Duke Lacrosse Team Rape Case

ATL Week in Review: January 8 – 12

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Donald Stout house Blackbery RIM NTP NPT.JPG* Over at the Justice Department, the bad-ass Shanetta Cutlar, Chief of the Special Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division, takes no prisoners.
* Not even summer interns can escape her wrath.
* But hey, at least they get to go back to school. Full-time attorneys can escape only by leaving the Section — provided that Shanetta doesn’t get to them first.
* Speaking of job changes, meet your new White House counsel: Fred Fielding, of Wiley Rein & Fielding (who served as White House counsel under President Reagan).
* Next time you go out for pizza, leave the corporate lawyers at home.
* Pentagon official Charles Stimson doesn’t like how Guantanamo Bay detainees are getting pro bono representation from some of the country’s top law firms. Don’t they have better things to be doing with their pro bono time?
* Michael Nifong manages a Houdini-like escape from the debacle known as the Duke lacrosse team rape case.
* Celebrity law professors Noah Feldman and Jeannie Suk, whom you have just dubbed Feldsuk, have a really nice house.
* But not as nice as the $7 million mansion of patent lawyer Donald Stout (aerial view at right).
* Federal judicial nominees: Out with the old, in with the new.
* Chief Judge Michael Boudin (1st Cir.): You like him, you really like him.
* Maybe it’s because he’s such a big feeder judge. Interestingly enough, though, he has only placed one clerk so far at the Supreme Court for October Term 2007.*
(But Chief Judge Boudin feeds mostly to Justice Breyer and Justice Souter. The former isn’t finished hiring yet, and the latter hasn’t even started.)

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Breaking: Michael Nifong Wants Someone Else To Clean Up His Mess

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Mike Nifong Michael Nifong Michael B Nifong Durham District Attorney.JPGBig news in the Duke lacrosse team rape sexual assault and kidnapping case. From ABC News:

District Attorney Mike Nifong has requested that he have himself removed from prosecuting the Duke Lacrosse rape investigation, ABC News has learned.

A source close to the investigation said Nifong sent a letter to North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper asking his office to assume responsibility of the case. Calls to the Attorney General’s office and Mike Nifong’s office were not yet returned.

Smart guy, that Nifong. We wouldn’t want to prosecute this case either.
And from the New York Times:

“Michael B. Nifong, the Durham district attorney, faxed the request to Jim Coman, head of the state attorney general’s special prosecution unit, today, the official said. Mr. Nifong decided he had no choice but to hand off the case because he faces a conflict of interest with ethics charges pending against him for his public comments on the case, the official said….”

“The official said the attorney general’s office was expected to accept the referral. But the fate of the case is uncertain: Many experts wonder if the attorney general or another prosecutor will quickly drop the charges after assessing weaknesses in the credibility of the accuser….”

This exit strategy isn’t half-bad. Mike Nifong has turned lemons (ethics charges) into lemonade (escape from a sinking ship).
(What are Nifong’s thoughts on Iraq?)
DA in Duke Rape Case Asks to Be Taken off Case [ABC News via Drudge Report (w/siren)]
Prosecutor Asks State to Take Over Duke Case [New York Times]
Update (5:57 PM): Matt Drudge has downgraded this story by removing the siren.
Earlier: You Don’t Say: Duke Accuser Contradicts Herself

You Don’t Say

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A nice bit of understatement, from the sober New York Times:
duke accuser contradicts herself.jpg

Does she contradict herself?
Very well then
She contradicts herself
She is large, she contains multitudes.

Of accounts of the alleged rape. Plus, a baby.*
Duke Accuser Contradicts Herself [New York Times]
* We realize that the alleged victim no longer “contains” a baby, since she recently gave birth to a baby girl. We took some liberties with the facts, for the sake of our snarky quip. Call it poetic license.

Non-Sequiturs: 01.04.07

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Rachel Brand Rachel Brand Rachel Brand Above the Law.jpg* Some interesting comments about Harriet Miers getting a Fifth Circuit nomination, as well as speculation about who might replace her as White House counsel. [ConfirmThem]
(We second the suggestion of Rachel Brand (at right). Brand previously worked in the White House counsel’s office, before her appointment to head the Office of Legal Policy at the Justice Department.)
* From an Instpaundit correspondent: “I’m no law prof, but isn’t the presumption of innocence most useful before a pile of facts come out indicating that the accused are, in fact, innocent?” [Instapundit]
* Speaking of which, check out Best Defense, which “seeks to place the presumption of innocence front and center.” [Bag and Baggage]
* Jeez, he’s even more of a tool than we thought. Can someone please talk some sense into him about 2008? [Althouse]
* Backlash to the backlash against (allegedly) excessive executive pay. [Point of Law via Dealbreaker]
* Amen. With the exception of news aggregators, blogs are by their nature idiosyncratic, rather than comprehensive. So don’t get your briefs in a wad when we fail to write about your pet topic. [Volokh Conspiracy; Althouse]

ATL Week in Review: December 18-22

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kwanzaa happy kwanzaa kwanza candles.gifThe week before a major holiday is usually pretty slow. And the Friday before the holiday weekend is usually dead — the perfect time for Mike Nifong to announce he’s dropping the rape charges against the Duke lacrosse team defendants.
Other highlights from the past week in legal news and ATL:
* Get to know this year’s Alito clerks!
* And help us get to know the current Breyer clerks.
* Dean Harold Koh’s Christmas gift to Yale Law School conservatives: newfound warmth and friendliness.
* Speaking of Yale Law School, YLS grad Yul Kwon just won Survivor. Congrats, Yul!
* Stuff you knew already: Supreme Court clerks are cooler than you. Lawyers have mediocre sex lives. Pro se litigants are insane.
* Last week dragged in a few more law firm bonus announcements, but nothing exciting. To skim the coverage, click here, then scroll down through the headlines.
* On the subject of bonuses, Biglaw associates: Please take our 2006 bonus poll (first announced here):

