You know, if the Duke lacrosse mess is going to have any lasting legacy beyond a few books and a movie-of-the-week, by rights it should be the notion that prosecutors have enormous power in this country; power that on occasion, gets out-of-control.
The General Assembly, of course, is already exactly on the wrong path on this point.
Tara Servatius checks in with Charlotte attorney Jim Cooney. You remember Cooney, he is the member of the Duke defense team that Tommy Tomlinson thought was talking too much after Cooney’s clients were declared innocent after rogue DA Mike Nifong pursued a fake case for a year.
At that same press conference, Cooney mentioned that the General Assembly was at work on legislation that would roll back the evidence rules which enabled Cooney and defense team to expose Nifong’s lies.
Now Servatius discovers that lawmakers do not like to talk about this legislation — assuming they actually know anything at all about what they are backing. She was pointed to Wake County DA Colon Willoughby as someone who could explain why the state needs the Mike Nifong Protection Act. That took an interesting turn:
Willoughby explained that part of the motive for the bill was to protect criminals from getting victims’ and witnesses personal information, which in several cases in Wake County had led to identity theft. That part hasn’t been put into the bill yet, he says.
As for the rest of the bill, Willoughby explained that it was unfair to expect prosecutors to take notes at every meeting they have with witnesses if witnesses just kept saying the same thing.
Again, I pointed out that the bill doesn’t allow prosecutors to withhold just repetitive notes, but all trial preparation notes, legal research, records, correspondence, reports and memoranda prepared by a prosecutor and his staff. Willoughby then got huffy and the interview ended. Before it did, he told me he didn’t know who wrote the language in the bill either, and declined to explain it.
Let’s be clear — this has nothing to do with identity theft. There are other better ways to deal with that issue were that a concern. No, I’d wager this has to do with money.
The post-2004 discovery rules make it more likely that an active defense team will actually mount a defense rather than cop a plea. As an aside, I’m convinced that Nifong’s initial plan — to the extent he had one — was to get some member of the lacrosse team to plead guilty to something and declare victory. But going to trial costs the state of North Carolina time and money. The state of North Carolina, as is utterly clear here in Mecklenburg, does not like to spend money on things like a criminal justice system because a criminal justice system is basic function of government, not a lobbying interest that can give members of the General Assembly lots of money and other fun things.
I’d welcome a different backstory from Willoughby or someone else. But absent one, I gotta go with the old Raleigh stand-by.
Money.
