Update V (6/5): Steve at Pardon My English says FOX News reported a pending ethics complaint against DA Mike Nifong. (Warning: Some of the comments are vulgar.)
Update IV (6/2): I appreciate the links you’re sending, new/first-time readers, but I’ve been blogging about this case since April 10. I’ve covered almost everything that’s been reported. The links you’re sending are “old” news articles and info I blogged about weeks ago. Check out the Duke Rape Case category to read link- and opinion-rich posts from the last two months. Thanks for reading! 
By the way, here’s new info: Duke’s lacrosse team will be reinstated next week.
Update III (6/1): An indicted player’s father e-mailed and thanked me for having the courage to blog about this case. As long as the sham case continues, I’ll be on hand to balance the coverage.
Update II (5/31): I don’t know how I missed this op-ed. David Brooks, a former conservative who became a liberal (don’t ask me how!) [confused him with David Brock. Sorry for calling you a liberal, Mr. Brooks!], says the Duke lacrosse team has been unfairly vilified and recognizes the obvious class envy fueling the vilification.
Covetousness is so unattractive, people. God says it’s bad, too.
Brooks writes (registration required – bypass with BugMeNot):
But now that we know more about the Duke University lacrosse team, simple decency requires that we return to that scandal, if only to correct the slurs that were uttered by millions of people, including me.
We know now that the Duke lacrosse players are not the dumb jocks they were portrayed to be. The team has a 100 percent graduation rate. Over the past five years, 146 members of the team made the Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Honor Roll, twice as many as any other ACC lacrosse team. According to the faculty report written by law professor James E. Coleman and others – which stands out as the one carefully researched and intellectually honest piece of work in this whole mess – “The lacrosse team’s academic performance generally is one of the best among all Duke athletic teams.”
We also know that the lacrosse players are not the amoral goons of popular legend. The current and former black members of the team are “extremely positive” about the support they received. The coach of the women’s lacrosse team says relations between the men and women are respectful and supportive.
…
The members of the lacrosse team were male, mostly white and mostly members of the suburban bourgeois middle class. For many on the tenured left, bashing people like that is all that’s left of their once-great activism.
Many conservative, including me, said this from the very beginning. Bored white liberals and camera-hogging black “leaders” found something to keep them busy. Even before reading details about the rape allegation, however, I instinctively knew that three white boys at a party did not rape a black stripper. I just knew it. By now we know why Nifong pressed on with this dumb case although he had no evidence linking the players and the stripper.
The hunt for the Great White Defendant was mostly media generated, but many were willing to join the hunt, too.
Update (5/30 @ 2:34 p.m.) I can’t believe how outrageous this is. Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann, arrested and indicted for rape, turned themselves in peacefully and each posted $400,000 bond. In my limited knowledge of bonds, that is unprecedented.
Some idiot wanted for first-degree rape runs from the police and is charged with resisting arrest, and he receives only a $150,000 bond!
Update (5/30): According to History News Network, DA Mike Nifong is under investigation by the state bar’s ethics committee. There are lots of links, too.
Women will regret glomming on to this phony rape case at Duke and referring to it as an example of negative stereotypes about black women and “breaking the culture of silence.” The Duke stripper cried rape for CYA purposes, and anyone who can’t see that is willfully blind. Rape victims and women who work with rape victims are fools for standing behind the false accuser.
This case isn’t sexy (or politically beneficial) enough for Nifong.
———————————————————————————————————————
Ho-hum. More Duke Envy. Read this:
I never believed the day would come when we’d see an educational institution so flagrantly stupid, so selfish, so conspicuously aloof. Evidently it’s Duke, supposedly one of America’s more honorable institutions of higher learning.
What did Duke University do this time, you ask? Last week the Duke women’s lacrosse team wore headbands with the word Innocent on them as a show of support for the accused men’s lacrosse players, and Duke did nothing to prevent it. For this, Duke is “dumb,” according to liberal journalist Stephen A. Smith.
He adds:
These 18-, 19- and 20-year-old women evidently were either ignorant or insensitive to the fact that there were 94,635 rapes in the country in 2004, according to the FBI. Or they weren’t aware that rape is one of the most underreported crimes, which one would think should heighten any female’s sensitivity radar.
Make sure you understand what Smith is saying. He implies that women who publicly support men accused of rape are “ignorant or insensitive” because of “94,635 rapes in the country in 2004…”
According to Smith, the women should suspend all judgment about this tale of rape because 94,635 rapes occurred in 2004. I wonder how many were also false allegations?
Following Smith’s line of reasoning, no one should support or believe anyone accused of murder because there were 16,137 murders in 2004. I’m sure a few perpetrators of those 401,326 robberies had supporters, particularly where the accusers’ stories were full of holes and, to borrow a word from Smith, dumb. What about women who supported Kobe Bryant? Were they also “ignorant and insensitive?”
What’s ignorant is supporting and believing a woman whose fairytale of a gang rape story is increasingly implausible and rapidly unraveling. What’s dumb is campaigning for and supporting quadruple murderers like Tookie Williams, who, despite all the protestations, was justly executed for his crimes. As dumb as it was for blacks to support double murderer O.J. Simpson simply because he was black, most people didn’t say so publicly. Perhaps dumber, more ignorant, and more insensitive is a district attorney who is sworn to uphold justice but caves to political and skin color pressures and allows three men to be indicted for serious crimes based on scant evidence just so he could secure a re-election.
Ragging on Duke some more, Smith writes:
To think, once upon a time, academic institutions were held in high regard, a transitional haven for those moving from their teenage years to adulthood. What are we to think now when it’s clear that even at places such as Duke there’s an absence of common sense.
Failing to prevent a group of women from wearing “insensitive” sweaty headbands is evidence that Duke lacks common sense? I wonder where Duke’s canceling the lacrosse team’s remaining season based on shaky rape allegations, suspending the accused players from school, hiring two biased “researchers” with agendas and no pretense of objectivity to write a biased report on the investigation, and fueling race and class tension fall on Smith’s “common sense” scale? 
