Do you remember the national furor a Black stripper incited in 2006 when she accused a bunch of White lacrosse players from Duke University of rape?
White feminists and Black activists alike insisted that she was every bit as sympathetic as the White Central Park jogger who, arguably, remains America’s most famous rape victim. Indeed, there was racial symmetry in near-universal demands that those White players get the same treatment the criminal justice system meted out against the Black kids who were accused of that 1989 rape in Central Park.
Except that, ironically, the only symmetry turned out to be the innocence of the accused rapists in both cases. For where the jogger was a true rape victim (and her real rapist was eventually prosecuted), the stripper just cried rape to extort cash.
I wrote many commentaries in the midst of that national furor. But here’s an excerpt from “Duke Rape Case Closed! If You Don’t Believe Me, Perhaps You’ll Believe ‘60 Minutes’,” (October 17, 2006), which effectively summarizes the case:
Last March, the now infamous Duke University rape scandal was a cause celebre for liberal bloggers who were demanding that all 34 (White) players on the lacrosse team be hanged by their gonads after a (Black) stripper accused some of them of raping her.
To my eternal shame, I had no compunctions about joining this Blogosphere lynch mob by publishing a commentary titled, ‘The Under-Reported Rape Involving Blue (Eyed?) Devils from Duke University,’ March 29, 2006. Because when I juxtaposed what she said with what they said in this racially charged ‘political’ atmosphere, I had no difficulty believing the accuser’s claim that she was:
‘… pulled into a bathroom by three men and raped anally, vaginally, and orally while they hit, kicked, and strangled [me] over a 30-minute period.’
Then, just weeks after the accuser gave this sensational account of her assault, investigative journalists (and defense lawyers) began publishing reports, which showed that she had given many ‘inconsistent facts’ about this alleged crime. And, after DNA evidence raised further doubts about her story, I had no compunctions about admitting that I was wrong for rushing to judgment in a follow-up commentary titled, ‘DNA Results Exculpate Duke Lacrosse Players in Rape Case…Now what?’ April 11, 2006.
Because even my proud advocacy for the racial politics of Blacks and the gender politics of women could not inoculate me from the reasonable suspicion that this Black woman’s claim that these White men gang-raped her was, in fact, a lie!
Nonetheless, by broadcasting the terminal defects in her claim on Sunday, 60 Minutes did more to further justice in this case than either Mike Nifong – the zealous District Attorney prosecuting it, or Black activists – who have made it a badge of racial pride to insist that there shall be ‘no justice, no peace’ unless these presumed (and evidently) innocent White men are found guilty.
Therefore, I hereby reiterate my plea for DA Nifong to drop these charges, post-haste! Proceeding would only exacerbate the irreparable harm these men have already suffered (financially and by the infliction of undue emotional distress); not least because a trial would surely result in a ‘not guilty’ verdict given all of the well-documented flaws in the case for the prosecution.
__________
Well, karma’s a bitch.
First, that seminal 60 Minutes report forced the state attorney general to launch a special investigation. When all was said and done, he dropped all charges against the lacrosse players.
Then, a special disciplinary committee disbarred prosecutor Nifong. I duly commented:
This is a man who willfully withheld exculpatory DNA evidence and was prepared to throw three young men in prison on a rape charge that the world now knows he knew was bogus from day one…
Even worse, after wasting state resources to persecute these students (and forcing them to waste millions of dollars defending themselves), Nifong still could not bring himself to admit that he was dead wrong. Because when Chairman Williamson asked him, with manifest indignation, exasperation, and contempt, if he still believes the accuser he followed so merrily down a primrose path to career suicide, Nifong responded with reflective conviction:
‘…something happened.’
(“Nifong, Rogue Prosecutor in Duke Rape Case, Disbarred,” The iPINIONS Journal, June 18, 2007)
Now, the inevitable, poetic denouement: the stripper is going where she tried to send those lacrosse players:
The woman who falsely accused three Duke University lacrosse players of rape has been found guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of her boyfriend.
The jury deliberated for about six hours over two days before reaching their verdict in the trial of 34-year-old Crystal Mangum, who was sentenced to between 14 years and 18 years in prison…
(Associated Press, November 22, 2013)
Case closed … for good.
All the same, it might interest you to know that, while the White lacrosse players — who never spent a day in prison — have settled a number of cases compensating them quite handsomely for being wrongly accused, the Black Central Park kids—who served six to 13 years before their convictions were overturned — are still waiting to settle a single one.
But thanks to a forthcoming documentary by Ken Burns on the tragic miscarriage of justice in this Central Park case, and to the recent election of Bill de Blasio as the first Democratic mayor in 20 years, there is renewed hope that New York City will settle their claims in the very near future.
‘All of us want this over, but it’s about someone taking responsibility for what they did to us,’ said one of the five, Yusef Salaam, now 38. ‘The money can’t buy back our lives.’
(USA Today, April 6, 2013)
Related commentaries:
Duke rape case closed…
Nifong disbarred…