Wrongly Accused Duke Lacrosse Players Ask For Lawsuit Against Durham To Proceed

[bluestateguy]

It has been 4-5 years since this case, and I still get batshit angry thinking about it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/26/wrongly-accused-duke-lacr_n_982052.html

DURHAM, N.C. — A group of former Duke University lacrosse players wrongly arrested on rape charges in 2006 has asked a federal appeals court to let their lawsuit against the City of Durham move forward.

Cleared players David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann sued Durham and a list of officials that include the former city manager and former police chief.

more

[BillyJack]

1. Isn't that swaying opinion by starting out with "Wrongly accused"????

Don't know if they have been "wrongly" or "rightly" accused until we get to a verdict, eh????

edit: spelling

[Dreamer Tatum]

2. What's it like, waking up from a long coma, anyway?

They were not only wrongly accused, but they were declared INNOCENT.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

5. Not that the poster you responded to is one of them, but we have our...

.... contingent here on DU who act like those Japanese soldiers found in the jungle 20 years after the war ended. They should be along shortly to tell us how guilty the LX players are. LOL

[Hassin Bin Sober]

3. Huh? They were, in a rare occurrence, declared INNOCENT by the prosecutor who replaced Nyfong.

The only issue to be resolved his how much the defendants have to pay the LX players for damages.

[NavyDem]

4. All charges were dropped

and the DA handling the case was disbarred. DNA tests exonerated all of the accused. I think that settles wrongly accused.

[bluestateguy]

6. You do know about the history of this case, right?

They were charged with a rape that never happened and that they had nothing to do with.

The "victim" was serial liar. The politically motivated DA lied, fabricated evidence, hid exculpatory evidence, and railroaded these four Duke students. The Duke Administration, several professors and the usual campus agitators proclaimed them "guilty" before any trial could take place.

As it turns out, the case never made it to trial because the evidence was so non-existent. The case fell apart, the DA dropped the charges, the state Attorney General proclaimed the four men innocent in a public statement.

The DA was later forced out of office, disbarred and sanctioned for his professional misconduct.

[exboyfil]

8. Still the faculty who rushed to judgement and

trampled on the rights of the accused students and other students have never been brought to account for their actions. The same can be applied to the Duke administration who swept the whole event under the rug (opened the checkbook to do it). A summary from last year on where they are today appears on the attached

http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2010/05/what_ever_happened_to_the.html.

[pnwmom]

10. I agree. They behaved abominably, prejudging the guilt of their own students.

I'm amazed there wasn't more of a backlash against the University; I know I wouldn't have sent a child there.

[RZM]

12. As bad as Nifong and Magnum behaved . . .

From where I stand, the Group of 88 were the most morally bankrupt actors in this whole thing. At least the first two had excuses. Magnum's a nut and Nifong had an electorate to pander to (not that he's excused, but at least I can comprehend the impulse).

But 'The Group's' behavior was incredibly mean-spirited and stupefying in its intellectual dishonesty - the latter really means something when we're talking about people near the top of the heap in a very competitive profession where intellectual honesty is supposedly the most sacred of values.

Every single one of them is a disgrace to higher education.

[pnwmom]

7. Is that your idea of a sick joke? The state of NC officially declared them INNOCENT.

The state took the highly unusual step of declaring them innocent rather than not guilty, and released them before trial. So the State's pronouncement stands.

[markpkessinger]

13. Setting aside, for the moment, the fact that they were DECLARED innocent....

... even if they hadn't been officially declared innocent, and even if the DA hadn't been disbarred for misconduct, there is still something called the "presumption of innocence" in our justice system. That is, one is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Or have you forgotten that?

[pnwmom]

9. Me, too. And I'm also currently batshit about the Amanda Knox case

which has some strong similarities to the Duke case with regard to withheld DNA data files; a grandstanding, self-aggrandizing prosecutor; and a trial by media, with the defendants resented because of their status as "rich" white college students. (Raffaele's father is a wealthy doctor, but Amanda comes from a very middle class family in West Seattle; her parents are divorced and she was living with her school-teacher mother.)

Amanda and Raffaele are just as innocent as the Duke lacrosse players, and I hope those who support the Duke students understand this. In both cases, the prosecution withheld the critical DNA files, but the Duke students were luckier since Nifong's lab released the files before the case went to trial. In the Knox case, by contrast, the Judge of the original trial allowed the prosecution to withhold the original DNA files from the defense. It was only this spring, after the defendants had been in prison for three and a half years, that the appeals judge ordered the police lab to provide the raw data files to the defense. And an independent forensic review of the raw DNA files proved what the defense had been saying all along: the prosecution's claims about DNA were without foundation. (Also, the police lab had been hiding the fact that there were enough alleles on the bra clasp to make up at least 9 different DNA profiles -- in fact, the University of Rome expert said that there were so many alleles, that he could find anyone's profile there -- including the JUDGE'S.)

The verdict of the ongoing appeals trial is expected to be either Saturday or Monday. Unlike the Duke students, who escaped any prison time, Amanda and Raffaele have been in prison already for almost four years. The prosecutor, as a part of this appeal, is asking that their sentences be increased from 26 and 25 years to life in prison.

[The Northerner]

11. I'd behave similarly if I were defamed or wrongly accused of such a heinous crime

It's also quite saddening that 88 professors at Duke University rushed to judgement by prematurely condemning those lacrosse players with little to none offering an apology after so many years.

This is why we must all appreciate the principle known as the "presumption of innocence".

[Drew Richards]

14. not only declared innocent then the nut hooker/stripper goes nuts and stabs and kills her

boyfriend.

Sue em all I say GOV and the School for the 80 troll instructors that declared you guilty and destroyed your lives.

[slay]

15. I hope they sue that asshole who was running for DA at the time and trying to make a name

for himself. what a monumental asshole - Mike Nifong. i know he already faced an ethics trial - but i live very near durham and you've got to understand the damage he did between the white and black communities here - all to get elected. and public officials wonder why we don't trust them.