The hardest point was when they dropped the rape charges, because this was the Duke lacrosse rape case and the rape charges were dropped. But we still had sexual assault and kidnapping charges. “It felt like a sick joke, that he was doing this maliciously to us.”
Jim Cooney became his attorney. Cooney went to Nifong “trial lawyer to trial lawyer.” Nifong told him “Boy, I wish your boy hadn’t shown his alibi information because there’s no such thing as an airtight alibi.” And, sure enough, a few days later Mangum’s account was pushed to a time when “my alibi was irrelevant. It was almost predictable.”
This is where criminal conspiracy rears its ugly head.
