Mike Nifong, a convicted sexual predator (or whatever else you would describe a man who used his government office to organize a kidnapping ring against innocent late-adolescents on sexual grounds) has been sentenced to one day in jail:
From the day he took over the Duke lacrosse rape case, Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong charged forward with a strident determination that the guilty would end up in jail. Ultimately, the since-disgraced former prosecutor only succeeded at putting himself behind bars.
Nifong was sentenced Friday to a single day in jail, having been held in criminal contempt of court for lying to a judge during his pursuit of rape charges against the three falsely accused lacrosse players….
It was the latest in a line of punishments for a broken man who once confidently trumpeted to anyone within earshot that a woman hired to perform as a stripper at a March 2006 lacrosse team party had been raped.
While certainly it’s good that Mr. Nifong will serve a day in jail (less than a former history teacher of mine served for having the same name and ethnicity as a convict, because he was picked up on Saturday and office staff who could realize the mistake did not come in until Monday) and change careers (a “punishment” a globalized economy inflicts on thousands of Americans every year), the Mike Nifong/Crystal Gail Mangum conspiracy that criminals with just the right mix of race and status (a white male prosecutor, a black female accuser) who work together are essentially above the law.
Too bad.