Now, the danger of generalizing in a blog post like this is that I may attribute ideas and motives to Smith that he neither thinks nor believes. But that’s the danger of writing publicly. As I am well aware, people often read whatever they want into what you write and ascribe all kind of motives to you that you don’t have.
But let’s give it a shot. If I’m wrong, perhaps Smith will e-mail me and set me straight. I suspect that he is more concerned about the accuser’s race than her sex and wouldn’t care less about the women’s lacrosse team’s headbands if the accused men were black. Smith’s beef is with Duke University’s deserved elite status and the privileged white lacrosse players. Whatever is in Smith’s mind, a column in a major, mainstream newspaper is an ideal forum for disguising his contempt as “journalism.”
Implicit in Smith’s fluff piece is that women can’t think for themselves and form their own opinions about whether men are innocent of rape charges or women guilty of false allegations in the court of public opinion. Since rape happens overwhelmingly to women, women are incapable of making rational judgments about rape. Why feminists aren’t all over Stephen A. Smith for this column is a mystery.
The rest of the column is not worth commenting on. I simply had to say something about Smith’s most egregious, absurd, and logically unsound statements.
But I’ll make one more comment. 
Smith makes a statement that reveals unintended irony, something obviously missed during the editing/proofreading process. He berates Duke’s administrators and the lacrosse women, then adds this gem from out of left field: “There were strippers, alcohol and disorderly conduct at the men’s lacrosse team’s party. How anyone who wasn’t there could possibly think they know anything is beyond me. But that’s why we call them kids.”
How a man who wasn’t there, either, could possibly think he knows anything is beyond me, especially one who calls women who support accused rapists ignorant. But that’s why we call him a biased journalist.
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I saw S. Smith on Bill Mahr complaining about Jesse Jackson sticking his nose in the Duke rape case. So now he has changed his tune it seems.
Although I think the gals should refrain from acting as judge and jury with the headband statements.
JDNICE
I just googled him, and he appears to be just a sportswriter, but it would be a low blow to imply that sportswriters are not qualified to give an opinion. (sarcasm on) I get all my opinions from rock stars
Damm, I guess it was wrong of people to claim the Scottsboro boys were innocent.
These civil rights activists evidently were either ignorant or insensitive to the fact that there were 30,000 rapes in the country in 1930. Or they weren’t aware that rape is one of the most underreported crimes, which one would think should heighten anyone’s sensitivity radar.
Why is it that people who call others dumb and dumber are the dumbest themselves?
I guess this guy is just another genius in France.
I watch The Sports Reporters that runs on ESPN on Sunday mornings. John Saunders, the host, gave what is known as his “parting shots,” which is essentially an opinion. Well, he opined on the Duke women wearing the “innocent” armbands, and he basically agreed with Smith’s assertion that these women were ignorant and should be sent to some re-education camp because they had the gall to support the men. Without saying so directly, he strongly implied that the men were guilty because they hired the strippers and the one guy sent that fantasy email.
Yes how insensitive of those female lacrosse players. With that many rapes in the country, to have to nerve to make a statement about the ONE that they are actually acutely familiar with.
Someday, somewhere, a liberal columnist will make a statement that makes sense and my head will explode.
Isn’t Philadelphia the city where that Black Panther taxi driver was convicted of shooting a police man after being found with gunshot wounds at the scene and even his own brother did not testify on his defense?
Perhaps if Mr. Smith had balls, he could request that people stop supporting Mumia. I think he would get a different reception attacking the Black Panthers and friends than attacking a college woman’s lacrosse team (this might be sexist of me?)
Disclaimer: I am against the death penalty for the same reason Mark Furhman is: legal mistakes happen and the death penalty if final.
LaShawn:
Stephen A. Smith is not a credible journalist, I read his columns everyday here in Philadelphia, and he lacks focus and substance in his writing. He is trying to be a media darling, which no doubt takes back seat to his shallow writing.
The scary thing about Smith is that the folks who’ll make up the jury pool in Durham are less sophisticated than he is … if this can be believed.
This means, like Smith, they’ll convict the Duke Lacrosse Players not because of the evidence or lack there of, but because each year there are 96,000 rapes in the U.S.
ricland
Hmm… how many women on the lacross team are black?
The question of ingorance lies in that answer.
Duke lacrosse girls rule!
They’re not only taking a stand for justice and the victimization of these boys, but they’re also standing up for all real victims of rape.
Women who make false acccusations of rape hurt real victims of rape
Smith demonstrates that Leftists are the most racist of all.
He accuses White men of not being able to control themselves.
He also accuses White women of not being able to control themselves.
Sexist and Racist.
PS – What color is Smith?
If he is White, he is trashing his own race – racist.
If he is Black, he is trashing Whites – racist.
Our “White Guilt” does get tiresome, doesn’t it? Thank you to both you and Mr. Steele for highlighting it.
Remember Tawana Brawley? False accusation. Misled and entire nation for a decade. Her accomplice still has not admitted his guilt.
The Duke (lady) Lacrosse Players have the gusts and integrity to say the obvious–that people are innocent until convicted!
This brother makes some of the most idiotic comments….
I have tried to watch his new show on HBO, but ever since he did that episode about gay athletes, I stopped watching the show completely.
When the truth is revealed, I’m going to make a list – and check it twice – of people who gave the woman the benefit of the doubt but not the men. I’m going to do a big story about the revelation and seek quotes from journalists like Smith.
“Any attention we got for the wristbands paled in comparison to having the media staked outside of our practice and the girls’ dorms,” Duke women’s lacrosse coach Kerstin Kimel told reporters after the team’s loss Friday. “Of watching your friends be arrested; watching your fellow students not support fellow students; watching professors not support students.”
The above is from Smith’s article. Hooray for coach Kimel! Hooray for someone who stands up for herself and her team, despite the repercussions that were sure to follow. Hooray for the young women on the LaCrosse team who had the courage to say, we’ve had enough! Hooray for the strong advocates for justice that they will become in the future as they leave college and go on to become the leaders of tomorrow.
