Quote:Duke Prosecutor Jailed, Settlement Talks Underway
Posted on Friday, 7 of September , 2007 at 6:07 pm

DURHAM, NC—As attorneys for the three exonerated athletes in the Duke lacrosse rape case reportedly met with Durham city officials in an attempt to hammer out a settlement, the disgraced and now convicted prosecutor in the case reported to the Durham County Jail Friday to serve a 24-hour sentence for contempt of court.

Former Durham district attorney Mike Nifong reported to jail at 9 a.m. Friday and was expected to be held in solitary confinement for his own protection.

It has been reported that the attorneys for the three athletes are seeking $30 million–$10 million for each to be paid over five years—as well as legal reforms.

The Associated Press is reporting that the attorneys are want an ombudsman to be created to review complaints of misconduct concerning North Carolina prosecutors. They are want Durham city officials to lobby for certain legal changes that would require state legislative action.

Last month, Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III found that Nifong had willfully made false statements to the court last September in the rape case when he said he had given defense attorneys all the results from DNA testing. The DNA evidence withheld by Nifong from defense attorneys would have immediately exonerated the three Duke athletes.

Nifong, who has been disbarred and forced to resign from office, could have been sentenced to serve up to 30 days in jail and fined $500.

The judge found that Nifong had given the defense a report on the DNA testing that he knew was incomplete and omitted results which indicated that despite the DNA of multiple men being on the stripper at a team party who claimed she had been raped by the trio, none of the DNA matched any of the lacrosse players.

In July, for the first time Nifong had admitted that there was “no credible evidence” that the three Duke lacrosse players had committed any of the crimes he had accused them of in relation to the alleged rape of an African-American stripper at a team party in March 2006.

Attorneys for three athletes, Colin Finnerty, David Evans and Reade Seligmann sought to have Nifong found in contempt for lying about the DNA evidence.

Despite an iron-clad alibi from at least one of the players and a DNA test which showed no genetic material from any of the three men could be linked to the stripper, Nifong had refused to drop the charges. The DNA testing showed material on the stripper from several other men not charged. Nifong waited months to tell the defense about this—while all the while insisting publicly they were guilty.

The North Carolina Bar found the veteran prosecutor had made misleading and inflammatory comments about the athletes under suspicion, withholding potentially exculpatory DNA evidence from the defense, and lying both to the court and bar investigators. Nifong was forced to drop the rape charges last December when the woman changed her story but he unwisely forged ahead with charges of sexual assault and kidnapping.

It was only after the Bar accused Nifong of violating the rules of professional conduct that he finally turned the case over to state prosecutors who dropped all charges in April, who said that the three players were “innocent” victims of a rogue prosecutor’s “tragic rush to accuse.

Following a trial in June, the bar association unanimously found that Nifong had engaged in “dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation”. He was disbarred for his prosecutorial misconduct emanating from the malicious prosecution. 9-7-07

Quote:Is 30-days in jail and a $500-dollar fine even remotely equivalent to justice?

Quote:... and being disbarred, losing your job, and your life's profession for which you've spent perhaps 15 years and over two hundred thousand dollars building toward. Plus, he will always wear that scarlet letter as the guy who tried to railroad some Duke players to further his political ambitions. So, he will be thinking about his bad choices for a long time as he delivers pizza's or washes cars for a living. Or, who knows? Maybe he will write a book and make millions.

Quote:And not concentrating on delivering pies willy nilly just to boost up his stats.

Quote:... and being disbarred, losing your job, and your life's profession for which you've spent perhaps 15 years and over two hundred thousand dollars building toward. Plus, he will always wear that scarlet letter as the guy who tried to railroad some Duke players to further his political ambitions. So, he will be thinking about his bad choices for a long time as he delivers pizza's or washes cars for a living. Or, who knows? Maybe he will write a book and make millions.

Quote:... and being disbarred, losing your job, and your life's profession for which you've spent perhaps 15 years and over two hundred thousand dollars building toward. Plus, he will always wear that scarlet letter as the guy who tried to railroad some Duke players to further his political ambitions. So, he will be thinking about his bad choices for a long time as he delivers pizza's or washes cars for a living. Or, who knows? Maybe he will write a book and make millions.

Quote: Is 30-days in jail and a $500-dollar fine even remotely equivalent to justice?
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/news/20.../nifong_jailed/

Quote:Yes, oh how sad sad sad his life will be now. But don't forget the worst part:

He will never, ever, be a member of the Country Club again!!!

(not because of anything he did, he just can't pay the dues any more)

-V
Karmic Retribution Cashier
The Forsaken Inn
"Tired of Bree? Try us instead!"

Quote:Oh, I don't know... I think Phi Beta Kappa is going to kick him out as well.

P.S. To the original post; I don't understand most sentencing these days. Justice is not only blind, but also demented and a whore for sale to the wealthy. You can get 30 years for possessing controlled chemicals, but serve only a few years for murder or the rape of a child. Or, as in this case, a day in jail for prosecutorial misconduct.