Duke Lacrosse Rape Case

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This evidently isn't a popular story on the world scene, but it's national news here in the states. First some background on the case:

One of the more presitigious universities on the east coast is Duke University, and it is Duke's lacrosse team that is under investigation for rape. A few weeks ago, the team captain had a party for the other team members and hired two strippers for the evening. One of the strippers claimed she was beaten and raped in one of the rooms by three of the players. Since the party was supposedly only attended by lacrosse players, they were the suspect pool.

While the woman could not give specific descriptions of the three men who raped her, due to her traumatic experience, she did remember that all three were white. Of the members of the lacrosse team, the vast majority of them were white, and all 46 white players agreed to give DNA samples. None of the DNA samples matched the ones found on the woman or on her clothing.

However, the case is still being pushed forward, even though it seems that not having a matching DNA sample screams "reasonable doubt" to any jury. There's no doubt that she was sexually assaulted, but if none of the team member's DNA matches the DNA found on the stripper, I don't see how you can still claim they did it.

Furthermore, it seems like "innocent until proven guilty" was thrown out the window here. Already, Duke University's president cancelled the lacrosse season, and the team coach was forced to resign.

Now the investigators in the case want to search the player's dorm rooms, although I can't imagine what you can possibly find in any dorm rooms that would link them to the rape case, especially since the rape didn't take place in their rooms, but at a house rented by the team captain, not to mention that it's a month after the rape took place.

You can read the latest here.

So what do you people think? There are racial overtones to the case as well, with some people claiming the investigation is stalling because the victim is black and the defendants are white. Is there something to this, or do you think from the lack of evidence acquired so far, are we looking in the wrong place in regards to the Duke team? The most reasonable scenario to me (as it seems that the lack of a DNA match vindicates the Duke lacrosse team) is that perhaps some people snuck into the party who were NOT members of the Duke lacrosse team.

 

It is blatant pandering by a district attorney who is running for office and trying to get the "black vote". He is working on the assumption that nothing makes a black voter happier than putting some young rich white kid in prison.

I'm sure he will get a grand jury indictment since from what I have read 90% of grand juries do indict.

I've been reading on Yahoo that the defense has time stamped pictures showing her showing up at the party already battered. There is also the police log where before she claimed she was raped an officer found her passed out drunk in a car. Of course somehow the medical team that determined that she was raped failed to notice she was wasted.

This entire story/case is a disgrace. Every member of the team has had their name damaged. I'm guessing nobody will learn the victim's name unless the DA has the nerve to charge her with filing a false police report.

 

It is the global rape predicament that shows its ugly face again. In rape cases the options are usually to either disbelieve or discredit a possible rape victim and let a possible rapist go or go after and destroy the life of man that might possibly be a rapist. At the moment the general view of the western populace seems to be to nail some dude, any dude on any evidence for rape because it is so very sorry for the girls. I dont know what is worse, letting a possible rapist go due to lack of evidence and put further burden on an already overburdened rape victim or to allow men go to prison and carry the stigmata of being rapists on the word of a woman alone.

This case seems weird though, if they have DNA samples from the victims and those samples dont match one pool of suspect it would seem natural to look for other suspects.

 

They ended up indicting two of the lacrosse players, based on the woman identifying them through team pictures. She was unsure on the third possible defendant, which is why they only indicted two of them, even though she has claimed there were three men.

I served on a grand jury last year. The purpose of them is to hand out indictments. The standard of proof is much lower to get an indictment than it is to get a conviction. Basically, you are deciding whether or not the evidence on hand is enough for the defendant to stand trial. As such, a woman identifying two people from memory is enough to get an indictment.

If anything, that's a low estimate. On my grand jury service last year which last the standard four month term, we probably heard 20-25 cases a week. That means that all told we probably heard between 300-400 total cases, and of all of them we gave indictments for all but TWO. So if my grand jury was indicative of most (and a lawyer here will be able to tell you if that is true) it's more like >99% are indicted.

That was what I was trying to say. You have DNA samples on the woman. You compare them to DNA samples on the players. They do not match. The most obvious conclusion to draw is that the person responsible for the sample is not among the player pool.

I guess the problem I have - with this case in particular and the grand jury system in general - is that because the standard for indictment is so much lower than the standard for conviction, virtually everything gets pushed forward to a full trial. But this is one of those cases where it seems like the plaintiff doesn't have a shot at a standard trial. I, for one, would want a reasonable explanation for why the DNA samples don't match before convicting someone.

 

This is looking more and more like a witch hunt to me. From everything that has come out so far, I'm mystified why these two men even have to go to trial. Granted, there could very well be evidence I haven't seen, but I'm not sure this case has any merit whatsoever.

 

They aren't even trying to make a monster out of someone. They just want to put the whole prepackaged outrage on someone. The good old there's a corpse so there must be a conviction approach. Illogical as it is, many people, even in law enforcement, even professional lawyers on the prosecuting side, think like that. And probably not just a few judges.

 

Well, that would be a tough sell if they tried that. Have you seen the pictures of them? One of them looks like he's about 14 years old and could be the kid next door. They certainly don't look like rapists (not that appearance should be a criteria for whether or not you committed a crime), never mind monsters.

 

I love resurrecting dead threads.

It looks like the Duke Lacrosse accuser is in some hot water.

 

one night in jail?

 

Well, he was also disbarred. IMO, that's much more servere punishment than spending even several months in jail.

That said, this news release doesn't really have anything to do with the Duke lacrosse players. In fact, other than she was the one who falsely accused them, it would have nothing at all to do with them even in the most tangental sense.