Comments and analysis about the Duke/Nifong case (2006-2014).
The fact that no DNA evidence was found implicating Reade Seligmann or Collin Finnerty? Meehan offered the following analogy: "A person can rob a bank and never leave a fingerprint; it doesn’t mean they didn’t rob a bank.”
Quite a comparison: I hadn't realized that robbing a bank involved the type of physical contact normally associated with a rape. But Meehan is the "expert."
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12 comments:
I hope Meehan and Nifong get the same jail cell the will make a great cuople.
KC,
Your thoughts on the boys filing a civil suit against Meehan and his firm for fraud against them? Meehan doesn't have any immunity.
Kemp
Recall from the defense motion that the state lab observed the rape kit material, and declined to attempt to extract DNA. They apparently thought that there wouldn't be enough material for an autosomal analysis. (I don't understand why this should be so, but anyway.)
DSI took the same rape kit samples, extracted trace amounts of DNA, and found sufficient bands to do partial and in a few cases complete Y-chromosome analyses.
So if KC Johnson's paraphrase is correct, Director Meehan is claiming that a rape (without condom, presumably) leaves too little DNA to detect... although his lab was able to detect multiple instances of analyzable DNA from very small samples that were too small for the state lab to use.
Are they so good that they're bad, or so bad that they're good?
Meehan was blowing smoke. The reason that DNA is not found on more rape victims is that they don't report it for several days, and by then the usable DNA is gone or corrupted.
The accuser's body was treated as a crime scene RIGHT AFTER the party, so this would have been a situation in which there definitely would have been DNA to be found -- if the boys had raped her. So, that Meehan found NOTHING is very, very significant.
Nifong really is giving the red herring on this one.
Bill Andersen is correct:
There is not a single reported instance of a violent rape and no DNA evidence with immediate and proper collection. If you read the DNA collection manuals, the number one concern is contamination, because the tests are so sensitive. (Right Meehan!). It is literally impossible that every other piece of DNA is picked up but not any of the three false accused.
Probably the single most exasperating aspect of this case is that this one fact should be dispositive and it drops into the background.
Even with the use of a condom there are traces of latex and the spermicide left and that can be tested.
Exactly. The rape that Nifong has been claiming was committed is the very kind of rape in which there would be DNA all over the place. For Nifong to say that this does not matter is criminal in itself, and is part of the Big Lie that is being told in Durham.
Of course, let's face it. The people of Durham really do not care about evidence. They are saying, "It's our town, we write the rules, and we want a conviction."
If the judge wants to go along with this nonsense, then it tells us what we need to know about justice in North Carolina.
Bill...
which is why we have a federal dept of justice...where are they?
Any chance that the US AG will simply camp on this one until the trial is over as he doesn't want to 'dis' any fellow minorities?
Prosecutors have gone the other way with DNA, when defendants have claimed innocence in a violent crime by virtue of another attacker, prosecutors argue guilt when no DNA is found. Repeat: Not one person, not one enabler, not one individual in the whole world has explained how three drunk strong athletes could violently rape orally, anally, and vaginally and leave no DNA anywhere. It is impossible and the proof, if any was needed, is in what Meehan left out, that he picked up the full recent history of her sexual activities and his testing and the DNA from the house. IMPOSSIBLE.
Does anyone know if nifong has ever tried any kind of rape case prior to this?
Nifong has tried at least one other rape case. I think the name was Malloy. The alleged victim claimed that she was raped by Malloy at gunpoint; Malloy claimed the sex was consensual. IIRC, there was a witness (who did not know either the AV or Malloy) who testified that he saw the two together shortly after the alleged rape, and the AV was smiling and friendly in her interactions with Malloy. The jury acquitted. (Nifong lost).
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