Commentary - Jeralyn Merritt: Duke lacrosse players case is a travesty

Three young men, their families, an entire Duke lacrosse team and the citizens of Durham, N.C., were smeared and jeered for more than a year by false allegations of rape and sexual assault at a team house party.

Because the young men came from affluent families, they were able to afford the finest of lawyers who worked tirelessly on their behalf.

Because these young men were white in a community with a large population of African-Americans, and the charges occurred when the district attorney, Mike Nifong, was facing a primary election to keep his job, many now believe he rushed to accuse them of the most heinous crime short of murder in a bid to garner the African-American vote.

Nifong now faces disciplinary proceedings for his outrageous statements to the media in the early days of the case in which he personally vouched for the accuser’s story, stated his belief that a rape occurred, called the defendants “hooligans” and withheld exculpatory DNA evidence.

Against that backdrop, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, who agreed to have his office reinvestigate the case after Nifong was recused, stepped up to the plate Wednesday. He held a news conference in which he cleared the players and pulled no punches to defend the state’s actions. He didn’t rely on the catch-all excuse, “We have concluded there is insufficient evidence to get a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt.” He declared the players innocent.

“We believe that these cases were the result of a tragic rush to accuse and a failure to verify serious allegations. Based on the significant inconsistencies between the evidence and the various accounts given by the accusing witness, we believe these three individuals are innocent of these charges,” he said.

“We approached this case with the understanding that rape and sexual assault victims often have some inconsistencies in their accounts of a traumatic event. However, in this case, the inconsistencies were so significant and so contrary to the evidence that we have no credible evidence that an attack occurred in that house that night.”

Cooper even acknowledged the decision to drop all charges was not in accord with the accuser’s wishes, as she wanted the case to proceed. That’s quite a statement, particularly since civil suits by the players surely must be looming on the horizon.

Cooper offered a corrective measure for future cases. He is proposing legislation to allow the state supreme court to remove a prosecutor who goes too far:

“We also need checks and balances to protect the innocent. This case shows the enormous consequences of overreaching by a prosecutor. What has been learned here is that the internal checks on a criminal charge — sworn statements, reasonable grounds, proper suspect photo lineups, accurate and fair discovery — all are critically important.”

Now that the criminal case is put to rest, how do these young men become whole again? Who will give them back the lost year of their lives? How do they erase the anguish they and their parents suffered over the past year?

The answer is that nothing will make them whole again. The injustice they have suffered will scar them forever. No amount of a money judgment can erase it completely.

To their credit, at their own news conference Wednesday the players told the public they are determined that something positive must come from their ordeal. They hope that somewhere else, one who is wrongfully accused and who does not have access to highly skilled counsel will have an avenue of relief.

Attorney General Roy Cooper’s proposal to allow the removal of unfair prosecutors is a good beginning. This law is needed not just in North Carolina, but in every state, as are laws that provide for mandatory taping of interrogations and fair eyewitness identification procedures.

For too long, the public has watched shows like “Law and Order” and believed that law enforcement officers and prosecutors are doing God’s work and every accuser is telling the truth.

Let this case serve as an example and the beginning of a new frontier in criminal justice. America may have the best criminal justice system in the world, but it is not without its flaws. Prosecutorial discretion must not be unfettered. We must always protect the rights of the accused, no matter how heinous the charged crime.

Jeralyn Merritt is a member of The Examiner Blog Board of Contributors and blogs at Talkleft.com.