Mr. Smith states in his article:
“It’s worth repeating that the three men who have been accused – Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans – are innocent until proven guilty.”
Isn’t it just possible that the purpose of the “innocent” sweatbands were reminding us of the same? These young men had their entire life histories displayed in the press. We all know where they live, which high school they attended, the appraisal value of their family homes, which dorms they lived in when on campus. They may be found “not guilty” in a court of law, but they will never be “innocent” to a large number of people. For the next several years, they will always looking over their shoulders for the likes of the NBPP waiting for the opportunity to engage in vigilante justice.
I hope the reports of an ethics complaint being lodged against Mr. Nifong are true. I hope his life is devastated the same way he has treated these “thugs” and “hooligans.”
The fact that as women they were willing to do make this expression of support speaks loudly. No woman takes a position on rape without having someo personal understanding or emotion asscoiated witht he thought of being raped, let alone an actual rape or attempted rape. Far be that two bozo male journalist like Stephen A. Smith and John Saunders could understand this better.
I applaud the team’s courage.
I wonder if the wuss Broadhead is going to suspend the women’s lacrosse team’s season next year.
The Duke men’s lacrosse team engaged in under aged drinking, writing foul e-mails, and hiring strippers. They were previously warned to shape up. Now they have had their season canceled and their coach fired. They may even have their sport dropped from the athletic roster. (The President of Duke will decide by the end of June if the program will live or die.) The team is certainly not “innocent” in the sense that little lambs and new born babies are.
BUT, they have been shamefully slimed as rapists and three of their players have had their reputations pulverized in the media grinder. It is in this sense that most of us believe they are “innocent” or at least due the presumption of innocence until the Nifong “show trial” runs its course.
I really don’t know whether the Duke men’s knitting team has had some illegal beers or urinated in public, but I would not be too surprised if they have.
The point is, if Duke men’s lacrosse is canceled, shouldn’t the Duke women’s lacrosse team have a strong reason to worry about their own future? Isn’t sportsmanship one of the hallmarks of athletics? The women showed solidarity with the men’s program by wearing the wristbands. They were telling the world of athletics that lacrosse is not a “guilty” sport because of the charges made against a few of the players.
Too many people are hung up on whether a rich white person at an elitist school is ever really “innocent.”
To be fair, I think the season cancellation for the lacrosse team was for the drinking party with strippers, not the rape accusation. That is a reasonable punishment given the underage aspect of some of the participants. You wouldn’t see a big 12 football team get their season suspended because of such a party, but that is a separate issue.
I’m pleased to hear that Nifong is being investigated for ethics. I suspect there may be a bit of fire associated with the smoke we can see.
The only people that are ignorant are the fools that have seen the evidence against the duke mens team and still believe the stripper. In time it is her that will be in jail for her false accusation’s.
I would be very surprised if there are any repercussions against her. Remember, she has been a “victim” her whole life.
My absolute disgust for Mr Nifong grows daily. I had hoped that when they went before the judge recently, saner heads would prevail, yet I sat there and watched as the judge TOTALLY KISSED NIFONG’S BUTT and acted quite dismissivley to the defense attorneys.
It is the twilight zone only weirder.
Is it just me or do the Durham Police seem utterly incompetent? Maybe the fish just stinks from the head down and they are being influenced by Mr Nifong.
I have a new acronym for Mr Nifong:
D.A.: Devious Architect
Honestly, I would not be at all surprised if after 70 media interviews were granted prior to an election in which Mr Nifong knowingly dispensed FALSE information (read ‘rape drug’, read ‘no tox tests’), that he will in fact be granted a gag order.
It seems like the entire Durham Justice System is in on this together (just my opinion).
I bet someone ends up deep throating on this whole thing. It’s gonna make for one hell of a story.
From Chris….I would be very surprised if there are any repercussions against her. Remember, she has been a “victim†her whole life.
I would be very surprised if there is ever any type of recant from her as well. Alcoholics and serious alcohol abusers, which is what I beleive her to be, rarely admit they personally did something wrong. To do so would indirectly acknowledge the wrong of abusing alcohol to themself, because that was the true catylist of the course of events.
Even in the face of over-welming evidence and testimony, she will never admit it didn’t happen. Instead, she will say she can’t handle the pressure and wont cooperate. Thus, leaving open the impression of her reality that alcohol played no part in it.
This will be a great disservice to the players, the community and women.
How could anyone JUDGE the competence or lack thereof of the Durham police? The incredible INcompetence of the prosecuter, (”I’m Going to Ride This Case Back Into Office”) Nifong.
Does Nifong know of or remember the Sam Sheppard case in Cleveland, Ohio? I grew up in Cleveland and that case was indelibly a part of my childhood, with everyone taking sides even before Dr. Sheppard was arrested and subsequently convicted. THIS IS THE CONVICTION THAT F. LEE BAILEY GOT OVERTURNED BY THE U.S. SUPREME COURT BECAUSE OF THE JURY POOL BEING PREJUDICED DUE TO PRETRIAL PUBLICITY. Need I say more?
Even IF (and it is a big “if” in my mind) these lacrosse players did do something wrong (beyond their purported use of a racial epithet I find more than distasteful but hardly illegal), how now would an untainted jury pool be possible?
As it happens, I was a working newswoman at the time of Sam Sheppard’s retrial and I observed first hand and was myself subject to the unbelievable restraints put on the press corps by the judge in the 2nd Sheppard trial. There were things we saw during that 2nd trial that boggled the mind and they never saw the light of day in the press. And what really, truly frightens me is that if the press continues to mistake freedom for license, those kinds of restrictions will become commonplace rather than unusual and that will be the beginning of the end for our system.
And for this, we might have a 2nd rate prosecutor in what should be a no-brainer non-case to thank!
Ghastly thought.
Asked about the Kennedy assassination, Malcolm X is reported to have said,
“Chickens coming home to roost”
I never did find out exactly what that really means, but somehow it seems appropriate now, and indulge me while I attempt to explain why.
