Duke student's attorney: Nifong "almost got away with it."

[pnwmom]

According to Joe Cheshire, some of their success (in proving the innocence of the three Duke students who were facing 30 year prison sentences for rape) just came down to luck.

And Nifong would have succeeded, if the defendants had been poor or indigent.

http://www.floridabar.org/DIVCOM/JN/jnnews01.nsf/8c9f13012b96736985256aa900624829/82ca64187aae158d852573130071c441?OpenDocument

SNIP

Cheshire added that the Duke case “has shone this light on the entire country to what we need to do to change our criminal justice system to make it better. What Americans have said finally — and I think very firmly — is we want tough justice but we want justice to be fair.”

The case also showed, he said, that “two justice systems do exist in America, one for wealthy people and one for poor people. And the poor people can’t defend themselves against the things we were hired to protect the Duke defendants from.”

SNIP

Cooney said now that the case is over, people have the impression that the system worked well and as intended and there’s no way Nifong could have gotten away with his massively flawed prosecution.

“The problem is that is nowhere near the truth,” he said. “There are at least a dozen happenstances . . . that if we missed something by just a hair, we would be in the middle of a jury trial right now. We would be in the middle of a jury trial with three young men who were innocent.”

SNIP

[napi21]

1. How true! If the students didn't have access to MONEY Nifong

would have gotten away with it!

[originalpckelly]

2. I'm glad that their own lawyers see it...

Because it's completely true. We have a very flawed system, and what's sad is that Bush is fucking it up even more because he's taking out what few safeguards there are against false imprisonment.

[pitohui]

3. i agree with this man

and i suspect this happens every damn day to poor or middle class people, in fact, i know people who have been falsely convicted and put in prison or forced to plead guilty to false charges in order to avoid being put in prison -- a good defence can cost five figures into the seven figures -- one of my husband's customers spent several million dollars to FINALLY be found what my husband told the FBI the first day they questioned him, that the guy was innocent

the system doesn't work, and the jury system is absolutely worthless for ferreting out the truth, even if you do get the right verdict, how do you come back from it financially?

[pnwmom]

4. I was disappointed that so many DUers

seemed to think the outrages of this case didn't matter, simply because the defendants COULD afford good attorneys. How can any of us not be outraged that it can cost MILLIONS of dollars for an innocent person to avoid a false prosecution?

[Stuckinthebush]

5. You and me both

There are still some here that feel that the boys should be in jail.

Amazing.

[Ian David]

8. That's how tax breaks for the wealthy trickle down to the rest of us?

1) Rich people get accused of rape.
2) Lawyers bill the rich people.
3) Legal secretaries get paid.
4) Kinkos and Copy Cop create millions of pages of documents
5) Media Circus camps in front of courthouse
6) Local hotel workers cater to media workers

You know...

Blah blah blah trickle-down blah blah blah thousand points of light blah blah god bless 'Murkika.

It finally makes sense now.

OMFG!

Bush was RIGHT!

:sarcasm:

[pnwmom]

9. LOL! n/t

[Ian David]

6. If it weren't for those meddling kids and their pesky dog!

[Madspirit]

7. Nifong

Nifong USED a very mentally disturbed woman, a woman he KNEW had emotional problems, to screw the lives of three boys. He deserves some jail time, just a bit, in my opinion. He played with lives, all the way around, for his own personal ambitions.
Lee

[pnwmom]

10. I wonder about the status of the criminal charges against Nifong.

Have you heard anything?