Re-reading this thread after all these years, it's pretty sad now how wrong several people here were about the entire case.
Pretty much everything I predicted here turned out to be true:
- DA Nifong's handling of this case was extremely inappropriate
- the allegations were later shown to be completely false, and the students were not violent rapists at all (or even racist, for that matter)
- the outrage demonstrated by the Durham community was severe and exacerbated by Nifong and other panderers who wanted to use this case for political purposes
- many who already resented Duke used it as an excuse to believe the worst about the school (the comments made here by UNC student BabyBaliDoc are a great example)
What I didn't expect was that Duke sadly made some horrendous decisions about how they treated these students, including dismantling the top-rated lacrosse program, suspending the 3 students who were charged with no hearing, etc. Apparently these decisions were made primarily by the Duke President, who caved into political pressure from protest groups more interested in their own narrative than seeking justice. Worst of all was the "Group of 88" professors, which you can read about on Wikipedia. To this day, none of these professors have apologized for what they did. Sad.