The history of lynching in the South and North Carolina in particular makes the treatment of the Duke Lacrosse accused a joke.
Hundreds of black men were lynched in South Carolina during the 20th Century and judging by the photos, these events were regarded by white Southerners as wholesome entertainment. Many attended with their female folk and children and toting picnic baskets filled with fried chicken and Peach cobbler were not considered in bad taste (no pun).
In these lynchings the cause of action was a white woman — any white woman — accusing the black man of any “untoward” behavior no matter how harmless (14 year-old Emmit Till merely whistled at the white woman they lynched him for)
For example, there’s a case on the books of a black man knocking on the door of a white woman’s house when she was alone. She sent a message to the folks in town that he “gave me a fright” and that’s all it took.
A lynch mob was called, the black man tracked down, brutally beaten and cruelly lynched.
So, regarding the Duke Lacrosse boys, let’s not forget that lynching is American as apple pie.
ricland
ricland,
Not to be rude, but what is your point?
I believe Richland is saying that whether the Duke men are guilty of rape or not, they should still be punished because of their evil white ancestors. It’s the poor-me black man’s version of “reparations.” As an black woman, I must consciously prevent myself from following the same demented line of reasoning when it comes to perceived “race” cases. Trying to refrain from pulling the “all of today’s white men are blue eyed devils and deserve to die to compensate for the horrors of the past” card isn’t easy when the majority of blacks can’t differentiate the sins of the past from the opportunities of the present. The Duke men are innocent until proven guilty…
La Shawn, this comment has more to do with the top post where you don’t have comments open: Psalm 37-I just posted about it on my site- “High Way 37 Revisited” the theme of Psalm 37 is: Do not fret because evildoers seem to thrive, win, have success in life. No matter how evil a person is-their evildoing ends at the grave, and then comes God’s judgement.
Don’t fret, La Shawn-reading Psalm 37 will bless you.
The absolute best Nifong can hope for, in the unlikely event that these cases ever make it to trial, is a hung jury. I am assuming he can find a couple of folks who will vote to convict the players simply for being white college athletes. My prediction, based on 10 years in law enforcement, is that the cases will never actually make it to trial. I also would imagine that Nifong has threatened the stripper with a long jail term and loss of her kids if she recants her story at this point. The DA has made a sham of this case from the beginning, and acted in a manner that strongly calls into question his ethics; I personally hope he ends up being disbarred for his actions.
No, this is not what I’m saying at all. I’m just trying to give the hysteria sounding the incident a context most people aren’t aware of.
Racial rape hysteria is an earmark of the South, as Southern as Mint Julep, or atleast once was. It has a long and proud tradition. There are still white and black folk who can recite chapter and verse about incidents they witnessed.
And so now the people acting irrational over an alledged rape are black folk and everyone is in a state of astonishment because of it.
Right here in this blog, for example, people are calling people like Stephen Smith maniacs, racists, and more. But what do you call the families who attended lynchings of black men with picnic baskets filled with fried chicken sandwiches and thick slices of peach cobbler?
In other words, what’s happening in Durham is nothing new. Indeed, the fact that it stopped happening for a while is what’s new — up until 100 years ago, lynching people was considered great theatre in North Carolina. Everyone would drop what they were doing and rush to see one when it happened then walk away happy and proud to be a Southerner.
And not just white trash. The entire white community would turn out.
Context …
ricland
Ric, where are you from? I was born and raised in the South, and the “racial rape hysteria” you speak of hasn’t been seen or heard in these parts for 50 years. In fact, you’ll see more interracial pairings down here than anywhere else. For a taste of actual racial rape hysteria, re-examine the Scottsboro Boys case. Sounds like you’re the one who’s hysterical, so get a grip.
– Admin
“The history of lynching in the South and North Carolina in particular makes the treatment of the Duke Lacrosse accused a joke.”
This is a logical fallacy of since there were/are greater wrongs, let’s not waste or time on minor wrongs. This fallacy can be shown by:
The current history of about 7,000 blacks THIS YEAR murdering fellow blacks in particular makes the 3,500 lynchings over the past 125 years a joke.
“The entire white community would turn out”— that is not true.
While lynchings no longer happen when black men are falsely accused of raping white women, such false accusations appear to be more common than black women falsely accusing white men. Half of all DNA rape exonerations involve white women accusing black men. We have cases like Kobe’s, the case of Christy Brzonkala falsely accusing college football players, Antonio Morrison and James Crawford, accusations of sexual assault against Bill Cosby, etc.
The interesting thing is that most blacks feel that the stripper is lying, yet many have allowed the media to turn this into an “us vs them”. If people ignored the media and allowed the system to do its job, the media would eventually stop its sensationalism. But we unfortunately feed them when their sensationalism is often used as an excuse for race bashing.
To me, a woman has accused some men of rape. Bring on the evidence and if she lied, lock her up.
Didn’t we cover this before, Shade? Cross-racial misidentification and the fact that black-on-white rapes are more common would account for higher “false accusations.” Actually, “false convictions” is the better phrase. And I agree with you on the media. A brood of vipers…- Admin
Unfortunately, Richard is right about the “let’s protect our white women” obsession. That seems to be part of the racial viewpoint.
(And now we see it repeated today, with a different hue, with the belief that white men are obsessed with black women, who have to be protected.)
Which only proves that we are all cut from the same (human) cloth, and respond in the same ways, and are capable of the same deviations.
But two wrongs don’t make a right. Because someone was murdered a hundred years ago, doesn’t make it right (or “justice”) to murder an entirely different person a hundred years later. It only puts the murderers into the same class.
And I think I should say this, too :
If you can bring me the klansman who lynched someone a century ago, and then want to lynch him, I would agree that justice would be done.
But selecting at random just any white person, a century later, to repay that debt, is not justice, it’s just another injustice.
