The white, three-bedroom house with the crumbling black shutters sits on the edge of
 

Quoting the DA's words, not my own, or the accuser’s lawyer. "Based on the woman's injuries a rape occurred."

More information provided below.

http://www.wbt.com/news/detail_wbt.cfm?article_id=26141

Whaddya, Canadian all of a sudden? (read: eh?) ;) j/k, j/k.

Absolutely. I take no issue with that.

God's Ivy I didn't see that in that article. But nevertheless, here is a great article from CBS that presents a host of issues on both sides that people need to consider...

Expert: DNA Tests Doom Duke Rape Case

For example, the medical experts state that even if condoms were used, that still would not explain an absence of DNA. Most experts would say that the use of condoms would not prevent DNA from being left.

I would have NEVER guess that.

Excerpt from article......
This is VERY damaging to her case IMO. Honestly, the more and more things come out the more and more SOMETHING doesn't make sense. Some things are just not adding up about this whole entire situation. I don't know if its the victim, the accusers, the university, the media or what.

That is not logical. What is someone is raped with a broom or another object. Would DNA be present on the woman?

Here is the quote that I keep referring to-Durham County (N.C.) District Attorney Mike Nifong insists the guilty will stand trial, telling co-anchor Rene Syler on The Early Show Thursday that there's no doubt a sexual assault took place. "The victim was examined at Duke University Medical Center by a nurse who was specially trained in sexual assault cases," Nifong said. "And the investigation at that time was certainly consistent with a sexual assault HAVING TAKEN PLACE, as was the victim's demeanor at the time of the examination." http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/...n1454898.shtml

Dag, I just also read that the families of the players have hired Bob Bennett to defend them. :eek: :o

Taken from this article


One thing that the article (in my previous post) also touched on was that DNA would also be left during a physical struggle (ex. hair strands, skin, scratches, etc.) so even if she was sodomized by an object(s) wouldn't someone (or many) be forcibly holding her down? Because I'm sure sista girl fought back in some way shape or form. For her to break artifical nails there, you know she had to be SERIOUSLY clawing/fighting.

But yet there is no DNA evidence? :confused:

Interesting.

Re: The white, three-bedroom house with the crumbling black shutters sits on the edge of
 

Right. I understand that the DA believes something happened and is there for going forward with the case, but again, that does not mean that something did happen, just like the absense of DNA necessarily means that something did not.

Look, I understand you wanting to believe that sista, shoot, I did too. I would hope that no one would claim rape when it did not happen. But the fact is, this is not an open and shut case and so I am not going to go out there and say I KNOW a rape happened because honestly, I don't. I am also not going to say that I KNOW that the guys in question are innocent either. It is not that (no pun intended) black and white to me and I think we do ourselves and cases like this a disservice when we are so adament about things we really don't know about.

Nope, it's also how you speak Minnesotan. :D

I think we all just need to sit back and see what unfolds. I, too, at this point am not going to make a judgement either way. But one thing does bother me--the DNA testing was all done in Durham. It would have been better, imo, if it had been done elsewhere.

I have heard many people get up in arms over this....as a crime against women...against blacks...an example of rich privelege...yada, yada, yada. I know Bruhs who were ready to go wreck the Duke lacroose team.

IThis story ruffled me only to the point that we are so quick to judge, especially over the word of "questionable" people. These young men have not been given the presumption of innocence, nor due process. Their names are smeared, season ended, collegiate life ruined......for what?

Just as has happened, you have to wait for the facts to come out. When the facts are in, that is when I will be outraged and call for justice.

Black people, we have to stop letting any questionable person abuse our emotional capital, al a Cynthyia McKinney and this stripper/hooker. We have to stop reacting like Pavlov's dog every time there is a conflict between someone who happens to be black and the other party, white.

Just seeing you post makes me so happy that I don't care what you post. :D But I do sort of agree with you except for the point I made earlier that whether a rape occured or not, I think there was justification for the suspension of the season, because of the setup of the party to begin with.

I'm not drawing any judgements. I don't automatically think that the Duke players raped her. There are some inconsistencies in her story, yes, whatever.

But I'm not going to discredit this young lady, either, solely based on her job as a stripper or the strongly misguided notion that women cry rape to 'get even with people' or 'teach someone a lesson.' The highly publicized case of Tawana Brawley makes it look like black women do that on the regular. In reality, how many other news stories can you pull up where women faked a rape?

It doesn't happen that often, because of the backwards chauvinistic ideas that many men (and sometimes women!) espouse as regards rape cases:

1) That strippers, prostitutes, promiscuous women, and women who are scantily clad somehow "ask for it"

2) That women lie about rapes on the regular for some ridiculous benefit

Why the hell would you be ostracized from community life -- especially by pointing the finger at wealthy white male lacrosse players who most likely can afford the best legal support money can buy -- to get some invisible and imagined "benefit"? Tawana Brawley was trying not to get in trouble with her dad. She was 15.

While no one is asking you to discredit her on any basis, real or perceived, to imply that the notion that women cry rape to get even is "strongly misguided" is unfounded, to say the least. In case you didn't know, in slave days (and subsequently), a black man could get lynched solely on a white woman's word that he raped her, prima facie.

According to whom?

Like I said before, rent the movie "Pretty Persuasion"; while it's billed as a comedy, it makes a very profound statement that answers your very question shockingly well.

Okay, lets back up for a second. Did any of the articles or released information say that "there was NO DNA present on the victim" OR "the DNA that was present did not match any of the DNA from the Lacrosse Players"? There is a BIG difference!

I submit that one of the folllowing scenarios happened:

1) The woman was raped before or after she came to the house
2) The woman was raped at the house by someone other than the lacrosse players (ie guests were at the house who were not tested)
3) The woman was raped by the Lacrosse players and there was tampering with the DNA collection or processing (ie submission of DNA not from the team, lab misconduct or misreading of the results)

The fact is that based on ALL the evidence thus far, the woman WAS RAPED. Hence the reason for the DA to continue with the case regardless of the outcome.

So that I'm not mis-understood or come off as insensitive in case it is proven that this woman was indeed raped, my whole point of contention in this matter is this:

If this woman was indeed raped, be it by the lacrosse players or otherwise, I want the parties that were directly responsible to be punished. In this case, I am not sure if the party being accused (the lacrosse team) was directly responsible; and that they just happened to be in her presence at the wrong time.

The million dollar question is: Was the lacrosse players responsible or "just a victim of circumstance"?