Innocent until proven guilty? Not quite

Late last week, it was reported that the three Duke lacrosse players that were on trial for sexual assault on a stripper, were set free. There was no verdict, no sentencing nothing. Instead, the case was dropped. And why? Not enough evidence.

How does that happen? These three young men have been dragged through the mud, exiled by their multiple communities and branded as scum.

Their legal bills are upwards of $3 million.

They are no longer enrolled in school at Duke University after a petition was signed by thousands of students and faculty members asking that they be removed. By that same token, they are no longer a part of the Duke lacrosse team (a team that had its coach step down and lost its last season due to the actions of the players).

So who's to blame?

The obvious answer is the DA for the state of North Carolina. Mike Nifong is the villain in all of this. He pushed the case to trial knowing full well that he did not have the evidence required to push this thing to a verdict. He was hoping to uncover something in a ploy to get himself some good press.

Let me explain. District Attorney. Election year. Monster case involving three college kids at a private university, a black stripper and sexual assault. All this equals some big press for the guy who threw the book at these "terrible" young men.

Nifong also sent this to trial knowing that the accuser was not in the right frame of mind. He was quoted as saying so at the beginning of the proceedings. She was a person with a checkered legal past. She had several run-ins with the law, and she constantly changed her story.

After the case was dropped, Nifong apologized to the three men. And as is usually the case with public apologies done in front of cameras, it rang hollow with many viewers (including the accused). According to a story from USA Today, the apology was rejected.

One of the students, Colin Finnerty, told CBS' 60 Minutes: "It may be an apology, but it doesn't make me feel any better. … It was his actions more than anybody's that caused the harm."

And good for the players. That apology doesn't fix the fact that they owe $3 million in legal fees (with no way to pay them), that they now have to find a new place to go to school and that their names are forever tarnished.

But the other party that I blame in this is the media. They ate this up. As soon as this story broke, news outlets from CBS to ESPN condemned the players and kept the wheels turning. Nifong may not have been so quick to judge had there not been pressure from the media (though I doubt it, because his motives were almost strictly self serving).

It's a problem we have in our society and one that needs to change. Our justice system says that we are innocent until proven guilty. But that rule goes straight out the window in the court of public opinion. It is here that premature judgements are made and here that the media resides. They feed our curiosity and vilify the accused all so that we can get our fix. We wanted to think that these guys were rapists. It fed our need to hate them. It gave us a bad guy.

So shame on Mike Nifong. Shame on the media. And shame on us.

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