Ask any Public Defender or criminal defense attorney, and they'll tell you their client is guilty until proven innocent, not the other way around.
It's been difficult to understand why the case against the Duke Lacrosse Team has become so important to the media, until now.
Like any other alledged crime, a straight-forward investigation had begun about this incident, and charges were pending if warranted against any players found to be involved.
Without question, this case has all the elements of a CSI story or other similar TV sensationalized law program. The case had barely begun when the media blasted it through every available porthole.
Many people jumped to assume the allegations were true. After all, why would somebody make up a story like this?
But now that the defense attorneys have revealed that DNA testing shows no links to any of the players, the field has changed. Maybe that testing will prove to be false also, but until that is shown, we have to assume the tests are correct.
Prosecutors hold enormous power to affect someone's reputation, just with an accusation. The prosecutor in this case has stated that the investigation will continue, and that DNA postive tests are not required for a rape conviction.
That may be true. But it's also misleading. It's true prosecutors don't need DNA to convict people for rape. after all, rape has been around for a lot longer than DNA testing, and we've been rightly convicting perpetrators for years.
But saying DNA evidence isn't necessary, isn't the same thing as saying the DNA rules out the players. And ignoring the obvious only hurts other women (and men) who may be victims of rape and other crimes. In other words, the prosecutor is beginning to look spiteful and driven by the greed to win.
That flys in the face of justice, and most Americans know it. A lie is a lie, and it shouldn't be protected. The prosecutors in this case should come clean about what they know, what they've been told, and when they were told it.
Keeping quiet, but insisting that charges may still be brought against team members just looks foolish. That foolishness hurts real victims of crimes. And those who have been victimized just by being falsely accused are left ignored.
The fasley accused is often a victim that goes unnoticed or un-apologized to in a country that prides itself on the notion that "it is worse to let a guilty man walk free, then convict a person who didnt' do it."
For the sake of everyone, the prosecutors in this case should get real and tell us what they know.