Plum Crazy

Rather than wait for the case to play out, Duke University immediately suspended the entire team and ultimately canceled the season. True, there are other instances where players accused of a crime have been suspended before the legal process has run its course - the most recent example being Tank Johnson of the Chicago Bears, arrested on gun charges and suspended for two games - yet the defining legal principle in this country is that a person is presumed innocent.

I believe the University reacted to the outcry against the team and an assumption that the charges were true rather than give the players the benefit of the doubt as they should have been under our legal system. Some of it may have stemmed from the party itself, that the players held a Bacchanalian affair with underage drinking, but without the rape charges, I am not sure that the University would have responded as it did. The University gave into the public pressure and to the reverse stereotype at play and deprived the team of due process.

The public condemnation of the players was equally as swift. There was no question that the players were guilty, a call was issued for their heads on a platter, and numerous protests and rallies were held at the home of the party. Unfortunately, this happens all the time in America. Al Sharpton organized a protest against the shooting of Sean Bell and his friends outside a Queens night club late last year, despite the fact that no charges have been brought against the police officers and that the shooting appears to be no more than a tragic misunderstanding. Bell and his friends likely thought they were under attack, and the police in turn likely felt they were under attack. Overall, in the Queens case, there hasn't been an outcry against the officers in the same way there was against the Duke players, and the case has largely faded from public memory, but why is there is quickness to assume guilt in such cases? It's as though we need to assuage our guilt for centuries of mistreatment of African-Americans by saying that these incidents only occur because it is white privileged men acting against a disenfranchised populace. One of the officers in the Bell case is African-American, yet that seems swept under the rug and the finger pointed at racism here and in the Duke case. It seems like there's a reverse stereotype at work.

Most egregious of all is the behavior of D.A. Mike Nifong. I will not get into the question of his motivation here because I do not know the man, but his words and deeds only inflamed an already hot situation. Rather than wait for the results of an investigation, he immediately said he was sure a crime had been committed and made several prejudicial statements. From all appearances, he conducted a faulty investigation, proceeding only on the word of someone whose story has been wildly inconsistent, ignoring and suppressing exculpatory evidence, organizing a rigged line-up that was no more than a game of eeny, meeny, miny, mo, never interviewing the accused and ignoring what seems to be strong evidence of their innocence, and only belatedly interviewing the accuser herself. It's a clear example of how not to conduct a criminal investigation, one that has landed him in hot water.

It is only good news in my opinion that the North Carolina Attorney General has agreed to take the case. The office will conduct an investigation from scratch, hopefully proceeding in a far more professional manner than Nifong. I cannot predict the outcome of the investigation. Maybe it will find cause to move forward anyway, though I will be surprised if it does, and maybe the players will wind up on trial after all is said and done, though again, I doubt this will happen. I believe the case will, as it likely should, go away at this point. Even if it does, however, there has been plenty of damage done to the team as a whole and three players in specific.

Their names and reputation have been muddied, and the case will follow them for the rest of their lives. Whenever applying for a job or meeting someone for the first time, they will be immediately thought of as the Duke players accused of rape. Whether that prejudices people against them or earns sympathy is hard to say. Either way, they have been through months of turmoil on what appears to be a weak and doubtful case. If there were more compelling evidence against them and less questions about the merits of the case, I would still have a problem - as stated before, the presumption should be innocent until proven guilty - but not as much of a problem.

I cannot help but wonder had this not been rich against poor, privileged against underprivileged, white against African-American, whether the case would have gained as much traction as it did. Based on all the evidence so far, I believe a fundamental injustice has been done to the team and accused players.