Friday, June 22, 2007

The Worst of Witt: The DNA Evidence

In what passed for a closing statement, Nifong attorney Dudley Witt rationalized his client's failure to mention that he had attended a meeting where the lab director passed on notice of exculpatory DNA test results.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wonder if his nickname is "Dud"?

Anonymous said...

Nifong's lawyers are just doing their jobs. When you have a client who is not only guilty but had documented their guilt on video, print and court transcripts, not much you can do.

Anonymous said...

The LAX players' lawyers are filing criminal charges against Nifong.

GO GET 'EM!


gotc

Anonymous said...

Embattled Duke Rape Case Prosecutor Mike Nifong Could Get Jail Time

Anonymous said...

gs said...

"Nifong's lawyers are just doing their jobs. ....[When your client's guilt is so clearly documented], there's not much you can do."

--------

Gotta agree with GS.

KC, I know it's tempting to ridicule Witt's efforts, and that's fine. But I'd rather see you present it in terms of "Nifong's worst defenses" or "Nifong's lamest arguments" -- rather than adding to Witt's personal humiliation as the lawyer whose fate was to represent the most notorious liar and asshole in North Carolina.

Anonymous said...

KC, I agree with the other posters. There's little good in picking on Witt. It comes off as mean-spirited and vengeful. How does this advance the causes you want to advance?

Anonymous said...

Witt babbled and did not seem capable of speaking in complete sentences. At leat Freedman spoke well.

Regardless of the difficulty of the case, a lawyer should speak articulately.


gotc

Anonymous said...

KC:

Thought you might like to link or comment on this article in the Plain Dealer re: the Innocence Project and Reade, Colin and David attending a fundraiser...haven't seen this mentioned before.

http://www.cleveland.com/schultz/index.ssf?/base/living-0/118250185928430.xml&coll=2&thispage=3

kcjohnson9 said...

For those who didn't get a chance to see the whole hearing, it's worth recalling that Witt spent more than two hours Wed. morning in a "cross-examination" of Ben Himan that elicited no relevant testimony for Nifong's defense, and whose sole apparent purpose was to slime the character of the three falsely accused players one last time.

Anonymous said...

Also as you can tell from her article she is pretty left...this is consistent with previous articles...

Anonymous said...

Sorry but I cannot work up any sympathy for Nifong's lawyers. They knew what they were getting into when they signed on. If they didn't know they would end up looking foolish they are dumber than I thought. NO ONE, no matter how good they are, could have successfully defended Nifong and come out looking good. Unless of course they pleaded him guilty of all the charges from the start. At least then they wouldn't look like total fools. IMO
Haz

Anonymous said...

I can not prove this...

I'm guessing that Nifong gave up the case when Friedman said he would not represent him if Nifong was still handling the Lax hoax case.

We will never know. But it may have been a prerequisite.

The timing seems to fit nicely with this theory.

Anonymous said...

KC Johnson said...

For those who didn't get a chance to see the whole hearing, it's worth recalling that Witt spent more than two hours Wed. morning in a "cross-examination" of Ben Himan that elicited no relevant testimony for Nifong's defense, and whose sole apparent purpose was to slime the character of the three falsely accused players one last time.

Jun 22, 2007 10:38:00 AM


That may have been for the for the benefit of the one AA non-lawyer on the panel, as well as for potential AA and white "progressive" members of future civil and criminal juries.

Likewise for Nifong's apparently illogical and harmful "something happened" statement.

Anonymous said...

"He made a mistake. He made a mistake by not doing a better job of knowing what was in that report and not going back and checking through."

Who is the nit-Witt in this situation? Does Witt think Williamson is going to buy the argument that he just made a mistake. He DID make a mistake--but it had nothing to do with not reading the report. After all, he talked with Meehan and pretty much knew what was in the report.
The mistake made by the esteemed (now defamed) DA was to proceed with a case in which he knew the defendents were innocent (as AG Cooper said) but he rolled the train full steam ahead in order to win HIS election. That was the only reason. Period, end of statement.

CGM's mistake wss in seeing $$$$$. She knew that these guys had money. She was probably thinking that the families would drop a couple of hundred thousand in her bank account in exchange for her silence. Which begs one more question--Has Jesse paid her tuition for the upcoming year yet?????

Anonymous said...

hey gs,

Did you notice that the article said he was suspended with pay?

North Carolinians should bombard Easley's office with outrage. Could be understood that you should not rush to judgment (so ironic in this case) but he HAS BEEN CONVICTED BY A JURY OF HIS PEERS, hasn't he?

Anonymous said...

11:26

He is no longer one of them. They threw him out of the club.

Anonymous said...

There was just an add on TWC announcing a Celebrate Independence Day in Durham. Maybe that is the date by which the District Attorney's office and the Durham Police Department have been cleaned up and out.

Judge Hudson's statement ("There is probable cause to believe that the district attorney has engaged in willful misconduct in office and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, which brings the office into disrepute,") tends to glaze over the testimony and the judgement of the bar. Did his hand even touch the wrist as he slapped it? Suspended with pay, BS

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't worry about Nifong being suspended with pay. There's a new bill (about to be signed into law) in N.C. that allows Nifong to be removed and pay suspended as soon as he's officially disbarred, which should happen in about a month (the Bar has to enter a written order). Also, after the contempt fine, the assessment of expenses for the Bar hearing, the civil suits, etc., Nifong won't have anything left of that extra 1 month's pay he's getting now.