{"id":3297,"date":"2007-04-12T13:29:19","date_gmt":"2007-04-12T20:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2007\/04\/12\/duke-lacrosse-players-cleared-of-all-charges\/"},"modified":"2007-04-12T13:29:19","modified_gmt":"2007-04-12T20:29:19","slug":"duke-lacrosse-players-cleared-of-all-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=3297","title":{"rendered":"Duke Lacrosse Players Cleared Of All Charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the New York Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n

RALEIGH, N.C., April 11 \u2014 North Carolina\u2019s attorney general declared three former Duke University lacrosse players accused of sexually assaulting a stripper innocent of all charges on Wednesday, ending a prosecution that provoked bitter debate over race, class and the tactics of the Durham County district attorney. […]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that these cases were the result of a tragic rush to accuse and a failure to verify serious allegations,\u201d Mr. Cooper said at a news conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no credible evidence that an attack occurred,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Mr. Cooper said he had considered but ultimately rejected the possibility of bringing criminal charges against the accuser, who continues to insist she was attacked at a team party on March 13, 2006, and asked him to go forward with the case. Mr. Cooper said his investigators had told him that the woman \u201cmay actually believe the many different stories that she has been telling.\u201d He said his decision not to charge her with making false accusations was also based on a review of sealed court files, which include records of the woman\u2019s mental health history.<\/p>\n

Mr. Cooper reserved his harshest criticism for the Durham County district attorney, Michael B. Nifong, at one point even depicting him as a \u201crogue prosecutor.\u201d […]<\/p>\n

The North Carolina chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. released a statement saying it respected and accepted the work of the attorney general\u2019s office. Irving Joyner, a law professor at North Carolina Central University, who had been monitoring the case for the N.A.A.C.P., echoed that theme, saying, \u201cBased on my personal knowledge of him and high respect of him, I accept his conclusions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Likewise, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, one of the largest such groups in the nation, released a statement saying it was satisfied with the attorney general\u2019s decision to drop all charges.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A few points:<\/p>\n

1) Race, Class and The Duke False Accusation<\/strong> ((Whether or not the Duke accuser was attacked, it’s clear that the three particular men put on trial were falsely accused.))<\/p>\n

(This is rewritten from a post I wrote in February.)<\/p>\n

It’s tempting to compare the Duke case to the Long Beach Beating case<\/a> and the famous Central Park Rape<\/a> case of the 1980s. In all three cases, a horrible crime was reported; in all three cases, there was enormous pressure from the public for arrests and convictions; and in all three cases, police and prosecutors used biased and unfair procedures<\/a> to concoct a case against a group of young people.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s not overlook one enormously significant difference: The Duke players were ultimately exonerated. That doesn’t make the unjust suffering the Duke players went through all right, of course. But what we’ve seen here is that the kind of railroaded conviction of poor, black suspects that happened in the Central Park rape case, and which I strongly suspect went on in Long Beach, simply doesn\u2019t fly when the defendants are rich and white.<\/p>\n

I’ve seen some conservatives imply that looking at these cases shows that white institutional power \u2014 and racism \u2014 are myths. But what I see is that the system pretty much works the way it\u2019s supposed to for white defendants, or at least for white defendants with some money; for us, the system doesn\u2019t convict without sufficient evidence. That\u2019s simply not true for black defendants. And that\u2019s why comparing these cases convinces me that institutional racism is still treating non-whites like crap, and still matters, and still needs to be fought.<\/p>\n

2) I’m still not naming names.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’ve already had demands that I blog the name and photo of the Duke accuser, as some <\/a>other <\/a>bloggers have done. I’m not going to do that. ((Nor have I ever blogged the names or images of the three accused players, that I can recall.))<\/p>\n

I certainly agree that a tremendous injustice was done to these three men by broadcasting their names and images all over the country. But publishing the name of their accuser will not undo that harm. As I argued a year ago<\/a>, neither the names or faces of the accuser or of the accused<\/em> should be made public in criminal cases. ((I can imagine particular circumstances in which there\u2019s a genuine public interest in knowing the name of the accused before the trial is over — for instance, if the accused criminal is a politician. But that’s not the case in the overwhelming majority of cases.))<\/p>\n

Obviously, some suffering is an inevitable result of being arrested. But having your names and images broadcast on network news is not <\/em>inevitable; it\u2019s a result of an irresponsible decision made by the news media. If someone is found guilty of a crime, then the harm done by deferring broadcasting their names and faces until the trial is over is minimal; but when an accused person is innocent, the harm done to them by having their names and faces made public is both avoidable and significant.<\/p>\n

3) Why Does The “Presumption Of Innocence” Not Apply To The Accuser?<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Marcella notes<\/a>, many commenters who, a year ago, were saying that it’s wrong for anyone to believe a rape accusation without a “guilty” verdict in a court of law, are now saying that the accuser made false rape allegations.<\/p>\n

This is obviously a double-standard. If it’s wrong to conclude that someone is a rapist before he’s had a trial, then it’s also wrong to conclude that someone has made a false rape accusation before she’s had a trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the New York Times: RALEIGH, N.C., April 11 \u2014 North Carolina\u2019s attorney general declared three former Duke University lacrosse players accused of sexually assaulting a stripper innocent of all charges on Wednesday, ending a prosecution that provoked bitter debate … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-duke-rape-case","category-race-racism-and-related-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3297\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}