the weeks following the party where the accuser falsely alleged she had been raped.

They signed an ad declaring they were "turning up the volume at a moment when some of the most vulnerable among us are being asked to quiet down."

Their shameful conduct helped create the lynch-mob atmosphere that tempted and seduced DA Nifong to believe he could ride an indictment of the three young men to political victory in the Democratic primary that took place only weeks after he charged them.

It is not too much to say that many of the adults at Duke, who should be stewards for their students, actually wanted the false rape story to be true because it fulfilled their ideological predilections.

Since the academic work of those who organized the ad centers around the notion that the white male power structure subjugates and violates all those who are neither white nor male, the case was actually a dream come true for them.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Fox reports all charges will be dropped.

Double Standards at NY Times

K.C. Johnson exposes the hypocrisy of the old, grey hag in the Duke rape case.

NAACP Urges Fair Probe of Duke Case

Now that the case has unraveled, leave it to the NAACP to come out for fairness. After three young men have been railroaded, they want fairness.

DURHAM, N.C. - The state chapter of the NAACP on Thursday called on those involved with the Duke lacrosse sexual assault case — from defense attorneys to state bar officials — to stop talking publicly while the state attorney general's office begins its review.

Now that we look bad, let's not discuss the matter any longer.

"Nobody knows the totality of the facts," Barber said. "We do not expect, nor should North Carolina citizens condone, a resolution of this case based on biased and political or public pressure from the public or any overzealous supporters on either side. What we must do is insist that we follow the facts wherever they lead and face the facts when they are all in."

They're not interested in the facts.

Duke's PC Travesty

Positively Orwellian, says John Podhoretz.

NC State AG Takes Duke Case

The pipsqueak Nifong scurries away.

RALEIGH, N.C. - The state attorney general's office agreed Saturday to take over the sexual assault case against three Duke University lacrosse players at the request of the embattled district attorney.

Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, hamstrung by a flip-flopping witness and dogged by allegations that he made inflammatory statements to the media, asked Attorney General Roy Cooper's office Friday to appoint a special prosecutor.

"I wish I could tell you this case would be resolved quickly," Cooper said at a news conference Saturday. "Since we have not been involved in the investigation and prosecution, all of the information will be new to our office. Any case with such serious criminal charges will require careful review."

It better be resolved quickly. Nearly ten months now, and these young men deserve their lives back.

Allahpundit has more.

Cowardly Nifong Wants Out

What a punk Mike Nifong is. Drags this case out when all evidence says there never should have been any indictments, and now he tries to cut and run on a Friday afternoon. What a worm.

DURHAM, N.C., Jan. 12 — The district attorney in the Duke lacrosse sexual assault case asked the state attorney general on Friday to take over the troubled prosecution, saying he faced a conflict of interest because of ethics charges filed against him by the state bar, officials involved in the case said.

The decision by the district attorney, Michael B. Nifong, throws new doubt on the future of a prosecution that has already suffered several sharp setbacks.

A spokeswoman for Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s attorney general, confirmed that the office had received Mr. Nifong’s request and said it would be discussed on Saturday. If Mr. Cooper agrees to review the case, it will remove a prosecutor who has become a lightning rod for fierce and unrelenting criticism.

Defense lawyers were jubilant, openly predicting that no prosecutor in the state would continue with a case that hangs almost entirely on the shifting accounts of the alleged victim, a stripper who claims she was assaulted after performing at a team party in March. The woman, who was consulted before Friday’s recusal, remained firm in her desire for the case to go forward against the three former lacrosse players, an official involved in the case said.

I have serious doubts this case could possibly proceed. The only ones who should now be facing charges are Nifong and the alleged victim.
Meanwhile, it doesn't appear the families of the accused players will just let this go.

The fact that Nifong withheld the information and knew it before he indicted their sons has outraged the parents of the accused. "You felt like someone hit you with a baseball bat. … It was almost too much to bear, as we sat there," says Kathy Seligmann, whose son, Reade, is among the three indicted players. "And [Nifong is] sitting 10 feet away from us."

It enraged Mary Ellen Finnerty, mother of Collin Finnerty, another indicted player. "I think [I felt] one of the strongest feelings of rage that I've had … I literally had to turn to my husband, because I was shaking from my head to my toe, and say, 'Hold me down,'" recalls Finnerty. Adds Seligmann, "And we had to hold on to each other because when you sit there and put two and two together and realize that it was calculated … set up to make these boys appear to be guilty of something they didn't do."

When asked what they would say to Nifong if he were in the room, Rae Evans, the mother of indicted player David Evans, says, "I would say with a smile on my face, 'Mr. Nifong, you've picked on the wrong families … and you will pay every day for the rest of your life.'"

Lawhawk has a big roundup with several updates.