Guilty Until Proven Innocent at Duke

It appears the Duke Lacrosse team is innocent. The DNA taken from every memeber of the team, save one, did not match any taken from the stripper who screamed rape and racism.

DURHAM, N.C. - 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 yesterday.

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 an exotic dancer hired to perform at a March 13 team party.

No charges have been filed in the case.

"No DNA material from any young man was present on the body of this complaining woman," defense attorney Wade Smith said.

The media of course rushed to convict these men simply because they were white, they go to an affluent (non-Ivy League) school and the victim was black.

The District Attorney, hoping to break a big case, was very public about accusing these players while the evidence was pending:

District Attorney Mike Nifong stopped speaking with reporters last week after initially talking openly about the case, including stating publicly that he was confident that a crime had occurred. He went on to say he would have other evidence to make his case should the DNA analysis prove inconclusive or fail to match a member of the team.

DNA evidence is very strong, just ask any of the men who have been exonerated in old murder cases. It would appear to show that these men are in the clear and the D.A. failed by publicly flaying them.

I expect the the same media, D.A's office (CardMart writes of a reason why he was so zealous) and others who jumped on this case to show the overt racism in Durham to come out and apologize to these men and their families. I'm not holding my breath, however.

Update: I forgot to link to the excellent LaShawn Barber who likens this case to the chaos surrounding the Tawana Brawley non-issue and here's a post I wrote previously about the media handling of a suspected terrorist and the Duke players..