Posted by
Kilroy on Tuesday, June 19, 2007 9:40:20 AM
DURHAM – Bruised, battered, but innocent, Duke University emerged from the ashes of a flawed, but ultimately self-corrected, North Carolina justice system this week. The question on everyone’s lips is: can this once revered institution ever gain back what was wrongfully taken from it? "
Their image and reputation have been tarnished, but I don't know how badly," said Christopher Simpson, CEO of higher education marketing firm SimpsonScarborough.
While the entire Duke community has been tortured, the toll has been especially hard on Duke University President Richard Brodhead who, not unlike The Scottsboro Boys some 70 years before, was pummeled daily with accusatory news reports containing false charges of horrific crimes and guilt by association. Month after month found Duke besieged by an onslaught of cable news outlets bent on uncovering any dirty laundry it could scrape up and wave before a scornful country. Outmatched by a media firestorm that kept Duke against the ropes, all Brodhead could do was “put up his dukes” and hope to fend off the blows; trying to survive so that one day he, and Duke, could tend to their wounds.
That day finally came late last week when a three-member panel of the North Carolina Bar's Disciplinary Hearing Commission found District Attorney Mike Nifong guilty of prosecutorial misconduct in the Duke case. A statement issued by the university after the ruling read as follows: "
This past year has been hard for many people who care about Duke -- for students, faculty, staff, alumni, families and friends. We resolve to bring the Duke family together again, and to work to protect others from similar injustices in the criminal justice system in the future."
When asked if he had any personal message for the vindicated Duke students Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann, a bewildered President Brodhead responded, “
Who?”