This has no news and only has value in what not to do in court:
Second Lacrosse Party Dancer Makes Obscene Gesture In Court
http://www.wral.com/news/9294698/detail.html
A second exotic dancer who performed at a March 13 Duke University lacrosse team party where a woman says she was raped and assaulted by three athletes made an obscene gesture at a television camera during court proceedings on Tuesday.
When Kim Roberts noticed WRAL’s camera in the courtroom, she made the gesture and then stuck out her tongue.
“When the truth is revealed, I’m going to make a list – and check it twice – of people who gave the woman the benefit of the doubt but not the men. I’m going to do a big story about the revelation and seek quotes from journalists like Smith.”
Email me if you need help. I’ve got nearly
every article from Google News, from the
beginning.
“And what really, truly frightens me is that if the press continues to mistake freedom for license, those kinds of restrictions will become commonplace rather than unusual and that will be the beginning of the end for our system.”
Gayle, wake up and smell the coffee already;
the mainstream media is already hopelessly
corrupt. It hung itself on its own leftist
noose long ago, without any help from the 2nd
estate (the government, since the media took
over as the 1st long ago). I trust them for
names and dates only.
I’ve had this driven home to me ad infinitum.
ricland:
A few facts about lynching:
1). Many whites were lynched.
2). Being lynched does not make one innocent of a crime
3). The current data on black-on-white rape suggests (to me at least) that most of those lynched (for rape at least) were guilty.
I found another story with more details on the Durham quadruple murder. While drugs may have been found in the house and who knows to what extent one/they were dealing, they don’t seem like typical gang members with no future to me:
from
http://www.newsobserver.com/145/story/444574.html
All were in their 20s and had either attended college or earned four-year degrees.
A statewide records check showed that none of the four killed had ever been charged with dealing drugs or any other serious crime. Tests for cocaine use performed as part of the four autopsies all came back negative.
Lennis Harris Jr., a 1999 graduate of Durham’s Hillside High School, had rented the townhouse a few weeks before. Lying nearby was his first cousin, Jon Skinner, 26.
The two men had been close their entire lives. Skinner was a basketball standout at a high school in Winston-Salem. Both attended St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh, though neither was enrolled at the time of their deaths.
Lajuan Coleman, 27, was Harris’ housemate. He was a graduate of Durham’s Southern High School and went to Florida A&M University on a basketball scholarship. He later graduated from Old Dominion University in Virginia with a degree in biology.
Jamel Holloway, 27, was a 1997 graduate and three-sport athlete at Hillside High. He later earned a degree in sports medicine from Livingstone College in Salisbury and was a volunteer wrestling coach at Hillside. He worked nights at a Durham group home, where family members said he often bought clothes and paid for haircuts for needy children.
For anyone really interested in the “facts about lynching” view this Flash documentary:
http://withoutsanctuary.org/main.html
Then google “Emmet Till.”
ricland
It’s a nasty thing to bring up, but I believe the Duke stripper’s case has hurt the business of black sex workers nationwide.
It would be interesting if the media would interview a few and get their opinions. I know, I know, they are not the “experts” with Ivy league degrees who are always available to engage in punditry on any subject – but I would be interested in this from a black sex industry worker’s perspective. What unique insights do they have on it, and they could put 2 or 3 behind screens for TV – or have a journalist or Blog journalist interview a few for print.
1. Has this Duke scandal hurt your business?
2. Do you believe the accuser is lying? If so, why?
3. Do you believe the accuser? If so, why?
4. Have you encountered racism from clients or club patrons who are not black?
I was not making a point about the media being corrupt, since anyone with operational brain cells know that. I WAS making a point that because of the insanity surrounding this case due to the actions of one, 2nd rate prosecutor, gag orders on the press will become commonplace and THAT is a chilling prospect. As a trained journalist, the abandon with which even so-called respectable news media wantonly trash victims and the accused on a regular basis is truly offensive as well as frightening for the future of our formerly free (and even fairly unbiased) press! As you may have guessed from my coverage of the 2nd Sheppard trial, I am no kid and I have a really LONG memory of how it used to be.
It’s a nasty thing to bring up, but I believe the Duke stripper’s case has hurt the business of black sex workers nationwide.
– Chris Ford
Not to mention all the bad press their pimps are getting.
ricland
The history of lynching is nothing compared to today’s white liberal feminist who supports the ‘Klan in the (planned parent) Hood’ exterminators.
For the life of me, I don’t see what the history of slavery in the Carolinas has to do with this case. This case involves three individuals who have been accused of a heinous crime by another individual. The only question is whether there is sufficient evidence to support the indictments and/or a conviction if the cases proceed to trial.
I initially thought there was some strong evidence supporting the charge. I was particularly disturbed by the fact that the accused told the police her fake fingernails tore off in fighting the rapists off and the fingernails were later recovered from the bathroom. However, we now know that the accuseds’ DNA is not on those fingernails, which is what you’d expect if they tore off in a fight. Pretty much all of the other evidence that has come out points either to innnocence or at the very least severely undermines the accuser’s credibility. I’ve come to the conclusion that the charges are phony, and that no rape took place.
Again, this has nothing to do with race. It’s just the facts, that’s all.
From a news perspective, though, the reason the case is so interesting is because the crime alleged occurs so rarely. As others have pointed out, whatever the history during the slavery era might have been, the incidence of white men raping black women today, in 2006, is practically nil. In other words, this case is like a story about a man biting a dog, whether it’s true or not, it’s unusual enough to be interesting.
Ricland writes:
For anyone really interested in the “facts about lynching†view this Flash documentary:
http://withoutsanctuary.org/main.html
Then google “Emmet Till.â€
——————————–
While it’s entirely unfortunate that Emmett Till was murdered in the 1950s and that a white jury “nullified†the prosecution, it’s also unfortunate that 4 blacks were recently murdered execution style in Durham, but neither sheds light on today’s rape case.
But since you brought it up, if you took the time to Google Emmett Till you might find
1. How to spell “Emmet†correctly with two “Tâ€s.
2. That Emmett did more than just whistle at the white woman. Not that it excuses murder any more than if the 4 Durham man were murdered because they fought back or disrespected their attackers.
