Mike Nifong, the former (?) DA of Durham, North Carolina and the lead prosecutor for the Duke Rape Case fiasco has been disbarred and accepted disbarment according to K.C. Johnson. I have to say, that at the very least, this was the only outcome that could have gone anyway towards restoring faith in the system of justice not only in Durham, but also in North Carolina.
K.C. Johnson has been live blogging the case, but since I’ve been rather busy the last couple of days, I haven’t been following it. So expect this post to be updated over the next couple of hours.
Update: From K.C. Johnson’s blog,
3.) Marsha Goodenow was a devastating witness.
Charlotte ADA Marsha Goodenow pulverized Nifong with her testimony.
It was “highly unlikely,” she noted, for North Carolina prosecutors to file rape charges in cases where the only evidence was the contradictory stories of an accuser.
Marsha Goodenow is an ADA for another jurisdiction in North Carolina and she provided some nice testimoney on how Defendant Nifong violated ethical standards as a prosecutor. It covered the line up, the DNA evidence, refusing the meet with the defense attorneys and so on. It showed that pretty much right from the start Nifong was not pursuing justice but another agenda entirely (his re-election, IMO).
K.C. Johnson also had this in brackets about Reade Seligmann’s testimony,
[People in the courtroom are audibly crying as they are listening to this testimony.]
[This is extremely powerful testimony; the three panelists are watching intently.]
And then there was this,
Nifong to Cooney: “Boy, I bet you wish your client hadn’t shown his alibi story, because there’s no such thing as an airtight alibi. Sure enough,” the story was changed–tried to show how DNA and alibi wouldn’t be relevant. “Almost predictable.”
Rather despicable, IMO.
Update II: One of the things about the case that always fascinated me was the role of Tara Levicy, the SANE (Sexaul Assault Nurse Examiner) trainee who did the rape kit on Crystal Mangum. The reason why I find Levicy interesting is that Levicy was a trainee at the time and she provided, what appears to be, some of the early “hard” medical evidence in the case. Later it turned out that this hard evidence really was nothing other than Levicy’s personal belief that Mangum had been raped. Unfortunately Levicy was not called by Nifong’s attorney as a defense witness. But there was this testimony by Nifong,
Nifong: Both Himan and Gottlieb considered Mangum very believable to them. Tara Levicy indicated the same thing to him.
Aside from the fact that Himan has testified pretty much to the contrary, it is interesting that Nifong is claiming that Levicy found Mangum believable. From what I’ve read Mangum’s behavior was at odds with how the typical rape victim behaves, the physical evidence was paltry, and all Levicy went by was Mangum’s hysterical behavior.
Update III: With regards to the last update, keep in mind that Nifong very much appears to be a serial liar.
Update: IV Yes, it is offical, apparently Nifong resigned while on the wittness stand. K.C. Johnson calls this a cynical ploy for sympathy during Nifong’s trial, and I have to agree.
Update V: This is truly sad and I hope it haunts Mike Nifong till the day he dies,
Dave’s [Dave Evan’s] grandfather (89 years old) went regularly to Duke lacrosse games. “Took it very very hard . . . He was consumed with the case. Would say, ‘Why is this DA going forward? Look at all the evidence.’”
Had sudden heart attack Aug. 20. “Great regret” that he died before he heard that the system worked and Dave was declared innocent.
