Wednesday, December 27: This post is closed to commenting. To discuss recent case developments, see 2007 Prediction: Mike Nifong Will Drop All Charges.
Update II (12/23): From a reader:
Dear LaShawn,
There are so many things I don’t agree with in your blog, however, you and I have seen eye to eye on the Duke scandal.
As a black woman, I was so annoyed and frankly embarrassed at people jumping to conclusions and lining up to defend this woman and drag these men through the mud. This was a disservice to black causes and to women’s causes. This was a disservice to humanity. To automatically judge a case based on people’s melanin content and whether they have a uterus or a penis is truly a disgrace, and the perpetrators of this are now laying low, hoping the whole thing goes away. I guess crow is a meal better eaten silently.
Thank you for staying on this case the way you did. I am glad those fake civil-righters and lame pseudo-feminists have been proven wrong. Since most of them lack a moral compass, I doubt that they will learn from their lessons but, hey, I can dream.
Jaded in California
Update (12/22 @ 3:33 p.m.): The Smoking Gun has posted the dismissal order. It seems the stripper-accuser may claim she was penetrated by something other than a penis. Under NC law, that’s not rape. Although I don’t believe she was penetrated by anyone or anything at 610 N Buchanan on March 13, 2006, the rape charges can’t be sustained based on the latest version of her gang-rape fantasy.
Commenter Richard Nieporent wrote:
It is perfectly obvious what Nifong is doing by not dismissing all of the charges. He is holding the three Duke Lacrosse players hostage in an attempt to prevent their lawyers from filing criminal and civil charges against him. Nifong knows that it’s much easier to convict the Duke Lacrosse players of sexual assault because DNA evidence is not needed. He is hoping that by holding these remaining charges over their heads they will be amenable to a quid pro quo of Nifong dropping all charges if they do not pursue a criminal or civil case against him.
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Unbelievably cool. More here and here.
Merry Christmas, Dave, Collin and Reade!
Later…but they’re still charged with kidnapping and sexual offense! So much for the “Merry Christmas.” 
The stripper-accuser, who said she was beaten, raped, sodomized, and forced to perform oral sex, now says she “doesn’t know” if she was penetrated. Uh…how can one be sodomized and not know it? Hmm…
Reade Seligmann has a paper trail supporting his story that he wasn’t even there at the time of the so-called offense.
Mike Nifong conspired to hide exculpatory evidence. Dropping the gang-rape charges doesn’t change or mitigate that fact. In the past two weeks, I’ve been interviewed for two stories about this case. I hope my quotes make the cut. I’ll link to the stories either way.
Are you blogging this latest development? Trackback to this post, and I’ll link to you.
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Blogger (and non-blogger) coverage:
Betsy Newmark: “I still don’t see how Nifong can go ahead with the other charges. The accuser will still be the main witness and she has zero credibility. And this new development will just be one new version of her story that will be open to some powerful cross examination.”
Power Line: “How the DA hopes to get a conviction on those charges (or any others), given the history of the case and the accuser’s shredded credibility, is anyone’s guess.”
Durham native Mary Katharine Ham: “It’s Durham. It’s full of a bunch of liberal white people who love to get yelled at by black people, and a bunch of liberal black people who are happy to oblige them. This story scratched that white guilt itch soooo good, they just couldn’t let it go, even though it was pretty clear from the beginning that the story was a little off.”
Tapscott’s Copy Desk @ The Examiner, Michelle Malkin, Independent Conservative, Talk Left (briefly discusses legal ramifications), The American Pundit, Diggers Realm, Hot Air, A Blog For All, Outside the Beltway, OpiniPundit, Lead and Gold, NixGuy.com, Sensible Mom…
More bloggers: The Bitch Girls, The Johnsville News (lots of linkage), Hoystory, Rhymes With Right…
And more bloggers: Blue Star Chronicles, Irons in the Fire, AOL Elections Blog…
Non-bloggers: Rabbi Aryeh Spero asks, “Where’s the ACLU to Defend the Duke Lacrosse Players?”; Thomas Lifson says, “Nifong may be too embarrassed to drop all charges at this point.”
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Note to first-time and new readers: Check out the Duke Rape Case archives (going back to April – sometimes the “Next Page” link at the bottom left of the middle column doesn’t show up in the IE browser unless you move the cursor near the small dash) and two columns I wrote for Townhall, The Most Absurd Rape Story of the Year (original title) and Scottsboro Revisted.
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Not interested in this case?
Check out my post on one Christian’s efforts to ban the Harry Potter books from government school library shelves.
