Bloggers To The Rescue

The (Rump) Group of 88 Strikes Again

Two hundred ninety-five days after issuing their statement, the Group of 88 has re-emerged, in a defiant statement posted yesterday.

Operating under the moniker Concerned (of Being Sued) Duke Faculty, the 88 is now 87. Though losing more than two dozen of its members, Group leaders somehow rounded up an almost equal number of faculty members who hadn’t signed the original ad. That such a cohort would, after the fact, affiliate with a widely discredited and discreditable statement might be the most amazing thing we’ve witnessed from the Duke arts and sciences faculty over the past 10 months.

It was fitting that the Group of 88 made its re-appearance on the same day that one of its most prominent members, Karla Holloway, released scurrilous fifth-hand gossip to the local media.."

Nifong's Ripples Reach General Assembly

With the egregious nature of Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong’s prosecutorial misconduct now approaching universal acceptance, the effects have begun to spread like ripples across water. It has been predicted here, and elsewhere, that the effects of the Hoax have, or will, extend to future rape victims, race relations in Durham County and beyond, academia as a whole and Duke University specifically, the mainstream media, the blog-o-sphere, and elsewhere. A clear presentation of Nifong’s ripples, however, has already begun to emerge within at least one realm- the legal profession as a whole and the criminal justice system in particular.

Michael Nifong hijacked the Hoax on Friday, March 24, when he usurped the role of chief investigator from the Durham Police Department. On Monday, March 27, Nifong began the media blitz that would lead to the ethics charges he now faces. By March 30, his errant behavior led to his first rebuke from an attorney, and the State Bar would open a file on the ethics complaints.

“In the first weeks of the Duke lacrosse case, Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong continued to disparage lacrosse players in public after a defense attorney had put him on notice that he was violating ethical rules governing the conduct of lawyers.

"Your reported comments have greatly prejudiced any court proceedings that may arise," Joe Cheshire wrote on March 30, three days after Nifong began making public statements about the case.

"I do not understand why you will reportedly speak to the media in such certain, condemning terms before all the evidence is in, but you will not have the courtesy to meet or even speak with a representative of someone you have publicly condemned, despite your knowledge of the presumption of innocence and your position as an officer of the court bound by the Rules of Professional Conduct related to pre-trial publicity."

Two blogs of note: "Durham-in-Wonderland" (the initial link above), and "Liestoppers, Blog Hooligans", have chronicled the Duke Hoax Norape Case from the first lie onward, and are a must read. A faculty that saw an opening to weep about injustice, a DA who needed a political boost, and last but NEVER least, a local police department that went where their masters said to went.