When last we checked, the North Carolina State Bar had filed ethics charges against Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong for his handling of the Duke lacrosse rape case. (Dec. 29) After receiving an extension of time, Nifong has filed his reply to the charges. Blogger K.C. Johnson, who absolutely owns this story, has the details: here and here. The short version, according to Johnson:
The thesis of this filing: Nifong did nothing wrong, and if he gets the chance to engage in massive prosecutorial misconduct in the future, he’ll seize it. This is a man unethical to his core.
4 Comments
It looks like Mr. Nifong is a textbook example of the Peter Principle at work.
I’m just an average citizen who, fortunately, has never had to go into a courtroom for anything. But just looking at this guy makes me wonder if he has some mental imbalance. Why doesn’t he just admit he was wrong?
Nifong is truly an evil man. He was willing to send three young men to jail for 30 years just so that he could get his pension. What we learned from this case is that an unscrupulous district attorney can use the unbridled power of the state to corrupt justice. Fortunately the facts of this case were made public and there were enough individuals (KC Johnson, in particular) and news organizations (60 Minutes in particular) that were willing to step forward and expose the corruption of justice being perpetrated by Nifong so that finally the bar association was forced to take action.
Moral of the story: Don’t try to frame people that can afford good lawyers. I wonder how many poor men Nifong railroaded similarly?
There will soon be a new legal term in our lexicon -now, when accused persons are asked why they invoked their Miranda rights and asked for a lawyer right away, they can say they were concerned they might get “NIFONGED”
This guy is a buffoon. He has put a black eye on the entire legal system in this country.
I also think “idiot” and Nifong should become synonyms in the next Websters dictionary.
John