A few of you may remember the Duke Lacrosse Rape case from 2006. Here’s a quick recap in case you don’t recall. On April 5, 2006, at an off-campus house outside of Duke University, a party was held for the Duke Lacrosse Team. A stripper was brought to the party, and at some point, the stripper accused three players of raping her. In addition, when she left, several players were accused of yelling racial epithets at the stripper, who just happened to be a student enrolled at a nearby historically black university, North Carolina Central University. The accusation triggered a major investigation by then Durham County District Attorney, Mike Nifong, who decided to charge 3 players with rape.
The resulting firestorm caused Duke University’s President to effectively fire the Lacrosse Head Coach, Mike Pressler and cancel the remainder of the 2006 season—no trivial matter for a team who had finished National Runner-Up the year before and was a favorite in 2006 to win the NCAA National Title. The Lacrosse Team was shunned by students and faculty alike. A group of Professors calling themselves the “Group of 88” published a controversial ad claiming the stripper’s side of the story to be fact, and at least one of the Professors failed 2 Lacrosse players for being on the team. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton showed up in Durham to support the stripper and ask for justice against the accused rapists.
But, from the get-go, inconsistencies showed up in the stripper’s story which indicated that she had not been truthful. Physical evidence did not exist on the alleged victim. Plus the alleged victim continued to change her story. Quietly in December 2006, some of the charges were dropped against the Lacrosse players. Then in early 2007, the North Carolina Attorney General, Roy Cooper took over the case, and on April 11, he made the stunning admission that not only were all charges dropped against the 3 accused Duke Lacrosse players, they were completely innocent. The accuser, one Crystal Magnum, had made up the story.
The aftermath of this bombshell was seismic. The NCAA reinstated the eligibility of all Duke Lacrosse players from the 2006 season. The Lacrosse Team, led by the 3 accused and cleared players, sued the University, Mike Nifong, and the city of Durham for damages related to the scandal. Nifong was disbarred and went to jail for his role in the scandal. The Group of 88 has never backed away from their claims, writing a Clarifying letter in January, 2007, but has since gone silent.
And now the postscripts…
The Duke Lacrosse players who were freshman on that 2006 team, finally achieved glory for Duke as Seniors, leading the 2010 team to Duke’s First Lacrosse National title. The freshman on that 2010 Championship Team just recently led the 2013 Duke Lacrosse team to a second Championship.
And Crystal Magnum? She has been arrested twice since the rape allegations, once in 2010 on attempted murder and child abuse charges among other things, and a second time in 2011 for Murdering an ex-boyfriend. Four months ago, she finally posted bond from her second run-in with the law, and she is expected to stand trial for the 2011 murder beginning on July 8th.
The Duke Lacrosse case was a full-blown scandal in many eyes when it came to light, inflaming racial passions, but has petered out as a story once the truth became known. To this day, MSNBC has not covered the story of what happened on April 11, 2007 and since regarding the Duke Lacrosse Case. It’s clear that MSNBC would like to sweep their involvement in trying to convict the Lacrosse players under the rug. ESPN did some coverage, but only in passing. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton suddenly went silent about the Duke Lacrosse Case and ran away from Durham as fast as they could. The last time Jesse spoke about the case, he was humiliated by Anderson Cooper.
So… what have we learned from this case? Nothing.
As Crystal Magnum is going to trial, another high-profile racial case has taken it’s place. The Treyvon Martin trial has inflamed racial passions again. I’m not saying the truth is similar to what happened in Durham, but the same passions are seen now in Florida. Ironically the George Zimmerman trial will occur around the same time the Crystal Magnum case will be tried. I wonder if anyone else sees the irony of those two trials.
From now on, I refuse to let racial passions cloud my judgment. We were fooled once. If we are fooled again, we have only ourselves to blame.
Moreover, North Carolina still does not have a speedy trial law; does not require transcripts of grand jury proceedings; nor has it instituted any of the other reforms which could help prevent another lacrosse hoax.
ReplyDeleteNifong never once interrogated his suspects; never asked them to give statements; and refused all offers to view their evidence. Thus he could retain "plausible deniability"--he didn't know that they were innocent.
All he had going for him was ability to seat a prejudiced jury.
(Some seventeen percent of potential jurors said in a poll that they would vote to convict even if the accused were innocent; black panthers had promised to bring their own kind of justice; and after the attorney general declared the suspects innocent, an editorial in a state college newspaper called for violence against them anyway.)
If this resembles the atmosphere in Scottsboro in 1931, it is no accident. Human beings are all alike and when appeals to prejudice are made, justice goes out the window. The justice system is supposed to guard against this, but as we have seen in Scottsboro, Durham, and now apparently Florida, it is a very weak shield indeed.