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Legacies

By KC Johnson

With this post, the blog goes on hiatus; if and when Durham ever responds to the civil suit filing, I?ll run a postscript. I?ll also assemble a glossary of posts within the next week. This concluding post discusses the legacies of the case. The lacrosse case functioned as a kind of funhouse mirror: its events magnified patterns evident, but less clearly visible, elsewhere. Criminal Justice 1.) Procedure matters. Despite the best efforts of the state NAACP, and journalists such as Bob Ashley and Andrew Cohen?who each downplayed or dismissed the significance of Mike Nifong?s procedural violations?it seems to me this lesson is the case?s most clear-cut. It is inconceivable at any point in the near future that a prosecutor in a case attracting even a small amount of media attention could routinely flout procedural norms without triggering hard questions as to his or her motives...continue to full post

Full post as published by Durham-in-Wonderland on December 11, 2007 (boomark / email).