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

While We Were at the Company Holiday Lunch

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The Duke lacrosse team rape charges were dropped.
The timing isn’t surprising. This is the just the sort of news you break on the Friday afternoon before a holiday weekend.
But the three lacrosse players still face sexual assault and kidnapping charges.
Rape Charges Dropped in Duke Case [Associated Press]

ATL Week in Review — Bonus-Free Edition: December 11 – 15

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smell smelly NYU law library.jpgHere’s our recap of the past week in ATL, completely free of Biglaw or bonus news (which will be summarized in a separate “Week in Review” post).
The theme for this week’s news: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
* Hardworking lawyers are still unhappy with their sex lives.
* Celebrities still get in legal trouble (and so do state court judges).
* Borat-related lawsuits still keep getting filed.
* The Duke lacrosse team rape case is still FUBAR.
* Law school libraries are still foul-smelling at the height of final exams.
* Pro se litigants are STILL AWESOME.
* Senator Orrin Hatch is still on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
* Justice Breyer is still concerned about sectarian violence in the 17th century.
* Eumi Choi is still our idol.
* Working for the government still offers many young lawyers more interesting work, and greater responsibility, than Biglaw life (but without a five-figure bonus).
* Also, public interest work still attracts some of the most promising law school graduates.
Have a good weekend, everyone!

Morning Docket: 12.15.06

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* Justice Scalia on judicial paychecks. [Associated Press]
And meanwhile…
* “It was just a matter of time before well-heeled business and other interests would expand their influence-peddling efforts, and begin pouring large amounts of money into previously sleepy judicial campaigns.” [TimesSelect (pass-through link) via How Appealing]
* No more melting coins for the value of the metals. [ABC]
* Natalee Holloway’s family files wrongful death suit in Aruba. [MSNBC]
* “Accuser in Duke lacrosse case about to give birth.” [SI.com]
* HP board terminates advisory relationship with Silicon Valley superlawyer Larry Sonsini. [New York Times via Dealbreaker; WSJ Law Blog]

The Duke Rape Case: DNA in All the Wrong Places

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dna lab laboratory Above the Law.jpgThings that make you go hmmm:

DNA testing in the Duke lacrosse rape case found genetic material from several males in the accuser’s body and her underwear — but none from any team member, defense attorneys said in court papers Wednesday.

The papers were filed by attorneys for the three lacrosse players charged, Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans. They complained that the information about DNA from other men was not disclosed in a report prosecutors provided earlier this year to the defense.

The testing was conducted at a private laboratory for the prosecution.

“This is strong evidence of innocence in a case in which the accuser denied engaging in any sexual activity in the days before the alleged assault, told police she last had consensual sexual intercourse a week before the assault, and claimed that her attackers did not use condoms and ejaculated,” the defense said.

Two reactions:
1. We haven’t read the papers in question, and we don’t know the discovery timetable set in this case. But at first blush, this DNA information sure sounds like evidence that would be subject to disclosure under Brady v. Maryland. When was the prosecution planning on getting around to sharing it?
2. “[G]enetic material from several males,” but none from any of the defendants? ICK. Deeply troubling. And we apologize if you find this gauche or un-PC of us, but we can’t help wondering: Exactly how many is “several”?
Lawyers: DNA Not Linked to Duke Athletes [Associated Press via Instapundit]
Earlier: The Duke Rape Case: The DNA Evidence

The Duke Rape Case: The DNA Evidence

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matt zash dna semen.jpgThe Duke lacrosse team rape case doesn’t seem like great ATL fodder. If the accuser is telling the truth, a brutal and horrific rape took place. If the three defendants are telling the truth, three young men’s lives have been ruined, for a crime they did not commit.
But the story is all over the news today, since the three accused lacrosse players — team captain David Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann — appeared on 60 Minutes last night (as did Kim Roberts, the other exotic dancer who appeared that night). There’s a lot of buzz around it right now.
So we reviewed some of the coverage. This nugget jumped out at us:

Plastic fingernails the accuser was wearing that night were found in the trashcan of the bathroom where she says the rape occurred. DNA that could belong to David Evans – but is not an exact match – was found on those nails. Not a surprise, says Evans, because the trashcan was in his bathroom and was filled with tissues and other items containing his DNA.

Ah yes, DNA-laden Kleenexes. We recommend paper towels — they’re more absorbent.
This reminded us of an article that appeared in the New York Times back in August, containing a detailed review of the physical evidence in the Duke case:

The police recovered semen from beside the toilet — about the same spot where the woman said she had spat out semen from someone who orally raped her. It matched the DNA of Matt Zash, a team captain who lived in the house and has not been charged. His lawyer said the semen had come from other, innocent sexual activity.

“[I]nnocent sexual activity”? Depends on your point of view — are you Catholic?

Investigators also found a towel in the hallway near Mr. Evans’s bedroom with semen matching his DNA. The woman had told the sexual assault nurse that someone had wiped her vagina with a rag. Mr. Evans’s lawyer said that this towel had nothing to do with her accusation, and that the semen came from other activity.

Might Mr. Evans have been engaged in some “innocent sexual activity” of his own, Foleygate-style?
Duke Rape Suspects Speak Out [CBS News]
Alleged Duke Rape Victim’s Kin Calls 60 Minutes Segment ‘Intimidation’ [ABC News]
Files From Duke Rape Case Give Details but No Answers [New York Times]