Duke Rape Case Update

The Johnsville News has a lengthy update on the situation.

Duke is permitting Finnerty and Seligmann to return to classes:

Duke University has invited two of the lacrosse players accused of sexual assault to return to school as students in good standing, a defense attorney said Wednesday.

Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann had been barred from attending class during the fall semester while their case made its way through court. The third player charged in the case, Dave Evans, graduated in May, the day before he was charged with raping a stripper at a team party in March.

Rape charges against all three players were dropped last month, after the accuser said she could no longer remember some details about the case. The men are still charged with sexual offense and kidnapping.

Meanwhile, here's more reaction to Nifong's bizarre private swearing-in ceremony. It isn't pretty. The best that can be said is that it shows a lack of common sense. Well, it would appear that much of Nifong's prosecution in this case is due to a lack of common sense.

Ace notes that there is one possible reason that Nifong is keeping the case alive. He's hold out hope that the defendants will fold and cop a plea to one of the remaining lesser included charges or if this abomination ever makes it to trial, that one juror would be bamboozled into finding the defendants guilty - causing a hung jury situation that somehow exonerates Nifong's persistence in pursuing this case.

UPDATE:
KC Johnson points to a letter written by the Seligmann family thanking the Duke alumni for helping them through this difficult time. The letter is quite gracious and thanks the university for its comments on the dismissal of the rape charges.

I wrote about the reversal by Duke University to allow Finnerty and Seligmann to return to the university, but didn't provide much in the way of analysis. Well, I've had some more time to digest that reversal and find the university's decision to come full circle in terms of its hypocrisy. The University essentially ran the three lacrosse players out of the university because of the allegations when they first surfaced. No due process involved here, but then again, university policies generally lack the kinds of due process one finds in the legal system. The university, fearing a media backlash from the likes of Sharpton and Jackson, caved. That isn't to say that reforms of the lacrosse team weren't necessary or that the way the university oversaw the players didn't need to be improved, but the university should have known better than to essentially treat the trio as guilty as charged.

The media coverage and salaciousness of the claims didn't help matters, but within days it became apparent that the accuser's stories didn't add up. Nifong's actions were not in keeping with the awesome responsibilities and obligations to find justice and carry out his duties under North Carolina law. The DNA evidence only seals the deal.

Yet, now the University finds that they can let Seligmann and Reade back into the university because the rape charges were dropped. I guess Duke believes that charges of kidnapping and sexual assault are not cause for dismissal. What about DUI charges that are frequently issued to college students, many of whom shouldn't be drinking because they're underage (itself a criminal act). This kind of arbitrary decision happens all the time. Each university has its own code of conduct and disciplinary means and methods, along with their own way to implement them.

For example, Yale recently admitted a known member of the Afghan Taliban to the university in a non-degree program in the name of diversity. He was a member of a government that abused human rights, harbored al Qaeda, and yet Yale thought that he would make a valuable contribution to the community.

Duke's decision has little to do with justice for Reade or Seligmann but rather everything to do with the media perceptions and long range effect the case might have on alumni giving.

Duke's conduct in the matter as a whole has been subpar and the university needs to reevaluate how it handles students indicted for criminal actions so that the student's rights are preserved.

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