Thursday, December 21, 2006

Nifong's Triple Crown

As the year comes to an end, it appears that District Attorney Mike Nifong’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. In recognition of Nifong’s under whelming performance, he finds himself the recipient of three unique honors noting his exemplary cowardice, deficiency in ethics, and plummeting reputation.

The Chappaquiddick Society has announced that Nifong is a finalist for it’s annual Profile in Cowardice Award.

“Durham County, N. C. D. A. Mike Nifong has refused to recuse himself and appoint a Special Prosecutor to handle a controversial rape case he has openly discussed with the Media.”

Other nominees include OJ Simpson, John Mark Karr and Mark Foley. Voting remains open until December 27.

John Steele’s Legal Ethics Forum has released its annual Top Ten Legal Ethics Stories of the year. While District Attorney Nifong has only placed fourth on the list, Steele has awarded DA Nifong a unique consolation prize by publicly seconding UNC Law Professor Joseph Kennedy’s call for his removal from the Hoax.

“UNC law professor Joseph Kennedy, a former public defender, wrote this op-ed piece calling for Mike Nifong to recuse himself or be disqualified from the prosecution of the Duke lacrosse players. I agree. I've noted previously that it's not clear we've heard Nifong's side of the story regarding the decision to withhold key exculpatory information from the DNA report. But, as Kennedy notes, the testimony was so implicating as to Nifong that he has a compelling motive to attack the DNA expert. (And, bear in mind, that the witness's testimony was self-damaging, so it comes with more indicia of credibility than most testimony.) I agree with Professor Kennedy that Nifong's continued participation seems untenable. I also commend Kennedy's article for clearing laying out the key ethics and procedural violations that occurred if the existing testimony is credited.”

Rounding out Nifong’s Triple Crown is his second place finish on Mike 'The Reputation Doctor' Paul's Annual Top 10 List of Reputations in Crisis.

“D.A. Mike Nifong charged former Duke lacrosse players Collin Finnerty, Dave Evans and Reade Seligmann with allegedly raping a stripper hired for a team party in March. The case has made both national and international headlines for many months and highlights the importance of both the court of law and the court of public opinion. All the reputations in this case have been damaged, especially D.A. Nifong.”

Well done, Mike.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hopefully next year he wins:

Disbarment
Civil Lawsuit
Criminal civil rights charges

Anonymous said...

I thought only horses could win a triple crown. Wait Nifong is the back end of a horse

Anonymous said...

"DA Nifong is doing a great job here and you keep harping the same thing. He has 3 rapist, kidnappers and basically criminals. Whe do you condem a man doing his job"

At the risk of writing a reply that you seem to be too illiterate to read, let's just say this.

If you TRULY believe these three lacrosse players are guilty, you ought to be madder than anyone else at Nifong, because he has so greatly screwed up the prosecution of this case that no conviction of those three is even remotely possible. It little matters whether he did this because of ignorance, stupidity, or actual malice. No court of appeals will EVER sustain a conviction in this case given the shabby and unprofessional job he's done.

Got that?

Good!

Anonymous said...

He did his job in the case of Leroy Summers. He jumped the gun in that case like he did in this case. But when the DNA tests came back and it showed another mans DNA he dropped the case against Leroy and charged another ma. In this case he isn't just doing his job, he is on a witch hunt.

Concerned Texan said...

Nifong also needs to be nominated for a Darwin Award

Anonymous said...

I kind of have this theory about Nifong. By proceeding with this case. even knowing he can not likely win any conviction against anyone charged, I suspect that as long as he proceeds and claims his actions were “for the victim,” then he can probably not be sued afterwards by any of the defense members. I wonder if he were to totally drop all the charges against all three suspects, then Nifong might be susceptible to both possible civil lawsuits and possible criminal charges against Nifong. His “strategy” might be to proceed to avoid the potential negative sanctions against himself, and it really may be nothing about actually attempting to provide “justice“ to the alleged “victim.“ Anyone thinking the same???????