3. That a black man, an employee of one of the white murders was most likely involved because everyone including the grand uncle that gave Till to the white men thought he was just going to get a beating.
4. Emmett’s murder was a beating gone bad, not a vast conspiracy, just like the Durham quadruple murder was likely a robbery gone bad.
5. Depending on who you believe and if you don’t count any black man’s involvement, the 2, 3 or 4 people in a shed involved technically does not meet the definition of a “lynching†and certainly not a public lynching where everyone came out to watch.
6. The white women “insulted†by more than a whistle, tried to keep the news from her husband to let the situation slide. It was Emmett’s bragging about his success with white woman to his friends and “insulting” the white woman in front of his friends and the resulting gossip that got the town talking, not that he deserved to be beat or murdered for it.
While Emmett’s Tills funeral photographs was a great way to focus attention on civil rights, the clearly wrong murder and jury nullification, don’t believe your own PR that every one in the South cheered them on any more than every black cheered OJ murdering two whites.
In the grand scheme of things, this case is clearly not worthy of all the attention it has received in the media. Paradoxically, that’s one of the reasons I find it so fascinating and search for more information about it.
Back when it was first reported, I was appalled and thought “how awful, I hope they prosecute those goons to the fullest extent of the law”. The yellow flags started going up, though, when I heard about the protests. That didn’t smell quite right.
From that point on, every piece of evidence I’ve heard about has been more or less exculpatory. It seems pretty evident to me at this point that the allegations are false and that the accused players are almost certainly innocent. What surprises me is the degree to which some folks believe these players are guilty as charged in spite of what seems overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
I’m a white guy and maybe I just don’t get it. La Shawn, can you explain to me why it seems that some folks (mainly of the liberal variety, both black and white) cannot seem to look past the races of the people involved and view the facts objectively? Maybe I’m the one who’s biased but the evidence looks pretty one-sided in the players’ favor at this point.
P.S. What’s a gravatar?
The present case has NOTHING TO DO WITH LYNCHING. Why do you keep attempting to interject irrelevant history into a current criminal case? In other words, what is YOUR agenda, Ricland? And it is quite clear that you have one.
Race-based politicking is very powerful and profitable. Nobody making a decent living at it will give it up or allow others to discount it. For more info, read this blog’s archives and become a daily reader.
Have you heard of an avatar? It’s a representation of a person in a particular virtual space (video game, chat room, web site). A gravatar is a globally-recongnized avatar, one that can be used across the web in different virtual spaces.
#51, Gayle, I have a guess as to the answer to your question. Ricland is saying he/she is not going to feel bad for the media lynching of these white boys since white folks ate peach cobbler at the actual lynching of Emmitt Till 56 years ago (or so). I’m not defending the logic (or lack thereof), just sayin’ …
As I was closing the window on the site suggested by RicLand, I was surprised to see Till’s father presented as a veteran who died in WWII:
Mamie Till learns that Private Louis Till has died while in Europe. She is not given a full report of her ex-husband’s death. One of his few possessions received by Mamie is a signet ring inscribed with his initials, L.T.
———————————
The sins of the father don’t in any way justify slandering or murdering the son, so I won’t repeat the public record. I’ll put it as nice as I can. Tills father was dishonorably discharged from the Army and then died of causes totally unrelated to combat.
Even read the biased site, it’s obvious that the local law enforcement arrested the two white men on kidnapping within two days, before the body was even found.
Asked about the Kennedy assassination, Malcolm X is reported to have said,
“Chickens coming home to roostâ€
————–
Wasn’t that one of the Klan’s arguments justifying the murder of Till, because of what Till’s father did?
My point was to place the hysteria sounding this case into context. If you visited the link I gave you saw among other things the photo of a naked black man swinging in the air as his tormentors douse him with coal oil.
He is still conscious. Sometime later he was set afire.
Context …
ricland
Ricland,
And the point of the “context” is what? These white Lacrosse players don’t have it so bad? Does the murder of Emmett Till (and others) justify what the media have done to Seligman, Finnerty and Evans? In “context” should we not protest the injustice just because others have suffered worse? Truly, you have no point.
Sincerely,
Norm
Ricland,
The comment about you having no point was too terse. I should have toned it down before I hit the “post it” button. My apologies.
Regards,
Norm
Three (admittedly, white) lacrosse players are accused by a black stripper of rape. And, although the evidence is – at best – flimsy (no DNA matches at all), an overambitious prosecuter, proceeds to hold multiple and inflammatory news conferences before bringing his so-called evidence before a grand jury and subsequently charging three of the 49 lacrosse players with rape. There exists ample exculpatory evidence to indicate that NONE of the 3 lacrosse players did anything other than operate their mouths in an offensive manner – and there isn’t really any proof (only allegations) of that!
Meanwhile, our “victim” is shown to be quite fond of yelling “rape” and has done so on at least two prior occasions. Evidence of her possible intoxication either has not been obtained by the Durham police or, if it has, the prosecutor is withholding it from the defense, along with some other evidence of HER prior criminal record.
Then the prosecutor wins a hotly contested primary contest and now is, apparently, secure in his job. And suddenly the trial is delayed until mid to late 2007 (Speedy trial for a defendant – what’s that?), and there are indications the case may never come to trial.
The lives of ALL the lacrosse players, not only the 3 who have been indicted, have been indelibly harmed since the University in its rush to judgment has suspended all of them!
Basically – this is how I see the case and there is no “lynching” happening – except possibly to the three indicted lacrosse players!
“Ricland is saying he/she is not going to feel bad for the media lynching of these white boys since white folks ate peach cobbler at the actual lynching of Emmitt Till 56 years ago”
I don’t think Ricland actually said this, but he implied this by mixing some refreshments at some lynching 100 plus years ago with Emmett Till with a selective memory.
It’s clear from the trial that the only person within earshot of the shed where Till was beaten and murdered was an 18 year old black sharecropper/student, who later bravely testified and had to leave town.
If my memory is correct, he thought this was just a beating, not a lynching and did not want to get involved, until it became a murder case.
