The Case Against Overzealous DAs

There is an ever-growing, but not new, problem in America. Alongside commercial cruelty, corporate whoredom, and litigious abuses of power (a la Judge Roy Pearson) lies the cancer of overzealous prosecuting attorneys. These attorneys are not the ones who are "just doing their jobs", but rather are people whose identities are tangled up in what they do for a living. These men and women typically feel they have something to prove to such a degree that losing a case or some other opportunity for advancement of their own agendas can, and many times does, cause them to be unfulfilled. Men and women in such positions of authority, who have "something to prove" are dangers to the community they are sworn to serve.

Cases in point: North Carolina prosecutor Mike Nifong (Duke Lacrosse Rape Case) and Georgia's Attorney General Thurbert Baker (Genarlow Wilson Teen Sex Offender Case).

Exhibit A (CNN)

A 17-year-old Genarlow Wilson, now 21, was convicted of aggravated child molestation, which carried a mandatory 10-year sentence.

The Facts of the Act

During a party, he and a 15-year-old girl engaged in consensual oral sex.

The mother of the "victim", according to Court TV, "told a newspaper that the boy should not have been criminally charged, but changed her statement after a visit from prosecutors." Wilson's attorney reportedly called the prosecutor's visit "pure intimidation."

Wilson's conviction was the impetus that caused state legislators to change the law, making this act a misdemeanor, not a felony. However, the new law is only effective in cases going forward, not retrospectively.

Subsequently, Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson (no relation to the defendant) held that Genarlow Wilson's punishment, 10 years for consensual sex with a girl 2 years his junior, violated his 8^th amendment constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment. Judge Wilson dropped the sentence from 10 years to 1 year and determined that Wilson would not be added to the state sex offender registry. This new ruling would have freed Wilson as he has already served 2 years.

All is at rest in the interest of justice. Then along comes Thurbert Baker, who is currently appealing Judge Wilson's ruling, arguing that he [Judge Wilson] "did not have authority to decrease or modify the judgment of the trial court." Legitimate lawyering.

The appeal keeps Genarlow Wilson in prison for the duration of the legal proceedings.

Exhibit B (AP)

A grand jury indicted Duke University lacrosse players Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann for beating and raping 1 of 2 strippers at a party.

The Facts of the Act

There was no act. The other stripper present at the party publicly declared (on the news magazine 60 Minutes with the late Ed Bradley) the impossibility of the allegations.

Police investigator in the case, Benjamin Himan, testified at Nifong's ethics trial that Nifong "acknowledged the accuser's story was filled with inconsistencies and that the case would be hard to prove." Yet Nifong's attorney stated that Nifong believed enough evidence existed to suggest a crime took place.

If the police investigator testifies under oath that there was no evidence and that he couldn't even place one player at the scene of the alleged crime (Reade Seligmann), it is inconceivable that the prosecutor would have any more evidence than the police investigator.

This is the same Mike Nifong who publicly berated Evans, Finnerty, and Seligmann, calling them "hooligans" without hard evidence, namely their DNA.

Once the Duke lacrosse case was transferred from Nifong's hands to those of the attorney general (ironically), the 3 Duke lacrosse players were exonerated.

There is no legal justification for the philosophy of "boys will be boys", and the motivation can hardly be seen as race-based since both the attorney general in the Wilson case and Wilson himself are black, and Nifong and all defendants in the Duke lacrosse rape case are white. So what then? Both fall into the aforementioned category. In the racially polarized North Carolina, Nifong had to demonstrate that he could defend a struggling black female college student, and thus the black community, just as zealously as he could a struggling white female college student, facts being irrelevant. When would he get this kind of opportunity again?

Genarlow Wilson and his young sex partner's not-so-private moment was caught on video tape - visual evidence that Wilson was no sex offender and the 15-year-old was no victim. However, AG Baker's polished, fierce anti-crime image must be fortified with every case. "Two Strikes and You're Out" is the team captain's motto. Crime on paper is quite different when you attach names, faces, truth and circumstance to it. Everyone must be made an example.

These two prosecuting attorneys are not only doing their jobs, what the office calls for. During the course of doing their jobs, justice was misplaced and truth has fallen in the streets. Genarlow Wilson is still in prison after 2 years for doing what many, not all, teens do at parties and in their spare time. Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann have suffered shame and embarrassment from the premise of "guilty until proven otherwise", which was perpetuated by a prosecutor who saw an opportunity to win (or steal) the heart of the black and female communities.

At any time, Genarlow Wilson, Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann can be me or can be you. Will you get a lawyer who practices law between the hours of your case, or will you get one who is a lawyer 24-hours a day with something to prove, an unwritten agenda? One who is a lawyer is not necessarily a danger, but is at risk of becoming objectively bankrupt if they are unable to separate themselves from what they do when it is so closely tied to what they want.

For more details on these cases, view them at:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/06/13/duke.prosecutor.ap/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/US/06/11/teen.sex.case.index.html

http://www.courttv.com/news/2007/0614/wilson_ap.html

http://www.courttv.com/news/2007/0606/appeal_ap.html

http://www.courttv.com/news/2007/0611/wilson_ap.html

http://www.thurbertbaker.com

For the Final Duke Report

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0427071duke1.html

The Duke Rape Indictment

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0418061duke1.html