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What can we make of the Duke Lacrosse Rape case?

By PD Dude

I don't have a huge amount of time to blog about this right now, but the case clearly cries out for a comment or two from a public defender perspective. Let me make it perfectly clear. Had these gentlemen been from a poor minority neighborhood, had they played a less genteel sport than lacrosse (like, say, basketball), there is a very good likelihood that these people would've gone on trial a long time ago, or at the very least they would have taken a deal on the case.Why?First of all, they would have spent the whole pretrial period in custody. They would not have been able to go on TV all the time, looking dapper, standing by their lawyers as the lawyers proclaimed their innocence on national TV. The typical response from society - oh, these poor guys, what they must be going through, would be totally different if they were poor and minority...continue to full post

Full post as published by Public Defender Dude on April 17, 2007 (boomark / email).