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Nifong Disbarred
But the ruling was almost an anticlimax to the case because in the penalty phase of the five-day ethics hearing, David Freedman, one of Mr. Nifongs lawyers, told the panel that Mr. Nifong believed that disbarment was the appropriate punishment in this case. The state also said it felt disbarment was appropriate. After deliberating for less than an hour, the panel stated that any punishment short of disbarment would not be appropriate in the case. In a lengthy statement, F. Lane Williamson, chairman of the disciplinary committee, said that Mr. Nifong had received due process, and thats what was nearly hijacked in the case of the Duke lacrosse defendants. Six of the charges against Mr. Nifong involved dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation, the most serious of the accusations against Mr. Nifong. Mr. Freedman said Mr. Nifong believes hes received a fair hearing and he accepts the findings of the commission. David C. Evans, the father of one of the lacrosse players, said: My reaction is we take no pleasure in this and that people should realize that the North Carolina criminal justice system is strong. Weve got the North Carolina Bar Association presenting this case and the North Carolina attorney general making a fair and independent investigation. North Carolina gives enormous discretion to their local prosecutors. This is a case where the local prosecutor systematically abused that discretion and that trust. In closing arguments on Friday, Doug Brock, attorney for the North Carolina State Bar, the state agency bringing the case, said, From his very first involvement in this case, Mr. Nifong weaved a web of deception, which continued up to this hearing. Mr. Brock called the prosecutor a minister of injustice who had hurt the Duke lacrosse players, their families, real victims of sexual assault, and the reputations of lawyers, prosecutors and the justice system. Mr. Brock said Mr. Nifong had immediately embarked on an unprecedented local state and national media barrage with loaded words like reprehensible, unconscionable and deep racial motivation. And he said he had hidden evidence showing at least four unidentified males had left DNA on the accusers body and clothes, but none of the lacrosse players. F. Lane Williamson, chairman of the ethics panel, responded that there is no rational explanation sometimes for unethical or illegal behavior. I dont know if well ever know, he said.
Posted by: Steve White 2007-06-17 |
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