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The aftermath?

Consider this. Had those boys been convicted they probably would be serving 20 years or more each. They also would have become rape victims themselves in prison.

Convicted in the press and almost convicted by the State. Lucky for them their families were able to afford competent Counsel. What happens to you if you have no money? What happens if you have incompetent Counsel? You are toast.

And what about the embarrassment to the boys themselves as well as their families? How many friends did they all lose. What about the embarrassment to the School, to the town?

And all this based on a lie and the Nifong's withholding exculpatory evidence from the defense. What did he suffer? A couple of days in the County Jail and a loss of his law license. That punishment doesn't even come close to what punishment those boys almost received. Oh yeah, I forgot, he did apologize. Yeah, that really helps.

Nifong should have received the maximum sentence the court would have given those boys had they been convicted. This was not an honest mistake by his office this was an intentional act on his part to deprive them of their innocence and to obstruct justice. He only cared about putting another check mark in the win column. The truth evidently meant nothing to him and he was willing to hide it and convict innocent people for a crime he absolutely knew they didn't commit.

And it shouldn't have stopped with Nifong. Others in his office as well as the Police Department had to know they were innocent and not one person spoke up. No one challenged Nifong. No one said a damn thing. They are just as guilty as he is and they also should suffer consequences.

The aftermath of the Duke rape trial is a city that will now pay the innocent players a large amount of money for what was done to them, and rightly so. That means you the taxpayer who were paying the salaries of these idiot gutless wonders. The aftermath is a criminal justice system that can not be trusted to go after the truth. The aftermath is mistrust of the Police and the Prosecutor's Office. The aftermath is strained race relations. The aftermath is the credibility of the Press. The aftermath is the stained reputation of Duke University. The aftermath is the stained reputation of the town. The aftermath is how many no longer want to or won't bother to attend Duke because of this. The aftermath is these boys will always be known as "the Duke players" and not because of their athletic abilities. The aftermath is where do they go to get their reputations back?

And the real aftermath is, not much happened to the bums that did this and allowed it to go forward. Justice most definitely was denied not just for those boys but also for us, we the people.

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