DUKE LACROSSE update.

The Supreme Court has declined to hear the falsely accused players’ appeal of the 4th circuit’s dismissal of most of their case. . . .

It’s worth reiterating the breathtaking precedent that the Court allowed to stand. From here on out in the 4^th Circuit, there’s no federal cause of action against a town or city when the municipality’s police department: (a) turns over a police investigation to a local prosecutor; and (b) stands aside as that prosecutor and police officers manufacture evidence with which to indict innocent people for a crime that never occurred—provided that (a) the police are perfectly candid with their co-conspirator (the prosecutor) that there’s no evidence on which to base the indictment; and (b) a grand jury returns indictments, even if, as occurred in the lacrosse case, the indictment resulted from misleading or outright false testimony from one of the police officers.

Related: Revisiting The Duke Rape Case.

In a healthy society, a Crystal Mangum would be severely punished for her false testimony, which nearly destroyed the lives of numerous men.  As it happened, the state attorney who took over the case from Nifong chose to give her a pass, stating it was “in the best interests of justice” not to prosecute her.

And so she was allowed to continue harming people, over and over again.  In 2010, she was arrested on charges of attempted murder, arson, assault, identity theft, resisting arrest, and child abuse.  She was convicted at a jury trial of several misdemeanor charges, among them child abuse.  In 2011, she was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, for allegedly stabbing her boyfriend.  He later died.  At the time of writing, the case is still pending.