Flashback: Greatest Hits of Jim Hardin, Vol. VIII

"Durham courthouse sees changing of prosecutorial guard" - Benjamin Niolet, News & Observer (April 28, 2005)

With his hand on his grandfather's Bible, the prosecutor swore that he would be a good judge. Jim Hardin then put on the robe some lawyers call the "black dress" and made Mike Nifong the new district attorney for Durham County.

...

Hardin and Nifong took their new jobs Wednesday in front of Durham Superior Court judges Orlando Hudson and Ronald Stephens and an audience of about 200 of Durham's leaders, lawyers and on-lookers.

- POWER LOSS: Hardin said Wednesday was the last day when he woke up with the power to dismiss enough cases to clean out the county jail. "Obviously I won't do that, and I know Mike won't do that either," Hardin said. Nifong quipped, "I asked him to."

WHAT OLD DA GAVE NEW DA

1. A District attorney's badge kept in a glove compartment for 11 years

2. Two "solicitor" T-shirts

3. White shirt with bull's-eye on it

4. Key to the DA's bathroom

5. The missing files from all the Strickland/Covington Cases*

6. Instruction manual on how to conduct illegal lineups*

7. David Freedman's business card*

*...ok, so we added the last three...