Duke Lacrosse Rape Accuser Mentioned No Condoms Were Used
It seems the defense keeps finding more to support their side of things, with each new piece of information they get. Now from that stack of 1,300 papers, they have discovered that the stripper accuser mentioned no condoms were used. No condoms and…
The stripper’s body was completely void of any sign of a sexual assault (except for signs of recent vaginal and anal from her boyfriend). The alleged crime scene was completely devoid of DNA.
It is impossible that a crime scene with three drunk men in a small enclosed room with a fighting and clawing woman being orally, virginally, and anally penetrated not leave any DNA evidence of urine, blood, vaginal fluid, sweat, fecal matter, scat smears, saliva, tears, or semen… especially if condoms were used. How would they take off the condoms during all this chaos without spilling, smearing, or touching the content inside or outside of the condom?
When investigators questioned the stripper after DNA tests on the semen found inside her vagina and rectum didn’t match any of the Duke players, the stripper admitted to having had sex with at least three men around the time of the alleged rape. The stripper named her boyfriend and two men who drove her to Duke.
When questioned, the “drivers†said they would drop her off at several places, including hotel rooms.
It appears that the stripper has sex with men for rides to her strip shows…Nasty!
Ricland, I asked you a question you either ignored or didn’t see it in this comment: http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2006/05/29/lacrosse-women-ignorant/#comment-70225
Where are from, and where you’re getting this information? It sounds like you’ve watched “Gone With The Wind” too many times.
I’m not approving your comment until you answer the questions.
Betty –
While your pithy comments are normally good, perhaps you get into the “anatomy of the case” with a little too much relish?
I don’t think either the defense or prosecution has leaked where the accuser had semen deposited in her. You are claiming that it was found BOTH in her vagina and rectum. What is your source for this?
Re: post # 61… I think she meant “or”, not “and”.
Lashawn,
TROLL ALERT. I believe Ricland may be the banned “Mike” from “Ace’s Place”. He is sure drinking the same Kool Aid. Keep up the good work, nothing to report from campus. Yeh, It’s summer!! Kemp.
#60, I stand corrected. It wasn’t that particular lynching where they ate the peach cobbler. Oh, and I should clarify it was big slices of peach cobbler. And fried chicken sandwiches.
Actually, I think it was LEGAL public executions of people of all races throughout the USA in the 1800s that evolved into a carnival atmosphere with refreshments and souvenirs being sold – which is why public opinion turned against public executions and they were stopped.
A few people thought bringing children to public executions would deter future criminals, as in Scared Straight. A few masochists went to see people die.
Some people went to see murders and rapists receive justice – granted white justice as a lot better than black justice.
What I meant by “racial rape hysteria” is the response of the black community. They’re ignoring the facts about the supposed victim and responding to her allegations in a hysterical manner.
This hysteria is evidenced by Stephen Smith’s opinion piece, the Christ-like support Nifong is getting from the black community, and ultimately, the conviction of the Duke Lacrosse boys if this trial is held in Durham(which I’ve been informed it won’t).
Like the lynchings of 50 years ago, the question of guilt is unimportant. These people want blood; they want to see these boys sacrificed at the altar — drawn and quartered and then their entrails burned before their dying eyes.
My secondary point was that this racial rape hysteria did not happen in a vacuum, that it is rooted in white racial rape hysteria.
White racial rape hysteria was unlike any vigilante justice known. The Emmit Till case is a textbook example. This 14 year-old child was beat to near-death with baseball bats, then while still concious, thrown in a lagoon to drown.
His crime?
Whistling at a white woman.
So, whites lynched blacks because they felt they were sub-human. Blacks seek to lynch the Duke Lacrosse players because doing so affirms the notion the our women are just as human as white women.
Sacrificing the Duke Lacrosse players will do this. It will let white America know — using white America’s own bloody techniques! — that we’re just as human as they.
As to the three innocent young men who will have their lives destroyed, like Jesus Christ said, “sacrifices must be made.”
ricland
HUH????
I agree with Kemp. “Ricland” is Ace’s “Mike” — gotta be, just gotta be. So LaShawn, time to ban, just gotta ban.
“Blacks seek to lynch the Duke Lacrosse players because doing so affirms the notion the our women are just as human as white women.”
No, it affirms the notion that racists–white and black–usually harbor the silly notion that everybody is obsessed with the other color’s womenfolk.
“Sacrificing the Duke Lacrosse players will do this. It will let white America know — using white America’s own bloody techniques! — that we’re just as human as they”
Or, that blacks can turn out to be just as nuts about race as whites.
We already had the ultimate sacrifice for sin; we don’t need another one.
Tatercon,
Had que at Watfords in bishopsville,sc today on the way back from beach, no beer there either, but you do get “hash” in sc. Ricland is diffentantly “Mike”, but he is pretending now to be black, instead of gay. I think he’ll move the traffic up, so Lashawn don’t ban him yet. Wait a while and we call it a lynching! Kemp
All I’m trying to do is get at the real reason black folk support people they know are guilty or not guilty.
We knew OJ was guilty as hell.
We know the Lacrosse stripper is lying through her teeth.
So why do we support these people?
Saying only ignorant blacks is no more helpful than saying only ignorant whites were lynchers.
Look, you can’t enslave a people — treat them like animals — for 200 years and then one day say, “Ok, you’re free. Let’s shake hands and make like none of that happened,” and expect folk to shake your hand.
ricland
Ms.Barber said that the the accuser made the accusation to cover herself…from what? That is the question that I have been asking for sometime now; what was her motive for making this accusation? I am hopeful that Ms. Barber can give us that information, since she made the statement.
I was reading today that the police were going to have her involuntarily committed. It was upon learning this that she gave the rape story.
Don’t know if this is true or not, I just read it.
