Duke Case: The Worst Worsens
By Thomas Sowell

In his book "The Great Crash 1929," John Kenneth Galbraith said: "The
worst continued to worsen." The same can be said of the Duke
University "rape" case and District Attorney Michael Nifong.

After all this time, it finally came out in court last week that the
DNA samples collected from the underwear and private parts of the
alleged victim contained DNA from other men -- but none from the Duke
lacrosse players who were accused of raping her.

The head of the DNA testing laboratory testified in court under oath
that both he and Nifong knew this and kept it secret.

You think that is incredible? How about a statement made afterwards by
District Attorney Nifong that he didn't say anything about this
publicly because he was "trying to avoid dragging any names through
the mud"?

He certainly did not avoid dragging the names of the Duke lacrosse
players through the mud. He not only denounced them, they were paraded
in handcuffs in front of the national media. Their pictures were on
every television news program across the country.

If these young men get completely exonerated, this episode will still
follow them the rest of their lives. Yet they have not been convicted
of anything and have not even gone to trial -- which is scheduled for
next spring, if it ever takes place.

Indeed, they have not even been interviewed by the police or by the
District Attorney who issued denunciations of these white lacrosse
players when he was running for office and making a play for the black
vote.

Nor has the District Attorney interviewed the woman who claimed to
have been raped. In a "he said, she said" situation, anyone interested
in the credibility of the two sides would at least have tried to find
out what specifically they claimed.

But that is only if you care about the truth, rather than the politics
of the situation. Politically, the District Attorney had a black woman
who claimed that white men had raped her. That's all he needed to get
elected.

Nifong has shown from day one what he was interested in. Showing the
"rape" victim only photographs of white Duke lacrosse players was a
violation of the basic principles of a lineup.

People who are known to be innocent are included in lineups just to
test the credibility of whoever is identifying those picked out as
guilty.

If you pick out somebody who was known to be overseas at the time,
there goes your credibility. But District Attorney Nifong was not
about to risk having the accuser's credibility tested, and certainly
not before his election.

All the evidence that has come out has pointed the other way. One of
the alleged rapists has a paper trail that shows he wasn't even there
when he was supposed to be raping the "exotic dancer."

A black cab driver says he was with him, going to a bank's ATM to get
some money -- and bank records show him there at the time when he was
supposed to be committing rape.

When confronted with the fact that DNA tests failed to show that any
of the Duke lacrosse players' DNA was present on the "exotic dancer,"
Nifong said that they could have used condoms.

Every part of your body has DNA that is left wherever you have had
bodily contact. When you shake someone's hand, you leave your DNA.
Each Duke student would have to have had a giant condom covering his
whole body to avoid leaving DNA on someone he raped.

Far more is involved in this case than the misdeeds of one District
Attorney. There is a segment of the black community -- a small
segment, we can hope -- that figures it is payback time for all the
black men who have been railroaded to jail on trumped-up charges
involving the rape of white women.

The local branch of the NAACP, an organization which fought against
such injustices in times past, has thrown its weight behind those who
are trying to railroad three white students, who were not even born
when these other injustices occurred.

Winston Churchill once said, "If the past sits in judgment on the
present, the future will be lost." Nowhere is that more true than when
dealing with the explosive mixture of race and politics.

Nifong deserves to be removed from office and disbarred. If he gets
away with all this, it will be a blank check for every prosecutor in
the country to abuse the powers of the office.


--
Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not
on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away
with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone
are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices
me wherever I am or whatever I do. -- EPICTETUS

"There are no absolute certainties in this universe. A man must try to
whip order into a yelping pack of probabilities, and uniform success is
impossible." -- Jack Vance

"Civilization is the interval between Ice Ages." -- Will Durant.


"Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.
--Will Durant

Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMverizon.net

DNA samples collected from the underwear and private parts of the
alleged victim contained DNA from other men -- but none from the Duke
lacrosse players who were accused of raping her."

Nifong deserves to be removed from office and disbarred. If he gets
away with all this, it will be a blank check for every prosecutor in
the country to abuse the powers of the office.