Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Well, it looks like the Duke Lacrosse case is over. Or is it?

Those of you who know me, know how much I hate Duke University. But, I thought from day one that the lacrosse players were innocent. I have been totally appalled at how this whole thing was handled by the police, the prosecutor's office, Duke University, and by the media. These boys were convicted by everybody before they even went to trial. I am damn glad that I was not in their shoes. I can't even begin to imagine what they have gone through and what they will have to endure for the rest of their lives.

Mike Nifong should not only be disbarred, he should be criminally prosecuted. I hope that the families of these wrongfully persecuted boys sue him for everything he has. The man should spend the rest of his life in shame and poverty (after he gets out of jail).

I can't believe that the State of North Carolina isn't planning on pressing charges against the accuser. I'm sure she has mental problems, but given her criminal history and her history of lying to police I think she deserves to be prosecuted. She has ruined the lives of three young men. In my opinion she should have to serve the same prison sentence that these young men would have faced if they were convicted of the crimes she accused them of committing. At the very least she should be prosecuted for the original public intoxication charge that she was facing before she concocted this fabulous story. It is quite obvious to me that she made up the story to avoid being arrested.

Let's not forget that this woman had previously accused three other men of raping her in 1993. She also accused her ex-husband of trying to kill her in 1998 and then failed to show up in court when the case went to trial. Those charges were dropped against her ex-husband becuase of her failure to appear. In 2002 she stole a taxi cab and led police on a high speed chase. She then tried to run over a police officer with the taxi cab and instead hit his patrol car. In the end, the accuser had racked up 10 charges, including driving while impaired, driving with a revoked license (her license has been suspended three times), eluding police, reckless driving, failure to heed a siren and lights, assault on an officer and larceny of a motor vehicle. In 2003, she pleaded guilty to four misdemeanors: larceny, speeding to elude arrest, assault on a government official and DWI. She served three weekends in jail, was placed on two years' probation and paid $4,200 in restitution and court fees. That's it. That's all she got. If they let her go again without any charges being filed I think it will just be a matter of time before she does something heinous again.

I also hope that the families of the Duke players sue Duke University. The University clearly found these players guilty before they heard all the evidence. They kicked them out of school, canceled the lacrosse season, and fired the lacrosse coach. They did all of this without any reasonable evidence that a crime had been committed. I feel that the president of Duke University should issue an apology and then resign. The Duke faculty that persecuted these boys should also be held accountable.

I'm not even going to comment on the things that Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson did and said related to this case. I'm just going to say that I feel both of these gentlemen should issue public apologies. I doubt very much that this will happen, though. I don't think either of these men really care about innocent people being persecuted. I think they only care about the personal publicity that they can gain by showing up and running their mouths.

Whatever happened to being innocent until proven guilty?