Duke Lacrosse Rape Case Continues to Unravel--Updated!The defense is getting
rather interesting:
Finnerty appears in none of the photos, Abrams said, which bolsters defense attorneys' claims that the teen wasn't at the party when the alleged rape occurred.This may or may not be exculpatory. Were the photos shot from various angles, so that a lot of the participants at the party were photographed? And to point out the very obvious, was Finnerty himself the photographer? Are there multiple photographers?
Some photos taken before midnight show the players partying before the accuser and another dancer arrived. No photos were taken between 12:10 a.m. and 12:30 a.m., but the dancer is pictured in several shots taken between 12:31 a.m. and 12:41 a.m. in which she was smiling and getting into a car, Abrams said.
"You could argue that something might have happened in that period between 12:10 and 12:30. The defense would say, though, that because she's smiling in the photo taken at 12:31, it would be hard to believe that she had been brutally raped," he said.For argument's sake, the prosecutor would claim that it proves some drug was administered to her. Update: As pointed out by topsekret9 in the comments, this will depend on the results of tests on the woman at the hospital. Was there any evidence of drugs in her bloodstream? And the defense will counter that she was on drugs when she arrived.
The photos also bolster the defense claims by what they don't show, Abrams said.
Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong previously said no DNA was found under the accuser's fingernails linking lacrosse players to an attack where she fought back because the attackers were likely wearing long-sleeve shirts or jackets. But Seligmann and most of the players pictured at the party were wearing short sleeves, Abrams said.This goes to the heart of the initial order requiring the players to submit to DNA testing. One of the claims that the alleged victim made was that she had scratched the arm of one of her attackers. We've already heard the "maybe they put on condoms" explanation for the lack of DNA evidence that the young men raped her, now we've got the "maybe they put on jackets too" explanation.
I'd love to say that this case is falling apart moment by moment, but the fact remains that these two young men are in wheels of the criminal justice system. They will not extricate themselves easily.
Update: Paul, in the comments, asks:
Why not look into some cry's (sic) of I'm innocent from people on death row?
None of them are white enough?This case isn't about race to me. If you look back to
my first post on this case, entitled
Racist Duke Lacrosse Team Gang-Rapes Woman?, while I was a little suspicious given the woman's "career choices" I closed with:
So it certainly sounds like this was really rape; not just a case of "theft of services".
It is only after more details began to emerge that I moved from the "they probably did it" to "they probably didn't".
Indeed, it seems to me that the folks who remain in the "they probably did it" camp are the ones who are basing that on race and class and not on the details of the case.
