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January 12, 2007

When I Grow Up

...I hope I write half as well as the Dragon Lady.

The Michael Nifong Scandal
The Duke rape hoax is redolent of past decades' phony child-abuse cases.

...In his role of avenger of a young black woman alleged to have been brutalized by white males, Mr. Nifong proceeded with similar assurance. His was a crusade. Who but enemies of the good would object?...

...Neither Mr. Seligman nor the other accused Duke students will ever have to contend with a punishment like the one meted out to Gerald Amirault, who was sentenced to a 30- to 40-year term for something that never happened--atrocious sex crimes that never took place, of which there was no physical evidence, or anything resembling a credible allegation. What did it matter that the child's testimony that resulted in Gerald's conviction had claimed rape with a large butcher's knife--one that had magically left not the slightest injury? The jury's most important duty was, the prosecutors informed them, to believe the children and show that they honored their testimony. The same young witness also testified that Gerald was accompanied by a green, silver and yellow robot, R2-D2, from "Star Wars."

What did it matter, either, that special judicial hearings about the Amiraults' prosecution had concluded that it was a travesty, that a tough panel of former prosecutors, the Governor's Board of Pardons, had virtually declared Gerald Amirault innocent and voted for commutation of his sentence--or that he was finally granted parole nearly three years ago, after nearly 18 years' imprisonment? He was almost immediately classified by Massachusetts's Sex Offenders Registry Board as a Level 3 offender. The kind, that is, deemed the most dangerous and most likely to re-offend. This bizarre classification, the board made clear, had to do with the number of counts of sex abuse charged to him--and the fact, too, that he continued to deny guilt. He now has to wear a large tracking device around his ankle, and obey a curfew confining him to the house from 11:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. every day. He has, not surprisingly, been unable to find a job. He is sustained, as ever, by the unstinting devotion of his family, and he grieves now mainly for the loss of the chance he had dreamed of in prison--of earning a salary and finally lightening the burden his wife had carried, uncomplaining and alone, during his years in prison. (He has recently been advised of pending legislation that will require him to pay $10 a day for the global positioning tag on his leg, that tracks him.)

The accused Duke students can be grateful that the case against them has collapsed, and that Mr. Nifong now confronts a serious ethics complaint filed by the North Carolina State Bar. They will never have to face anything like the malignant force which descended on the happy and ambitious Amiraults in 1984, and turned their lives to dust. But Reade Seligmann, David Evans and Collin Finnerty have this year had a look into an abyss that has claimed many others, and that is never less than terrorizing. It is a piece of their Duke education they are unlikely to forget.



A Swill salute to Dr. Helen.

Posted by tree hugging sister at January 12, 2007 10:13 AM

Comments

Who is that in the picture?

Posted by: Mike Rentner at January 12, 2007 10:48 AM

Dorothy Rabinowitz.

In the pumps.

Posted by: tree hugging sister at January 12, 2007 11:11 AM

Dorothy Rabinowicz is awesome. Read her take-down of the "Jersey Girls, " the 9-11 widows who used their loss for partisan gain. A classic.

Posted by: NJ Sue at January 12, 2007 08:09 PM

major dad and I fell in LOVE with her when The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board was a Friday night staple on CNBC. Simply enthralling. (It's a sad shell of it's former self on PBS on Sunday mornings. Robert Bartley is dead and Dorothy is rarely at her chair.) They were pithy, argued with each other without shrieking AND Dorothy would zing left and right, setting the children in their places.

Man. She's something else.

Posted by: tree hugging sister at January 12, 2007 10:47 PM