3A
NEWS/^ie Charlotte $o«t
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Dropped rape counts could cripple Duke case
By Aaron Beard
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DURHAM - A prosecutor’s
decision to drop rape chaises
but keep other covuits against
r three Duke University
’ lacrosse players has left
' many legal experts - includ-
, ing some who had supported
; him - wondering what case he
; could have left.
*" Sexual offense and kidnap-
I ping charges remain against
^the defendants, but even
; some former backers of
District Attorney Mike
. Nifong say tiie accuser may
; have lost her credibility for
! good after backing off a key
1 allegation.
; “I don’t understand why all
the charges aren’t being
dropped at this time,” said
Norm Early, a former Denver
prosecutor who works with
the National District
Attomej^ Association and
had previously approved of
Nifong’s handling of the case.'
"It’s such an incredible credi
bility problem that you won
der how the prosecution could
rdiabihtate her on the other
charges.”
The woman says Reade
Sehgmann, Collin Finnerty
and David Evans attacked
her Mardi 13 at a team party
where she had been hired as
a stripper. In a five-page
statement she gave police in
early April, she wrote that
she was raped vaginaUy,
anally and orally
Nifong dropped rape
charges against the three
men Friday writing in court
papers the accuser is no
longer certain vaginal inter
course had occurred. That is
required for a rape chai^
imder state law, and “the
state is imable to meet its
burden of proof with respect
to this offense,” Nifong said in
the filing.
“He got a rape indictment,
so presumably he must have
felt there was imequivocal
evidence there was penetra
tion,” said Duke law professor
James Coleman, a frequent
critic of Nifong’s handling of
the case. “And for him now to
say the only person who could
have established that now
isn’t sure, that’s pretty exti*a-
ordinary”
Without DNA evidence
linking the three players to
the accuser, the woman’s tes
timony figures to be the key
element of the prosecution’s
case. Both Early and John
Banzhaf, a professor at
George Washington
University Law School, said
Friday that means the
defaise is sure to make the
dismissal of the rape charge _
and what it implies about her
audibility _ an issue at trial.
Banzhaf said no-jury is like
ly to believe a witness who for
months contended she had
been raped, but now isn’t
sure.
Activists: Change sentencing age
Continued from page 1A
Triangle Lost Generation Task Force, a non
profit group taking action against the high rate
of incarceration of black and Latino males.
Fuller’s brother had hopes of going on to col
lege, but she said it was a “downward cycle”
after the felony record.
“My hope is to stop others finm going on that
downward cyde,” she said.
The juvenile sentencing age has been espe
cially dramatic on black males who represent
more than 67 percent of North Carolina prison
inmates imder 20, according to a 2006
statewide report. But Fuller didn’t base her
argument on race. Instead, she based it on the
cognitive development of youth under age 18,
and the cost to the state.
Fuller said her brother was not aware how
much his actions would cost hiTn If he had
been sentenced as a juvenile, his record would
have been sealed, and he would not have suf
fered finm the stigma.
Scientific research states that youth up to
age 18 are not as aware of the ramifications of
their actions. It points to four areas of develop
mental immaturity that may bear directly on
criminal culpability; impaired risk perception,
foreshortened time perspective, greater sus
ceptibility to peer influence and reduced capac
ity for behavior control.
North Carolina is one of only three states -
with New York and Connecticut - where adult
jurisdiction starts at 16. In 10 states the age
limit is 17, and in the remaining 37 and the
District of Columbia, the age is 18.
The North Carolina Policy and Senteaidng
Advisory Commission was created in 1990 by
the General Assembly to make recommenda
tions on sentencing laws and policies.
After several heated debates over the sen
tencing age of juveniles, the commission
recently recommended that the age be
increased to, but not including, 18.
Sentencing commission research shows that
juvenile offenders who enter adult prisons, or
are on probation, are more hkdy to re-offend
than the overall population.
In 1999,46 percent of offenders aged 16 or 17
•were re-arrested within three years, compared
to 38 percent of all offenders. The sentencing
commission also found that the rehabilitative
needs of juveniles are better met within a
treatment-oriented environment.
Still, Durham Sheriff Worth Hfil is a vocal
opponent of raising the limit.
“If we do that, we’re lowering the standards
rathar than raising the standards of young
people’s behavior,” he said. ‘Most of us in law
enforcement wouldn’t welcome that change at
all.”
Rice: U.S. can elect black president
“This is the beginning of the
end,” Banzhaf said. ‘Tf they
couldn’t make the rape case, I
don’t see how they could
make the others.”
Sehgmann, Finnerty and
Evans insist they are inno
cent. Then- attorneys have
repeatedly called on Nifong to
drop the case, citing the lack
of DNA evidence, criticizing
how pohce conducted a photo
lineup and maintainir^ that
the accuser, a 28-year-old stu
dent at North Carolina
Central University, has given
investigators at least a dozen
different versions of the
alleged assault.
“What we have now, ladies
and gentlemen, is a prosecu
tor who says his case rises
and falls on the statement of
the accuso* and (he) is going
forward with a case when he
In response to the study on brain develop- •
ment and maturity HiU said: ‘Everybody can
be taught what’s right or wrong. We’re always
using excuses for behavior, but there is no
excuse for misbehavior.”
