An interesting letter in the Durham Herald Sun
I have read in your editorial section, over the past several months, many letters concerning the Duke lacrosse case, written by people from around the nation. Their "interest" has puzzled me. Without fail, every one of these letters is pro-defense and vehemently anti-prosecution. Who are these busy-bodies? Do they think they have the right to tell us what's going on around here?
Do I smell a rat? I could not care less about the outcome of this thing, but I do know that this team of gun-slinging defense sharks have shown a strong ambition to spin this entire saga by whatever means to their gain. I would not be at all surprised if they have put out a mailer to their colleagues around the country to fill our editorial pages with the kind of spin acceleration that serves only as defense propaganda.
These letters also have a strong propensity to denigrate local government, posing them as bumbling idiots and shoddy bureaucrats. How many of them have ever even been here? Why are their lives so boring that Durham consumes them?
Their "interest" and pro-defense stances in this case revolves around what people see as a travesty of justice and a manipulation of the legal system by a rogue prosecutor. The American people, both left and right, here and see evidence that seems to exonerate the defendants. They see charges being dropped and changed to fit conflicting stories, seemingly for political gain. And this worries people.
They wonder if this could happen to them, or their children, families, and friends.
The American people know that there have been times when innocent people have been charged, and, to put it succinctly, been jerked around by the legal system. There is no better illustration of this then the Duke Lacrosse case. A prosecutor who made dozens of statements to the press about what these boys did, yet, had not even spoken to accuser till recently (remember, this case started last March), and has yet to interview the defendants. He has ignored multiple and contradictory stories by the accuser. He has not only ignored, but willfully hidden evidence from the defendant, in the form of DNA evidence, that shows that they did not rape her, and left absolutely no matter on her. No semen, no sperm, no hair, no skin flakes, nothing. Yet he still refuses to dismiss the case.
And Americans wonder if this could happened to them.
The letter author could not care a rats ass, yet writes the letter. And, letters should show a bumbling government that allows such a travesty to continue. Where are the legal leaders in North Carolina, such as Attorney General Mike Cooper, to investigate this case?
What the letter writer should realize is that it could be him, or someone he knows, going through destruction of one's life over a crime that he/she did not commit very easily. And no civil rights organization will jump in to protect him. They only care when the accused is a multiple murderer who started a gang and is on death row, or a foreign national accused of terrorism.
