Wow, what a disaster this turned out to be!
What are your thoughts on this now that the prosecutor apologized??
Quote:
DURHAM, N.C. - Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong acknowledged Thursday that three former Duke University lacrosse players were "wrongfully accused" of sexual assault.
Nifong released a statement one day after N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper dismissed the charges against the lacrosse players and declared them "innocent" and the victims of an "unchecked" prosecutor who rushed to judgment.
"It is and has always been the goal of our criminal justice system to see that the guilty are punished and that the innocent are set free," Nifong wrote. "No system based on human judgment can ever work perfectly.
"Those of us who work within that system can only make the best judgments we can," Nifong continued. "To the extent that I made judgments that ultimately proved to be incorrect, I apologize to the three suspects that were wrongly accused. ... It is my sincere desire that the actions of Attorney General Cooper will serve to remedy any remaining injury that has resulted from these cases."
Joseph B. Cheshire V, a lawyer for one of the lacrosse players, blasted the statement.
"This is not an apology," Cheshire said. "This is another attempt by Mr. Nifong at revisionist history, the same thing he has done with the facts throughout this entire case."
Nifong disputed Cooper's assessment of him as a "rogue" prosecutor.
"The fact that I instead chose to seek that review should in and of itself call into question the characterizations of this prosecution as `rogue' and `unchecked,'" he wrote.
Nifong's statement came the day before he and his lawyers are to appear before the State Bar, which has accused him of ethics violations that endanger his law license. Nifong's attorneys are trying to have the most serious charges - that Nifong withheld evidence from the players - dismissed.
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Prosecutor apologizes to lacrosse players
Prosecutor apologizes to lacrosse players
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