The party was planned . . . college friends, booze, even a couple of strippers. But, the revelry the boys were anticipating never happened. Instead of the good time they had hoped for, several members of the Duke University lacrosse team were charged with assault and rape. Amazingly, when the district attorney stepped up to the bank of microphones on a world stage and made his pronouncement, it soulded like an easy verdict. Few suspected that this blockbuster of a news story was based on lies and furthered by private political ambitions.
Seasoned trial lawyer Nader Baydoun, a Duke alumnus, paid close attention to the lacrosse case from the moment it broke. And it wasn't long before he suspected that something was wrong. Baydoun started digging. here's what he and his collaborator, New York Times best-selling author and attorney R. Stephanie Good, found:
- From the very start, the supposed victim, Crystal Gale Mangum, and her partner, gave highly inconsistent statements
- District Attorney Mike Nifong never interviewed Mangum about the night of the supposed rape
- The DA damned the players in the press even after he saw DNA evidence that irrevocably vindicated them
- Nifong made a deal to keep exculpatory DNA evidence a secret
- The DA refused to review other evidence that proved the players could not have sexually assaulted Mangum, including rock-solid alibis
These appalling facts, along with many others revealed here, add up to this: At no time was there ever any credible evidence that a rape had occurred?and the DA dragged three innocent young men through a merciless gauntlet for the sole purpose of advancing his political career.
In this landmark book, Baydoun gives the behind-the-scenes account of the Duke lacrosse rape case from primary sources, and sheds light on the real victims in a case that gripped the nation.