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Prosecutorial Misconduct
By Trenton | June 20, 2007
As you well know, Mike Nifong has been disbarred and a judge has ruled that he may be dismissed from his office immediately. I found it interesting that the judge would not let him remain in office for the last month he had planned to stay to wrap things up after resigning at the disbarment hearing. It appears to me that the judge believes Nifong is a threat while he remains in office. If that is true, to whom would he be considered a threat? The lacrosse players? The girl that accused them? The fact is, it wouldn’t really matter.
Nifong has admitted that he is an impediment to justice in his community, and has only offered a semi-apology. Frankly, it was more along the lines of “I’m very sorry you feel bad about what I said.” It was a non-apology. He is not sorry about what he perceives as simply doing his job. If he is like the thousands of other government workers out there who don’t give a fig about the public, he is thinking right now that he got shafted.
Overzealous prosecutors like Nifong are very dangerous because they dispense injustice to everyone, regardless of ideology. It’s not like they have it out for one side of the political spectrum or another; they are equal opportunity oppressors. In this case, Nifong focused his sights on the Duke Lacrosse players because it was politically convenient for him. In fact, I don’t think we have even heard whether or not the lacrosse players are conservative, liberal, or otherwise. But the fact that it happened at all means that it could have happened to anyone, and most likely it has happened to others in the past. I’m still waiting for someone else to come forward with their own horror story involving Mike Nifong.
Another example of an overzealous prosecutor we have heard about recently is Johnny Sutton. He is the prosecutor who jailed two border patrol agents (Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean) for shooting at a drug smuggler illegally crossing the border. The difference is that neither Ramos nor Compean have the money to afford lawyers of the caliber of those hired by the Duke lacrosse players. Is there an injustice here? Definitely. But does the problem lie in the fact that the Duke players have access to more money? I don’t think that is the problem.
Our judicial system is set up so that every case can be reviewed by another court higher up and, if all else fails, the defendant can plead for review from the President. In the case of the border guards, the President has been informed of the travesty but has basically ignored it. Those two men should be free to be with their families tonight, but Pres. Bush has miserably failed in his duties to these two Americans. Shame on him. The truth is that Johnny Sutton should be taking the place of these two border agents, both for the lies he has told in court and in the press about this case, and for the intimidation he has employed to keep the facts quiet.
Ann Coulter lays out the case against Mike Nifong in her column today. She wrote about Ramos and Compean last week. Those familiar with the case of the Border Patrol agents will see some striking similarities. It’s obvious to me that Pres. Bush has not lived up to the expectations we conservatives had for him. Here’s hoping the next President, a Republican with a strong position on illegal immigration, will finally resolve this issue. In the meantime, conservatives should be making as much noise about this miscarriage of justice as they did about the Duke Lacrosse case.
Topics: Law and Politics |