Duke lacrosse rape case – more updates

The Raleigh News and Observer has the very latest:

In examining the files Nifong has produced in the case, The News & Observer found that the accuser gave at least five different versions of the alleged assault to different police and medical interviewers and made shaky identifications of suspects. To get warrants, police made statements that weren’t supported by information in their files.

The district attorney commented publicly about the strength of the medical evidence before he had seen it. He promised DNA evidence that has not materialized. He suggested that police conduct lineups in a way that conflicted with department policy.

The details are contained in the article itself. Make sure to read it all.

What’s becoming more and more evident, if what’s being reported is to be believed, is that there is no ‘case’ against any of the lacrosse players. Nifong has little to nothing to go on in the way of concrete evidence against any of the accused players, and the accuser in the case has zero credibility, thanks to her own varying stories on the alleged incident, as well as statements from others who contradict what she alleges happened.

This is frustrating on multiple levels, one of them being the needless waste of time, money, and manpower for local law enforcement and our judicial system in general. The other frustration level, much higher, has to do with the racial divisions this case has stirred up not just in North Carolina, but all over the country as well. It’s bad in and of itself to falsely accuse someone of rape, because if the accuser is exposed as a fraud, it casts the shadow of doubt on other more legitimate claims of rape happening. But when race is also at play in the false accusations, that makes it worse on a different level because it opens old wounds best left alone.

Remember Susan Smith, the South Carolina mother who drove to John D. Long Lake in South Carolina, put her car in drive, got out of it while leaving her kids strapped in the backseat, and watched it roll into the lake, where the kids drowned? Before she confesssed to what happened, she described the person who ‘carjacked’ her and ‘kidnapped’ her children as a shady looking black male. Once it was revealed that she confessed to the crime of murdering her children, of course there was outrage over it but the level of rage at her falsely accusing a black man who didn’t exist of the crime was almost the same as the rage directed towards her for killing her kids. Here she was, a Southern white woman, accusing a black man of a crime he didn’t commit.

Will we see a similar degree of outrage if it’s proven in a court of law that this racially-tinged case has no legs to stand on? I won’t hold my breath.

Hat tip: Kevin at Wizbang, who notes that John in Carolina is also blogging about this.

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