Representative Alice Bordsen of Alamance
County disagrees. “This change will demand
more of them, not less,” she said.
. Juvenile offenders do not comprise a ve:^
large portion of felons currently in prison,
according to data compiled by the commission.
About 5.5 percent of the 28,734 felons convict
ed during the 12 mcaiths ending Jime 30, 2005,
were 16 or 17 at the time of their crimes.
While the number of 16 and 17 year olds in
the juvenile justice sj^tem could surpass the
450 currently in custody if the age hmit is
raised, the sentencing commission projects it
would also fiee up more than 1,000 adult
prison beds.
LaFonda Jones-General, president of
Families Against Mandatory Minimums, said t
1,000 prison beds cost $80 million to construct
and $25 million annually to maintain.
However, Hill said if the age limit is raised,
more youth would enter into the juvenile sys
tem, and bigger youth homes would have to be
built.
“There’s an extra expense there,” he said.
“The problem now is we don’t get their atten
tion early enough to keep them from commit
ting worse crime. When they are juveniles,
they see nothing is going to happen to them so
they keep doing what they’re doing. We need to
get to them early and show them the right
path.”
George Sweat, secretary of the Department
of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention, is in favor of raising the age hmit.
“Research shows that raising the minimum
juvenile age is the right thing to do,” he said in
a released statement. ‘However, the option for
raiaing the age must be carefully weired in
terms of cost, impact and timing. I recommeaid
that a comprehensive study be conducted to
address how best to make an age adjustment
in the juvenile justice system.”
The sentencing commission recommended
delaying implementation of the change in juve
nile jurisdiction by two years after the passage
of the bill, and creating a task force to analyze
the legal, systemic and oiganizational charts
required.
It also recommended that a sentencing juc^e
be allowed to impose on offenders imder 21 a
period of special supervised probation for mis
demeanors and low-level felonies that could
result in dismissal of the charge and ehgibility
for expunction of the arrest record.
By Anne Gearan
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
; WASHINGTON - America
’ is ready to elect a black pres-
* ident, says Secretary of State
• Conddeezza Rice.
’ The highest-ranking black
government
official in the
United States,
I Rice has said
I repeatedly she
I will not run for
I president
I despite high
popularity rat
ings and measurable support
in opinion polls.
‘Yes, I think a black person
can be elected president,”
Rice said in an Associated
Press interview Thursday
The top U.S. diplomat also
said Iraq is “worth the invest
ment” in American lives and
dollars. She said the United
States can win in Iraq,
althou^ the war so far has
been longer and more diffi
cult than she had expected.
Rice
She made the remarks at a
time when President George
W Bush is under pressure
from the public and members
of Congress to find a fiesh
course in the loi^-runnii^
and costly war, which has
shown no signs
of nearing an
end and cost
the lives of
more than
2,950
American
troops.
Obama know fium
the point of view of not just
the monetary cost but the
sacrifice of American lives a
lot has been sacrificed for
Iraq, a lot has been invested
in Iraq,” Rice said
Bush would not ask for con
tinued sacrifice and spending
“if he didn’t believe, and in
fact I believe as well, that we
can in fact succeed,” Rice said.
Rice was asked whether an
additional $100 billion the
Pentagon wants for the Iraq
knows he has multiple, differ
ent, contradictory statements
from that person,” defense
attorney Joseph Cheshire
said Friday
In dropping the rape
charges, Nifong did not speci
fy what sex acts authorities
now believe occurred, and
defense attorneys said Friday
they don’t have a clear idea of
what the prosecutor will pre
sent at trial.
Nifong hasn’t return
repeated messages seeking
comment. In an October 30
interview with The
Associated Press, he said he
felt a “responsibility” to prose
cute the case.
In an interview with The
New York Times published
Satm'day Nifong said the
“case will go away” if the
accuser ever says one of tiie
players she identified did not
attack her. He also said he
wasn’t surprised the defense
had focused on the accuser.
“If you can keep the victim
fi-om coming to court, if you
make the victim say ‘Gee,
this isn’t worth it,”’he told the
Times.
Nifong’s commitment to
case and the accuser,
Coleman said, shouldn’t come
as a surprise.
“Tb aU of a sudden drop it
and admit he doesn’t have
evidence to proceed to trial
would be a fairly damning
admission. I don’t expect that
to happen,” Coleman said.
“On the othei- hand, I don’t
think the case has credibility
How can anyone believe
there’s evidence to support
the remaining diaiges?”
and Afghan wars might
amount to throvring good
money after bad in Iraq.
Bush and Congress have
already provided more than
$500 billion for the two con
flicts and worldwide efforts
against terrorism, including
more than $350 biUion for
Iraq.
‘T don’t think it’s a matter of
money,” Rice said. “Along the
way there have been plenty of
markers that show that this
is a country that is worth the
investment, because once it
emerges as a country that is a
stabilizing ■ factor you will
have a very different kind of
Middle East.”
She said the first successful
black candidate wiU be
‘judged by aU the things that
Americans ultimately end up
making their decision on: Do
I agree with this person? Do I
share this person’s basic val
ues? Am I comfortable that
this person is going to make
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