The Duke Lacrosse Rape Frame-Up Case continues to go very badly for hack prosecutor Mike Nifong. Now even his peers are urging him to step aside so that justice can be done in this case.

In yet another moral blow to Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys called for the prosecutor to step down from the Duke lacrosse case.

The group, which represents district attorneys from across North Carolina, said in a statement that "it is in the interest of justice and the effective administration of criminal justice that Mr. Nifong immediately withdraw and recuse himself from the prosecution."

"It's extraordinarily unusual and it means a great deal," said Joshua Marquis, a district attorney in Clatsop County, Ore.

The district attorney group also called for the case to be reassigned and handed over to "another prosecutorial authority."

The statement was prompted by charges of ethics violations against Nifong filed Thursday by the North Carolina bar. Those allegations accuse Nifong of making inappropriate comments about the case in a series of press interviews early in the proceedings.

The recently filed ethics charge have created a true conflict of interest for Nifong. Dropping all charges and conceding the obvious innocence of the accused would be an implicit concession that he had engaged in the sort of wrong-doing of which he is accused, and so it is virtually impossible for any prosecutorial decision he makes from this point forward to not be seen as tinged with self-interest.

And speaking of those ethics charges brought by the NC Bar against Nifong, there could yet be even more, according to Time magazine.

The Dec. 28 ethics charges are expected to be expanded when the state bar's grievance committee meets again Jan. 18. Like a grand jury, the committee meets periodically; the current ethics charges stem from its most recent meeting in October and cover public statements Nifong made about the case last March and April. At its next meeting, the committee will deal with revelations from a Dec. 15 court hearing in which the state's DNA expert admitted he and Nifong agreed to keep secret from the defense early DNA results showing no Duke lacrosse player could be implicated in an attack upon one of two exotic dancers hired for the March 14 house party.

In other words, some of Nifong's most egregious misconduct in this case had not even been exposed when these charges were drawn up, and so there is a whole lot more to delve into.

And that doesn't even get into the question of possible criminal charges against this hack DA.

Posted by: Greg at 02:18 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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