tdaxp

Mike Nifong, a convicted sexual predator (or whatever else you would describe a man who used his government office to organize a kidnapping ring against innocent late-adolescents on sexual grounds) has been sentenced to one day in jail:

From the day he took over the Duke lacrosse rape case, Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong charged forward with a strident determination that the guilty would end up in jail. Ultimately, the since-disgraced former prosecutor only succeeded at putting himself behind bars.

Nifong was sentenced Friday to a single day in jail, having been held in criminal contempt of court for lying to a judge during his pursuit of rape charges against the three falsely accused lacrosse players....

It was the latest in a line of punishments for a broken man who once confidently trumpeted to anyone within earshot that a woman hired to perform as a stripper at a March 2006 lacrosse team party had been raped.

While certainly it's good that Mr. Nifong will serve a day in jail (less than a former history teacher of mine served for having the same name and ethnicity as a convict, because he was picked up on Saturday and office staff who could realize the mistake did not come in until Monday) and change careers (a "punishment" a globalized economy inflicts on thousands of Americans every year), the Mike Nifong/Crystal Gail Mangum conspiracy that criminals with just the right mix of race and status (a white male prosecutor, a black female accuser) who work together are essentially above the law.

Too bad.

Last year, for the second time in her life, Crystal Gail Mangum claimed to have been raped by three men. For the second time, there was no trial. But for the first time, media attention encouraged the North Caroline Attorney-General Roy Cooper to say the word: "innocent."

Ms Mangum's false accusation was horribly compounded by the gross incompetence, negligence, and capricious maliciousness of Durham North Carolina prosecutor, Mike Nifong. My fellow college students -- indeed, all Americans -- hope that the surest measures are taken against Mike Nifong so that justice may be served.

Hopefully, Jesse Jackson, who said that "his organization will pay the Duke scandal accuser's tuition regardless of whether she's telling the truth or not," will doubtless comment soon.