Duke Players Cleared

NC attorney general characterizes prosecutor as excessive zealous
By Jesse Andrews,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 11, 2007 11:09 PM CDT
Duke Players Cleared
FILE ** From left are Duke lacrosse players Reade Seligmann, of Essex Fells, N.J., David Evans, of Bethesda, Md., and Collin Finnerty, of Garden City, N.Y., arriving at court in Durham, N.C., in these Dec. 15, 2006 file photos. The Duke University lacrosse team members could learn as early as Wednesday...   (Associated Press)

Three Duke lacrosse players charged with raping and kidnapping a stripper 13 months ago were finally exonerated today when all the remaining charges against  them were dropped. Roy Cooper, North Carolina's attorney general, accused Mike Nifong, the district attorney who brought the charges—and then withheld DNA evidence of the students' innocence—of overreaching.

 

Nifong, who Cooper called a "rogue prosecutor,"  faces the loss of his law license on ethics charges. The boys' accuser, Crystal Gail Magnum, won't face charges, though her story was apparently fabricated. "Our investigators who talked with her and the attorneys who talked with her over a period of time think that she may actually believe the many different stories that she has been telling," Cooper said. (More Duke Blue Devils stories.)

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