So, Delwyn, you haven’t read any of the 11 or so posts I’ve written about this case since April and haven’t followed any of the news stories I took the time to link to in the posts? You haven’t followed the case at all? Don’t know about the stripper’s previous record from 2002 stemming from a drunken car chase and trying to run over a cop? I and many others believe she made up the rape story to deflect attention from being drunk that night and other criminal-related reasons. Possible parole violation? Who knows. I and others believe she has serious problems and/or fantasies about gang rape because 10 years ago she made gang-rape accusations against…you guessed it. Three men.
I REALLY like when people comment on my blog, but it’s very irritating when they don’t follow the threads or the story, then ask me to answer questions I’ve answered before. There is no “us” to give information to because regular readers read the posts and follow the links and know exactly why I write what I do.
I created a Duke Rape Case category to make it easier for new or infrequent readers to keep up. If you read each post, you’ll learn more than you ever wanted to know about this case and my opinion of it:
http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/category/duke-rape-case/
Considering the accuser could
1. NOT describe any of her attackers without looking at Lacrosse team pictures,
2. and then when she did look at them she didn’t identify Evans,
3. then 3 weeks later said she was 90% sure if he had a mustache, which he has never had,
4. and that only ‘inconclusive’ DNA evidence existed on one of her fingernails (which Evans himself picked up and handed to the cops),
it is truly remarkable to me that Evans was indicted (on 400k bail no less) when another rapist who resisted arrest and fought with police was given only $150k bail.
So basically, this young man has been indicted with NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER!
Just really beyond belief.
I am just curious, what would happen if a young man from the party now came forward claiming the the accuser had, in fact, attacked, beaten and brutally raped him? (yes, women can rape men)
Would she be arrested on 400k bail? No evidence you say? Who needs evidence? Change your story 10 times? Who cares? Criminal past with history of substance abuse? That’s cool. Arrest her now!
If this accuser files a civil suit (do I even need to say ‘if’?), are there any legal grounds for the defendants filing charges against her for blackmail?
Why not, counter-sue.
“Tatercon,
Had que at Watfords in bishopsville,sc today on the way back from beach,…..” Kemp
South Carolina ‘cue? Was it the mustardy stuff?
Or is it just Maurice (now there’s a restauranteur with a race baitin’ history from the old white school …) that serves up the mustardy stuff around Columbia?
Give me my eastern NC style any day….
Tat
Ricland,
You should read the sites that you recommend before recommending them.
Even a biased site admits that most people like you formed their opinions the sensational headlines and not the facts:
“You ain’t chicken, are yuh, Bo?” another youth taunted him.
Bobo had to fire or fall back. He entered the store, alone, stopped at the candy case. Carolyn was behind the counter; Bobo in front. He asked for two cents’ worth of bubble gum. She handed it to him. He squeezed her hand and said: “How about a date, baby?”
She jerked away and started for Juanita Milam. At the break between counters, Bobo jumped in front of her, perhaps caught her at the waist, and said: “You needn’t be afraid o’ me, Baby. I been with white girls before.”
At this point, a cousin ran in, grabbed Bobo and began pulling him out of the store. Carolyn now ran, not for Juanita, but out the front, and got the pistol from the Milam car.
Outside, with Bobo being ushered off by his cousins, and with Carolyn getting the gun, Bobo executed the “wolf whistle” which gave the case its name:
THE WOLF-WHISTLE MURDER: A NEGRO “CHILD” OR “BOY” WHISTLED AT HER AND THEY KILLED HIM.
That was the sum of the facts on which most newspaper readers based an opinion
The Negroes drove away; and Carolyn, shaken, told Juanita. The two women determined to keep the incident from their “Men-folks.” They didn’t tell J. W. Milam when he came to escort them home.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/sfeature/sf_look_confession.html
Ricland writes:
“All I’m trying to do is get at the real reason black folk support people they know are guilty or not guilty.
We knew OJ was guilty as hell.
We know the Lacrosse stripper is lying through her teeth.
So why do we support these people? ”
While anyone can make a typo, why are black people “they” then “we” and if you are not black, I don’t think it’s fair to say “we” support OJ and the Stripper even when “we” know they are guilty.
“I was reading today that the police were going to have her involuntarily committed. It was upon learning this that she gave the rape story.
Don’t know if this is true or not, I just read it.”
Bill, there is a link from one of the local newspapers to PDF files of the police report that says this. I think one of the above links in this post or the previous post has the information. Otherwise there is Google News.
The interview with the driver that delivered to the accuser to the party
http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/443932.html
really points out how helpful to the defense those cell phone records might be:if the accuser’s employer called her more than once to tell her that the booking would be cancelled if she didn’t get over there right away, it seems reasonable to assume that a) she was late for the engagement (and surely by now the defense has had the stripper’s employer disclose the time she was supposed to arrive?) b)the records will help pinpoint the earliest time she could have been at the house, since her employer would not be calling her to tell her to hurry if she had already arrived.
Sad that the defense is having to beg for these records….sadder still that all of the evidence they were given does not include the
very items that would give the accuser some credibility – a toxicology that showed a date rape drug (did she refuse one because she knew it was more likely to reveal things she willingly took that night?); a COMPLETE rape exam that included something more substantial than the universally logged “consistent with rape” (what else are they going to put on ANY rape exam? Read the instructions…medical staff are SUPPOSED to assume 100% credibility if you walk in and say rape – they are not the jury, just the medics); cell phone records- if they showed a substantially earlier arrival time than has been publicized. The fact that these critical things are missing or incomplete in the discovery materials strongly suggests that the prosecutor could not include them because they prove that he has no case. The question is how soon did he realize this and to what lengths did he go to to ensure that he could keep this case in the limelight? Having no evidence to convince, and each day turning up more that points to the players’ innocence, did he simply hope to suspend our disbelief via innuendo and righteous insistence while he carefully crafted a discovery file that seems tailor-made for the grand jury proceeding rather than a detailed investigative report of the events and processes? Maybe the Durham police do not mind the fact that the discovery materials make them look like they are sloppy and unprofessional when it comes to investigation and documentation. Either they are in his pocket, or Nifong doesn’t mind making his own police department look incompetent if it furthers his agenda.
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