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April 10, 2006
Hard to Be a Rapist
...if your sperm wasn't even there. The Duke DNA tests have come back with no matches.
DNA testing failed to connect any members of the Duke University lacrosse team to the alleged rape of a stripper, attorneys for the athletes said Monday.Citing DNA test results delivered by the state crime lab to police and prosecutors a few hours earlier, the attorneys said the test results prove their clients did not sexually assault and beat a stripper hired to perform at a March 13 team party.
...“No DNA material from any young man was present on the body of this complaining woman,” said defense attorney Wade Smith.
There is going to be an uproar. This has been turned into a class/racial war of words, from black preachers holding prayer services on the frat house lawn for ABCNews to film, to a scathing indictment by a part time Duke prof in the NYT this weekend. Who backs away now and says "we were too quick to judge" when they were so quick to say "we told you so"? Granted these guys are pigs (like that's a surprise with today's Lawrence Phillips type college athlete) and need to be hammered as such, but they've been demonized and hung out to dry for something that apparently never happened.
AFTERTHOUGHT: And you know what? If poor, piteous, goggle-eyed Ms. Wilbanks could be charged with making false statements for a misadventure that basically caused concern, anxious moments and inconvenience, what's the penalty for ruining 46+ young lives with your lies, if they are proven to be so? I would be heartened if the black leaders in Durham who were so quick to rain invective are as quick to call for reconciliation and recompense, as well as every sports writer and major newspaper in the country. (Hello, ESPN's Sports Reporters? NYT?)
Posted by tree hugging sister at April 10, 2006 06:33 PM
Comments
Infuriating.
I knew something was rotten when they all, to a man, lined up and willingly gave up the DNA samples. No protest, no hiding, no hedging. No lawyering-up except for Wade Smith.
Sure, they're probably punks. How does a kid like that know how to act? Horrible examples go before them, they are alternately lauded and demonized, lauded and demonized, ad nauseum.
Where the capitulation, where's the apology? Oh, whitey doesn't need an apology.
Countersuit, anyone? (and you'll never hear me suggest anyone lawyer-up and sue unless it's something totally outrageous)
Posted by: Susanna at April 10, 2006 07:10 PM
Wow, this will be interesting.
Posted by: Mr. Bingley at April 10, 2006 07:23 PM
"The Dukie honkies turned me into a newt"
"I got better..."
Posted by: Mr. Bingley at April 10, 2006 07:36 PM
Ah, yes, I now see that several of the players did lawyer-up. And who can blame them?
The latest is that there's time-stamped photography showing the "victim" arriving at the party ALREADY injured and very IMPAIRED.
Why does this sound like a damn Lifetime TV for Women special?
Posted by: Susanna at April 10, 2006 08:00 PM
Even if they had used condoms (which the "Not so fast!" crowd is crying), they still tested under her fingernails and on her skin: no match. You can't tell me you're getting assaulted and you don't scratch someone. The whole thing is now bullshit.
Posted by: Lisa at April 10, 2006 11:06 PM
Exactly. Exactly. BUT, who's going to be the first to come forward from the outraged Durham black community to apologise to these guys? No one. Not a G-damned soul, I'll bet you any amount of money. Nancy Grace and her ilk are still chasing Natalee Holloway, so I imagine their certainty of the sins of this team will be repeated over and over again, completely ignoring the fact that there's no evidence of an assault, been no arrests, ergo (!!) certainly no convictions and probably now never will be. Animals they may be, they're not rapists, but who'll ever remember that?
Posted by: tree hugging sister at April 10, 2006 11:18 PM
"a misadventure that basically caused concern, anxious moments and inconvenience"
It was more than that. It was also a huge waste of public money and a lot of police resources diverted from more appropriate duties, so the charge was appropriate.
In the absence of further evidence of lying, I'll be charitable and entertain the possibility that this girl was actually raped by someone not on the lacrosse team, but the name Tawana Brawley keeps popping in my head. Meanwhile, a lot of people need to swallow their words and their bile, not least the prosecutor who still seems bent on pursuing a nonexistent case.
And the coach should get his job back (well, maybe not; the party that shouldn't have happened was still on his watch).
Posted by: Ken Summers at April 11, 2006 08:49 AM
Yeah, but Ken, I thought I heard somewhere that her first exam seemed to show she had not had sex in a few days, or something to that effect. So she may just have gotten beat up somewhere before the party. Really odd case.
Posted by: Crusader at April 11, 2006 10:30 AM
Definitely odd. I heard also that the first exam suggested no sex, but today I read a tiny bit that said DNA was found (no more specific than that), just not from the players.
I'm still trying to be charitable enough not think Tawana Brawley, but it's not easy.
Posted by: Ken Summers at April 11, 2006 10:56 AM
La Shawn is thinking Tawana, Ken.
Posted by: Mr. Bingley at April 11, 2006 11:59 AM
So's rightwingprof, who also notes a possible reason why the DA wants to continue beating this dead horse.
Posted by: Ken Summers at April 11, 2006 01:07 PM