UC this part of this thread may eventually end up in the cesspool but like you I had to respond.
I’m most jarred by your statement: “
While the players were innocent of the specific charges, they were not 'innocent' because it so closely resembles the statement of the Duke University President Richard H. Brodhead: “
If they didn’t do it, whatever they did is bad enough.”
The crime these players were accused of is rape, rowdy behavior and underage drinking cannot be equated to rape.
The Duke administration did plenty of things wrong to put these players in peril of prison. Among the most perilous besides the above statement by Brodhead:
- Dean Sue Wasiolek advised the players to cooperate with police and tell the truth, not tell anybody about the charges, nor hire attorneys because she thought nothing would come of it.
Source: “Presumed Guilty". Reader's Digest February 17, 2009.
- Duke athletic director Joe Alleva lied when he announced that the team's players “wished to suspend competitive play until the DNA results come back.” Source: “Presumed Guilty". Reader's Digest February 17, 2009.
- The players invoked their right to due process & remain silent the administration attempted to pressure Coach Mike Pressler into threatening the players scholarships and expulsion. When Pressler refused he was fired. Source: “It's Not About the Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case and the Lives it shattered” by Mike Pressler
- 88 Duke Professors -Gang of 88 including some department heads placed an ad in The Chronicle detailing the allegations as a social disaster, racist & sexist there by forever polluting any potential jury pool. If 88 of your professors think you did “something” wrong what is a jury supposed to think? Source: Duke Chronicle April 2007
This was a sad tale full of missteps and many villains, Nifong chief among them & the players being the least. Somewhere in the middle is the Duke Administration. If Duke is analogous to a family then that administration should have done more to make sure the legal rights of the players were upheld. The same administration should also have publically criticized the faculty for its lynch mob mentality.