Disbarred Duke lacrosse prosecutor Mike Nifong is back, along with more misconduct allegations [View all]
Last edited Tue Aug 30, 2016, 01:08 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: Washington Post
Disbarred Duke lacrosse prosecutor Mike Nifong is back, along with more misconduct allegations
By Tom Jackman
http://twitter.com/TomJackmanWP
August 30 at 5:15 AM
The spotlight of injustice in the criminal system is back on Durham County, N.C., made famous by the misadventures of former district attorney Mike Nifong in the Duke University lacrosse case in 2006. Nifong ultimately stepped out of the case when it was revealed he had withheld exculpatory DNA tests on the players, and he was subsequently forced out of office, disbarred, convicted of contempt of court and jailed for a day in 2007.
But that wasn’t the only case Nifong ever handled, or mishandled. As an assistant district attorney, he also prosecuted the double murder case against Darryl Howard in 1995, who was convicted and sentenced to 80 years in prison. That conviction has since been overturned, and ex-lawyer Nifong was back in Durham County Superior Court Monday to explain his role in withholding a key police memo and other evidence from the defense 21 years ago. A Durham judge overturned Howard’s conviction in 2014, calling the case “a horrendous prosecution,” but a North Carolina appeals court ruled in April that prosecutors were entitled to contest the reversal with a full evidentiary hearing. Which brings the notorious Mr. Nifong back to the courthouse where he was last seen surrendering (above) in September 2007.
On Monday, Nifong, now 65, waited in a conference room like any other witness, and spoke briefly to WRAL-TV’s Julia Sims. “Somebody believes I have relevant testimony to this, and I’m going to give it just like anyone else would,” Nifong told her. “I’ll get on the stand and tell the truth and make of it what they wish.”
The truth, from Mike Nifong, should be interesting. It’s worth noting that Nifong’s successor and former protege, Tracey Cline, was also forced out of the top prosecutor’s office due to misconduct, and that Cline’s successor and top deputy, Roger Echols, continues to battle to uphold Howard’s conviction. The Innocence Project has taken on Howard’s case, won the 2014 reversal of the conviction, and is now seeking sanctions against the Durham prosecutors for further withholding of evidence from 2011, which may be another component of this week’s post-conviction hearing for Howard.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2016/08/30/disbarred-duke-lacrosse-prosecutor-mike-nifong-is-back-along-with-more-misconduct-allegations/
[font color=red]Full disclosure: I am an administrator at an online lacrosse forum. Being in such an esteemed position (add emoji of rolling eyes here) does not prevent me from having an open mind.[/font]
"The Innocence Project has taken on Howard’s case,..."
Guess who is working for the Innocence Project?
A look at the main characters involved in the lacrosse case
By Claire Ballentine and Samantha Neal | Thursday, March 10
Reade Seligmann
Reade Seligmann, at the time a sophomore on the men’s lacrosse team, was charged with first degree forcible rape, first degree sexual offense and first degree kidnapping April 18, 2006. Like Finnerty, Seligmann turned himself in and was released on a $400,000 bail. Charges against Seligmann and his teammates were dropped April 12, 2007. Although he was allowed to resume classes at Duke in Spring 2007, Seligmann did not return to campus.
Seligmann transferred to Brown University in 2007, where he continued to play lacrosse and graduated in 2010 with a degree in history and public policy. He attended Emory Law School and is currently an associate for Connell Foley, according to his LinkedIn page.
Since his wrongful accusation during the lacrosse case, Seligmann has been involved with the Innocence Project—a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals. Seligmann raised $50,000 in 2010 for the Innocence Project and organized the Eyewitness Identification Symposium at Brown, which focused on discussing ways to improve the accuracy of the eyewitness identification process.
“I’d like to say I’m a noble guy and I would have done all that stuff,” Seligmann said to the Newark Star-Ledger in 2010. “But I probably wouldn’t have gotten involved in that if my life hadn’t been so impacted by a similar cause.”
Cue DU's 1%ers, who will try, again, to argue that "they did it."
Defense questions Durham police investigation that led to Darryl Howard convictions
By Anne Blythe
ablythe@newsobserver.com
DURHAM — A forensics science professor at Virginia Commonwealth University offered testimony Monday that was critical of the Durham police investigation that led to two murder convictions against Darryl Anthony Howard.
Marilyn Miller, an associate professor at the Richmond-based campus, testified on the first day of a hearing in a case that brings more allegations of police and prosecutorial misconduct in the same city where the Duke lacrosse case occurred.
Called to testify by a defense team that includes attorneys from the New York-based Innocence Project, Miller said her look at the evidence made her think a sexual assault occurred in 1991 before Doris Washington, 29, and her 13-year-old daughter, Nishonda, were found dead at a Durham public housing complex.
Both mother and daughter were found naked and dead on a bed in an apartment where a fire had been set. ... Howard, who was convicted in 1995 of two counts of second-degree murder in the case, maintains he had nothing to do with the crime.
....
Anne Blythe: 919-836-4948, @AnneBlythe1
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