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Lessons from the Duke lacrosse case

Thursday, April 19 at 12:01 AM

This Speakout has not been edited

By Richard J. Crawford, Denver

Now that all charges have been dropped in the Duke University lacrosse case, it may be a good time to consider what lessons we can learn from this unfortunate case. Mike Nifong, the original Durham prosecutor, became the poster child for what can happen when a prosecutor stumbles. Most of us concluded that Politics caused him to pursue that case far beyond what was justified. And the result is that he damaged the University and caused severe personal harm to those who now seem to have been falsely charged.

But the allegations that he suppressed very critical DNA forensic evidence and later lied about it to the court is even more troubling. He is currently facing ethics charges and if everything alleged about Mr. Nifong turns out to be true, he certainly does not deserve to be in office and probably should be considered for disbarment.

Still, the larger question is: How does this happen and how do we prevent it from occurring? The Sad truth is that the list of prosecutors who have put pride and politics ahead of justice is longer than any of us would like to believe. Last May, Bob Herbert of the NEW YORK TIMES chronicled quite a list of just such occurrences. He concluded that piece by pointing to the government's "Pervasive indifference to injustice in the justice system." Those are harsh words, but he reached that conclusion only after pointing to innocent People unnecessarily going to prison and much more.

The solution rests with all of us who must be certain that those we elect as district attorneys deeply believe and understand that their ONLY client is justice. And we must remember that they are elected to follow whatever direction they must go to see that they faithfully serve that client. The simple truth is that we place a special burden on the government, those who prosecute cases for all of us, to be sure that all of their investigations are thorough, that confessions are not coerced, that line-ups are done correctly, that forensic testing is accurate and that those test results are readily shared. They must also be confident that the witnesses they call (law enforcement people, experts, snitches, etc.) are competent and honest. And, yes, we expect them to be ready to admit a mistake and change directions the moment contradictory facts emerge. Unfortunately, some otherwise good prosecutors suffer a momentary lapse when they are driven by a zeal to win, political ambition or pride in wrongly holding to an announced position.

The good news is that Denver should be exceedingly proud of those they have elected to the office of District Attorney over the past many years. Those who knew Dale Tooley, Norm Early, Bill Ritter or today's Mitchell Morrissey know the extraordinary high caliber of professionalism they represented and continue to represent. They stand for justice at the highest level and we are very fortunate for the quality of service they have provided all of us. Those citizens in Durham need a model and they need only to look a mile high to find the best.

Dr. Richard J. Crawford, Denver, is a former communication professor who specialized in the study of the American jury at both the University of Northern Colorado and the University of Colorado. He was a founder and past national president of the American Society of Trial Consultants and served as a trial consultant in over 400 trials. . He is a frequent author and is the co-author of a new book for trial lawyers entitled, THE PERSUASIVE EDGE. He became the first trial consultant in the nation to become a full-time in-house trial consultant inside a law firm when in the early 90's he joined Denver's prestigious firm, Holland & Hart.

READER COMMENTS

We should all be concerned, because if 1 political minded D.A. can frame those 3 boys the way he did, anybody could be subject to the same malicious prosecution anywhere. Think "Enemy of the State".

Posted by Jay on April 20, 2007 12:39 PM

Bill Ritter....and justice...
Illegal aliens caught for drug offense...justice..let him off with agriculture trespass...

Posted by gary on April 19, 2007 05:30 PM