You Can’t Come Back All the Way
Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligmann and David Evans might never recover from this. For the last 13 months, the three former Duke University lacrosse players were death row inmates, convicted and sentenced by a jury of cable news pundits, civil rights activists and overzealous administrators — a feckless district attorney and a gutless university president.
They were guilty before ever going to trial: three white boys from privileged northern backgrounds accused of kidnapping and raping a stripper hired to entertain at a campus party — a black, single mother of two with another already a few weeks into development.
“This D.A. is probably not one that is crazy,” Al Sharpton told Bill O’Reilly, shortly after the players were charged, last April. “He would not have proceeded if he did not feel that he could convict.”
The case was a slam-dunk, or in lacrosse terms, an open-net goal. Or, so the vulturine executioners thought.
In the months after the alleged rape, after the boys had been expelled from school, the lacrosse season cancelled and the coach forced to resign, the case began to unravel. And, although Finnerty, Seligmann and Evans had already had their lives cross-examined by the media and their reputations publicly shredded, there never really was much of a case in the first place. The alleged victim showed signs of instability, and a ray of ultraviolet incredulity revealed flaws in her story. Witnesses disputed the supposed facts of the case and its chronology. And the forensic evidence came back weak, with no DNA to link Finnerty, Seligmann, Evans or any of their teammates to the alleged crime.
Clemency came last week, when the North Carolina Attorney General, Roy Cooper, dropped all of the charges against Finnerty, Seligmann and Evans and chided the prosecutor, Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, for proceeding with such blind ferocity.
“We believe these individuals are innocent,” Cooper said. “We believe that these cases were the result of a tragic rush to accuse and a failure to verify serious allegations.”
Finnerty, Seligmann and Evans might never shake the suspicion of those serious, specious allegations, though. Not with journalists and commentators still believing that a rape occurred, still hanging a noose of arrogance and privilege around their white-collar necks, and still contending that the three lacrosse players are guilty.
In a blog entry entitled “Don’t Feel Too Sorry for the Dukies,” posted last week on abcnews.com, Nightline correspondent Terry Moran wrote, “The young men were able to retain a battery of top-flight attorneys, investigators and media strategists.
“As students of Duke University or other elite institutions, these young men will get on with their privileged lives. There is a very large cushion under them — the one that softens the blow of life for most of those who go to Duke or similar places, and have connections through family, friends and school to all kinds of prospects for success.”
Privilege can only carry so far. The names Finnerty, Seligmann and Evans will forever be associated with this sorry episode, forever linked to a woman whose fiction lingered for so long on the sympathies of Nifong, the media and the public, forever sullied, snickered and suspected.
Without privilege, Finnerty, Seligmann and Evans might still be charged, might still be on trial and might still be headed toward an ill-conceived conviction. During a press conference held after the charges were dropped, Seligmann noted the incongruity between people of well means, like his teammates, who were able to afford sufficient legal representation, and those prohibited by cost from adequately defending themselves.
“This entire experience has opened my eyes up to a tragic world of injustice I never knew existed,” Seligmann said. “If police officers and a district attorney can systematically railroad us with absolutely no evidence whatsoever, I can’t imagine what they’d do to people who do not have the resources to defend themselves. So rather than relying on disparaging stereotypes and creating political and racial conflicts, all of us need to take a step back from this case and learn from it.”
Fortunately, the long national nightmare lived by Finnerty, Seligmann and Evans ended before a trial and the potential for a conviction. But so many others, of lesser means and legal resources, who are charged on false accusations, do not fare near as well. The Duke case showed that anyone could be accused of anything by anybody, even if it isn’t true. It is a hard lesson for a young person, raised in the cloistered environs of family, high school, university and team. Fantasy and delusion can ruin reputations and a tragic rush to accuse can alter lives forever.
They were guilty before ever going to trial: three white boys from privileged northern backgrounds accused of kidnapping and raping a stripper hired to entertain at a campus party — a black, single mother of two with another already a few weeks into development.
“This D.A. is probably not one that is crazy,” Al Sharpton told Bill O’Reilly, shortly after the players were charged, last April. “He would not have proceeded if he did not feel that he could convict.”
The case was a slam-dunk, or in lacrosse terms, an open-net goal. Or, so the vulturine executioners thought.
In the months after the alleged rape, after the boys had been expelled from school, the lacrosse season cancelled and the coach forced to resign, the case began to unravel. And, although Finnerty, Seligmann and Evans had already had their lives cross-examined by the media and their reputations publicly shredded, there never really was much of a case in the first place. The alleged victim showed signs of instability, and a ray of ultraviolet incredulity revealed flaws in her story. Witnesses disputed the supposed facts of the case and its chronology. And the forensic evidence came back weak, with no DNA to link Finnerty, Seligmann, Evans or any of their teammates to the alleged crime.
Clemency came last week, when the North Carolina Attorney General, Roy Cooper, dropped all of the charges against Finnerty, Seligmann and Evans and chided the prosecutor, Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, for proceeding with such blind ferocity.
“We believe these individuals are innocent,” Cooper said. “We believe that these cases were the result of a tragic rush to accuse and a failure to verify serious allegations.”
Finnerty, Seligmann and Evans might never shake the suspicion of those serious, specious allegations, though. Not with journalists and commentators still believing that a rape occurred, still hanging a noose of arrogance and privilege around their white-collar necks, and still contending that the three lacrosse players are guilty.
In a blog entry entitled “Don’t Feel Too Sorry for the Dukies,” posted last week on abcnews.com, Nightline correspondent Terry Moran wrote, “The young men were able to retain a battery of top-flight attorneys, investigators and media strategists.
“As students of Duke University or other elite institutions, these young men will get on with their privileged lives. There is a very large cushion under them — the one that softens the blow of life for most of those who go to Duke or similar places, and have connections through family, friends and school to all kinds of prospects for success.”
Privilege can only carry so far. The names Finnerty, Seligmann and Evans will forever be associated with this sorry episode, forever linked to a woman whose fiction lingered for so long on the sympathies of Nifong, the media and the public, forever sullied, snickered and suspected.
Without privilege, Finnerty, Seligmann and Evans might still be charged, might still be on trial and might still be headed toward an ill-conceived conviction. During a press conference held after the charges were dropped, Seligmann noted the incongruity between people of well means, like his teammates, who were able to afford sufficient legal representation, and those prohibited by cost from adequately defending themselves.
“This entire experience has opened my eyes up to a tragic world of injustice I never knew existed,” Seligmann said. “If police officers and a district attorney can systematically railroad us with absolutely no evidence whatsoever, I can’t imagine what they’d do to people who do not have the resources to defend themselves. So rather than relying on disparaging stereotypes and creating political and racial conflicts, all of us need to take a step back from this case and learn from it.”
Fortunately, the long national nightmare lived by Finnerty, Seligmann and Evans ended before a trial and the potential for a conviction. But so many others, of lesser means and legal resources, who are charged on false accusations, do not fare near as well. The Duke case showed that anyone could be accused of anything by anybody, even if it isn’t true. It is a hard lesson for a young person, raised in the cloistered environs of family, high school, university and team. Fantasy and delusion can ruin reputations and a tragic rush to accuse can alter lives forever.
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