Investigative Flaws in the Duke Lacrosse Case: Criminal Justice

Criminal Justice: Investigative Flaws in the Duke Lacrosse Case

Flaws in the Duke Lacrosse Case

On April 11, 2007, Roy Cooper, the then North Carolina Attorney General, moved to assert before an expectant media the innocence of three Duke University students charged with first-degree rape and kidnapping (Duke University ONC, n.d.). The plaintiff was a black exotic dancer who had been hired by the university's men lacrosse team to perform at an off-campus event.

Mike Nifong, the Durham Prosecutor, took the case, but resigned long before a decision was made following charges of professional misconduct. To begin with, Nifong not only withheld, but also lied about crucial evidence that would have exonerated the three defendants in the very early stages of the trial. DNA is the primary source of evidence in rape cases, and this was no exception -- DNA samples were collected from all the 46 boys in the Duke University Lacrosse team and compared with those obtained from the victim's body and clothing. When the DNA samples failed to match that obtained from any of the boys, Nifong lied to the prosecutors, and went further to withhold the fact that the victim may have engaged in sexual activity with several men before going over to perform at the off-campus party, given that genetic material from several men was obtained from her clothing.

This shed a negative light on Nifong's case and painted his investigations as flawed and inadequate, given that one of his investigative duties was to look into the credibility of his witnesses and victims. Dismissing the case, Gen. Cooper accused Nifong of being quick to accuse, with no consideration for the defendants' civil rights as American citizens (Duke University ONC, n.d).

Nifong was eventually debarred for gross misconduct; however, this controversy prompts one question -- why was it so easy for Nifong to go around these actions unnoticed? The answers is simple, the media had a hand -- in a panel interview with Duke University Dean, John Burness, the university's senior Vice-President, explains that the media was so fast to stereotype, with each media house combining issues of privilege, class, sex, and race to make their story have this perfect storyline that a group of rich, white boys sexually assaulted a poor black girl, in the belief that their status would get them acquitted (Duke University, n.d.). By then, the public had this negative perception about the defendants, and was more inclined to take in lies, just as long as they nailed the boys.