Diatribune

It looks like the Duke Lacrosse Players will be vindicated, I for one am glad. From the get go it looked like all there was against them was an accusation made

Prosecutors have decided to drop all charges against three Duke lacrosse players accused of sexually assaulting a stripper at a team party, a person close to the case told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

I mentioned this in a post in the past, but I’ll repeat it; an accusation is not proof. To accuse is not synonymous with to prove.

I hope the Duke Lacrosse players will be able to continue their lives as though none of this had ever happened. We all know that won’t be the case. There will be books, and speaking invites. They will become the recent most prominent example of injustice, to be cited by those trying to discredit those who seek justice.

The outrage emanating from folks like Sean Hannity, Drudge, and Limbaugh came with a sense of righteous indignation at these young men being accused, and essentially railroaded in the justice system (One of the few times I have ever agreed with them). The DA’s case looked bleak, especially after the DNA evidence. The charges should have been dropped long ago.

However, the sins of DA Mike Nifong in the eyes of conservatives were to be transferred to the Scooter Libby Trial. Conservative Pundits tried to do brand associations with the name of Mike Nifong, by insinuating that Patrick Fitzgerald was just as overzealous, and corrupt, by creating the moniker “Fitzfong”, and offering the term “Nifonged”

From Blogs for Bush:

Nifonged: The chaotic result when a leftist, ambitious prosecutor, provided cover by a left-wing media, adhering to an established international left narrative, prosecutes a target who is symbolic of an adversary in the left narrative, mostly unfairly and generally overly aggressively.

Examples of Nifonged: Haditha (Marines in the fog of war are accused of murder and evidence is systematically leaked to a military hating media.)
Scooter Libby: The Nifong prosecutor in this case passes over more likely candidates for prosecution to strike at a leftist narrative target. Libby was chosen for particular focus because he represented a neocon and was Chief of Staff to the hated Vice President.

The Right Wing pundits suggest further that the entire justice system is corrupt, because Nifong was wrong, so was Fitzpatrick, thus so are the prosecutors of the Haditha Massacre. Hearing that Monica Goodling would plead the 5th, leads to conservative pundits proclaiming that this was the only logical course of action in a justice system gone awry.

Switch the topic to warrantless wiretapping, prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, or US Attorney Firings, and instantly the tone of the debate and logic applied by conservatives is revoked and switched. In these cases which come with the official seal of approval of the Republican Party, trust in the Justice system is absolute, and any suggestion that it may be flawed, and in need of proper oversight results in a knee jerk accusation of treason and sedition.

The lesson I wish we could relay to our conservative brethren is simple, and obvious. There can be no justice if the presumption of innocence, and trust in the system is based solely on who is on which side of the issue, regardless of the facts. The accused terrorists at Guantanamo Bay deserve just as much of a presumption of innocence until proven guilty in a court of law, as the Duke Lacrosse Players do and did.

Cross Posed at Evil Bobby and Diatribune
__________________________

"Do you know why the English Bulldog has a jutting chin and sloping face? It is so he can breathe without letting go."
- Sir Winston Churchill, to a Nazi envoy, 1940